No skimmers in sight as oil floods into Mississippi waters Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/20

Source: McClatchy

By Karen Nelson | Biloxi Sun Herald

GULFPORT, Miss. — A morning flight over the Mississippi Sound showed long, wide ribbons of orange-colored oil for as far as the eye could see and acres of both heavy and light sheen moving into the Sound between the barrier islands. What was missing was any sign of skimming operations from Horn Island to Pass Christian.

U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor got off the flight angry.

"It’s criminal what’s going on out there," Taylor said minutes later. "This doesn’t have to happen.”

A scientist onboard, Mike Carron with the Northern Gulf Institute, said with this scenario, there will be oil on the beaches of the mainland.

“There’s oil in the Sound and there was no skimming,” Carron said. “No coordinated effort.”




Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/26/96608/no-skimmers-in-sight-as-oil-floods.html

And I damn well will scream that in caps. It should be in caps.

the oil so much, changing it from a floating blob of thick crude to a patchwork of oil patches at all depths throughout the water column, that it is out of effective reach of surface skimmers.

The thick black (buoyant) crude at the surface would have been easier to contain than the thinned out blobs and patches seen on the surface now.

just weeks after the "spill" --

And the best thing about it is it permits the oil to be picked up --

it is NON-TOXIC --

After the oil is recovered the COAGULANT can be RECOVERED -- and RECYCLED!!

Furthermore, they have been tried, and they don't work. You see, right now there are lots of companies and "tinkerers" selling junk chemicals and machines. And the media picks it up, and people who don't know better go for it. This isn't as simple as it looks. For example, the famous berms proposed by the Louisiana government are more likely to lead to serious environmental harm because they block the flow of oxygenated water into the wetlands. The only reason why the US corps of engineers approved some of them is because they think wave action is going to destroy them within a matter of days anyway. So it's all being done for show and to shut up CNN and MSNBC. It's a useless measure at best, and it could harm the environment at worst.

evidently readily available -- but BP wouldn't be likely to want to use something

that makes the oil more visible!

Meanwhile, this NON-TOXIC -- NOT LIKE THE DISPERSANT BEING USED -- AND RECOVERABLE

AND REUSABLE.

Right now I want them to lap up that oil with their tiny tongues.

EPA experts feel its better to disperse the oil and thus allow bacteria to eat it. According to what I've read, about 60 % of the oil is eaten by bacteria before it gets close to shore. The thinned out blobs are the ones the bacteria haven't got a chance to eat, and/or re-coalesced (which makes it harder for the bacteria to eat).

Your suggestion is contrary to what experts recommend.

in fact it was taken off the market 10 years ago by the British --

Not only is the oil poisoning wildlife, oceans -- combining it with this TOXIC

dispersant is compounding all the issues.

:shrug: EPA is another "MMS" stacked with BushCo appointees. Time to clean house there, too

Look:

ftp://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/OMS/disasters/DeepwaterHorizon/composites/2010/Deepwater_Horizon_Spill_Composite_June25.jpg

It's that freaking huge.

As the Composite Map make clear, Obama may be cool but he ain't got this.

The chill part still stands, though. :(

He still doesn't get it that the ground has shifted under his DLC feet.

Midterm elections are always decided by the base. Without a presidential election droves of Americans don't bother voting in midterm elections and only the truly committed fanatics do. PERIOD. If the GOP base rabidly shows up at the polls and our base doesn't because they are not enthusiastic, we lose. PERIOD. Obama has failed to energize the Democratic base and still hasn't a clue that that is important in a midterm election.

Everyone on the left has been screaming at him for months but he still doesn't get it and invited people like Rachel Maddow to come visit him so he could beg them to get off his case.

How ELSE could he win over Republicans inside the Beltway?????

Meanwhile, there is no effort to bypass the corporate media with ads that tell the truth. I'm not talking about the recent web ads the DNC recently put out in order to try to placate and silence the netroots. I'm talking about big buy TV ads that appear on sports shows and other programs the meat and potatoes truck driver types watch. There is none of that and therefore the public has been swamped with one right wing meme after another and nobody is hearing our side. And they won't until we pay for it. PERIOD.

We are heading into a toxic Fall election environment in which the public doesn't know what Obama has achieved and the Democratic base is sick of his sleazing up to the corporatists and GOP while the GOP base is energized and ready for blood.

Democrats are about to lose Capitol Hill. In the words of Arnold Schwarzenneger, "Hear me now believe me later."

And yet Obama is being called "No Drama Obama" because while the other side screams he is as quiet as a mouse, won't pound the podium, shows no passion and acts as if he doesn't care. If I see one more speech of his placidly telling us how many feet of misplaced, poorly managed boom he put down, as if he is just being a bean counter in all this, I'm going to puke.

His passionless style in the midst of the greatest ecological catastrophe in American history is going to cost us Capitol Hill in the Fall. He acts as if there is simply no fire in his belly to get the oil disaster response right.

If Obama doesn't want to lead, he should resign. Really. Let him and Biden quit and Pelosi becomes president. She's next in line of succession. Really. Now, I can understand how he must feel. What with all those maids and servants and chefs preparing his food exactly the way he likes it, the butlers, the chauffeurs, all the security, Air Force One, Chopper One, all the secretaries, the staff, FOUR MILLION FEDERAL EMPLOYEES who answer to him. There must be days he sits awake at night thinking, "I'm SICK of being president. I want to go back to Chicago and sing around the campfire!" You do that Mr. President. Go right ahead. You don't HAVE to be president if you don't want to be. Nobody on the left will mind. Resign by Tuesday. Let Pelosi be president if you don't know how to be a Democrat.

You are mostly spot on but you don't really think he has won over a republican inside the beltway do you?
None of them voted to extend jobless benefits last week.

It's our new hall mark.

For example why would you pick Alan Simpson for anything if you where a true democrat.

you need to be on board with what the admin decides - BP is in charge!

The gov't seems to have been busy with other pressing matters, like making sure that Wall St got the concessions in the finance bill they desired, which sent bank stocks up.

I believe it will come to people screaming at their senators to get the military in charge of this cleanup. Sen Nelson is getting very irate over the lack of action, and I'm sure other senators are, too.

What a travesty... everyone here should be outraged - totally outraged!

In fact, much international help has been accepted.

http://factcheck.org/2010/06/oil-spill-foreign-help-and-the-jones-act/

Q: Did Obama turn down foreign offers of assistance in cleaning up the Gulf oil spill? Did he refuse to waive Jones Act restrictions on foreign-flag vessels?

A: No to both questions. So far, five offers have been accepted and only one offer has been rejected. Fifteen foreign-flag vessels are working on the cleanup, and none required a waiver.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/143488.pdf

he did turn down offers of foreign assistance and then seven weeks later changed his mind.

and I am warning you that I will not accept nut websites as evidence.

Washington Post (6/14/10):

Four weeks after the nation's worst environmental disaster, the Obama administration saw no need to accept offers of state-of-the-art skimmers, miles of boom or technical assistance from nations around the globe with experience fighting oil spills.

"We'll let BP decide on what expertise they do need," State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters on May 19. "We are keeping an eye on what supplies we do need. And as we see that our supplies are running low, it may be at that point in time to accept offers from particular governments."

Houston Chronicle(6/9/10):

Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help.

It was willing to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and it proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands.

The response from the Obama administration and BP, which are coordinating the cleanup: "The embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,'" said Geert Visser, consul general for the Netherlands in Houston.

Now, almost seven weeks later, as the oil spewing from the battered well spreads across the Gulf and soils pristine beaches and coastline, BP and our government have reconsidered.

I'm still mad at the Post from the Lewinsky scandal and the Iraq War.

The piece from the Chronicle is not terribly convincing.

The Dutch offers were ultimately accepted and the Obama Administration plausibly claims that insofar as the offers were to sell supplies, possible domestic sources needed to be checked first. Until the critics can show that there was some unjustified and damaging delay on the part of the Obama administration, it sure looks like they are just trying to push the "Obama's Katrina" narrative and don't really care about being fair to Obama.

The Dutch Embassy's June 24 press release is kind of interesting:
http://dc.the-netherlands.org/News/Press_Releases/Dutch_Assistance_in_the_Gulf_of_Mexico_Oil_Spill

"The State Department says the Dutch government and private businesses offered various types of assistance on April 30, 10 days after the explosion. It included proposals to sell equipment as well as offers of technical advice.

Romania, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Britain made similar offers that same day, according to a summary provided by the State Department. The Netherlands' offer consisted of "state-of-the-art skimming arms made by the Dutch company Koseq," said a statement issued by the Dutch Embassy. The Netherlands also offered to help Louisiana build sand berms intended to keep the oil from washing ashore.

Did the U.S. reject the offers?

On May 5, the State Department issued a statement acknowledging that it had received several offers from countries. "While there is no need right now that the U.S. cannot meet, the U.S. Coast Guard is assessing these offers of assistance to see if there will be something which we will need in the near future," the statement said."

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/25/nation/la-na-jones-actqa-20100625

After BP lied to everyone and said that they had the whole thing under control, when under the law, it is their responsibility to clean everything up.

This is BP's mess, and only BP's mess and I am damn sick and tired of Obama and the rest of us being made to clean up the mess from this damn piece of shit foreign corporation.

And I am done commenting on this thread.

that there was no leak.

"We've been able to determine there is nothing emanating from the well-head," Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said. "That being said, we have positioned resources to be ready to respond should a spill occur... We will continue to monitor 24/7 for the next several days."

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Eco/oil-rig-explosion-coast-guard-no-oil-spill-sunken-rig/story?id=10455646

The point another poster was trying to make was that the government turned down foreign help based on BP's lies, when in fact the government, in the form of the Coast Guard, announced with certainty that there was no spill 3 days after the explosion. The government took a rather arrogant attitude toward subsequent legitimate offers of help from foreign sources.

:cry:

I am with you. One thing I have learned in this mess, is that outrage is useless. Support is of no significance. We as a political force choose to sit and read and sit and rant, and nothing happens. The only positive thing I have done this week, is watch the History Channel's recap of the Viet Nam War and the protests. The protests enabled political action. Political action, ended the war. Doing nothing is doing nothing. I'm too old and sick to go protest, but I could help finance a couple of people to act for me, but not on a computer, in lines, with non-violent action.

As of this moment, I can only conclude that the oil spill will have negligible impact on the gulf in say 2 years, as was the case in 1979. The Government knows it and the little bit of problems faced by the citizens are not worth upsetting the corporate apple cart. The Government is in charge and what is happening, is what they want to happen. Democrat, Liberal, or just a new member of the party of the disenfranchised?

Haley Barber the useless Governor of Mississippi has been given permission to call up 6000 National Guard soldiers to help with the effort to contain and clean up the effects of the spill in his state. At this point he has called up something like 58. The Republican governors along the coast are playing politics with this because that is the right wing talking point for this disaster. That talking point is 'if Obama had done something sooner or would do more now we wouldn't have this problem'. In the end they are trying to get back at the Democrats for trashing Bush over his mismanagement of the Katrina disaster. Your basic 'see they aren't any better than our guy and gee if you ask me Obama is even worse than Bush'. Like a bunch of 5 year olds playing the blame game while the environment and the people of the gulf suffer.

He is more interested in raising funds for a Presidential run than he is in protecting the coast from oil.

did he think it would bypass Mississippi?

I guess so....if it spreads to Texas that ass who apologized to BP will sing a different tune...just like Haley!

If you would listen to real news you would know that those republican governors have asked to do things that the government and red tape would not allow them to do.They have asked to build berms,deploy their own skimmers and other things and were turned down by the o administration, coast guard,epa, or any of the other governmental departments.

Haley Barbour said so. :sarcasm:

At least I think it is legit and there are more Questions and answers posted at the site.


"HAS THE JONES ACT RESULTED IN FOREIGN VESSELS, PARTICULARLY FOREIGN SKIMMING VESSELS, BEING TURNED AWAY?
The National Incident Command (NIC) says there has been "no case" where an offer of foreign assistance has been declined because of the Jones Act. In fact, the U.S. State Department has said that " number of offers of assistance have been accepted," including Mexican skimmers, Norwegian skimming systems and other assets from Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands. The Jones Act does not even apply to skimming operations outside of 3 miles from shore. Oil skimming outside 3 miles, including near the well 50 miles from shore that is the source of the leak, is completely open to foreign oil spill response vessels. That is where the vast majority of skimming has occurred so far.

IF THE JONES ACT IS NOT THE PROBLEM, WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE BLAMING IT FOR DELAYS IN THE OIL SPILL CLEAN-UP?
People are frustrated considering the catastrophic nature of the Gulf spill. Some Americans do not understand the Jones Act and think it may be an impediment to the cleanup, but it is not. The law does not even affect most of the spill clean-up and is designed to allow, in emergency situations like the Gulf oil spill, the use of foreign ships when no American vessel is available. The system works, and American law is particularly flexible in temporarily allowing the use of foreign oil spill response vessels, like skimmers, when necessary.

Information Provided by:
Maritime Cabotage Task Force
1601 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20006-1600
Phone: 202-661-3740
Fax: 202-778-9100
Email: info@mctf.com "

http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/2010-6-24-facts-about-jones-act-and-gulf-oil-spill/

McCain has wanted to kill the Jones Act for a long time. Its cabotage laws are the only reason we have a merchant fleet. If the Jones Act goes, the US Merchant Marine dies with it.

nt

Did U.S. reject foreign help on gulf oil spill cleanup?
June 25, 2010|By Kathleen Hennessey, Tribune Washington bureau

A handful of critics, led by Republicans in Congress and conservative commentators, has recently blasted the administration as slow to accept equipment and other assistance from foreign countries offering to help with the gulf oil spill cleanup. They've focused their critique on an offer from the Netherlands of oil-skimming booms. Some contend that the administration initially refused that offer and others out of a resistance to waive the Jones Act of 1920 — a law that bars foreign vessels from carrying cargo between points in the U.S. — as President George W. Bush did briefly after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The White House, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen and the State Department have pushed back against the criticism, saying the Jones Act has not impeded the cleanup and foreign assistance has been accepted when needed.

The State Department says the Dutch government and private businesses offered various types of assistance on April 30, 10 days after the explosion. It included proposals to sell equipment as well as offers of technical advice.

Romania, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Britain made similar offers that same day, according to a summary provided by the State Department. The Netherlands' offer consisted of "state-of-the-art skimming arms made by the Dutch company Koseq," said a statement issued by the Dutch Embassy. The Netherlands also offered to help Louisiana build sand berms intended to keep the oil from washing ashore.
...
The offer of skimmers was accepted on May 23, when BP purchased three Koseq sweeping arms. As of June 21, the other Dutch offers were considered "under consideration," and the response team had also accepted aid from Mexico, Canada and Norway.

more: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/25/nation/la-na-jones-actqa-20100625

===========================================================

State Department: 17 nations have offered help in oil disaster
June 14, 2010 8:06 p.m. EDT

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/14/oil.disaster.foreign.assistance/index.html

==============

Foreign help on oil spill comes with a price tag
Nearly two dozen nations offer cleanup aid but want to be reimbursed

updated 6/18/2010

WASHINGTON — At least 22 nations — including Britain, where BP is based — have offered oil-collecting skimmers, boom, technical experts and more to help the U.S. cope with its worst-ever environmental disaster. But their generosity comes with a price tag.

The State Department confirmed that nearly every offer of equipment or expertise from a foreign government since the April 20 oil rig explosion would require the U.S. to reimburse that country.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37785640/

========================


The OP is right.

Shamefully little has been done by BP and the Obama Administration to clean up and contain this Gusher!

The Jones Act be damned in times of urgent and dire disasters.

If trillions were not being spent in the Middle East, would our government not be more likely to spend the funds necessary to save OUR Gulf?

Whose Gulf is more important to this country?

They only come into the purview of the Jones Act if they make port in the US. Skimmers, by the nature of their work, do not need to make port. They are supplied by US-flag offshore boats and offloaded by US-flag tankers. This is how the MODUs get away with being foreign flagged- the Deepwater Horizon was not a US-flagged or built rig.

This desire to waive the Jones Act is a push by foreign shippers to destroy the US coastwise trade and put the final nail in the coffin of the US Merchant Marine. McCain has been trying to do this for years and now he's got a beautiful little crisis to do it with.

"There has not been any problem with this," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said last week.

Who's right? The administration's critics exaggerate the Jones Act's impact on the cleanup. It applies within only a three-mile band of coastal water. Even if President Obama had immediately waived the law, it wouldn't have affected the skimming and scooping of most of the oil, which is floating dozens of miles offshore. The inapplicability of the Jones Act to the spill area helps explain why 15 foreign-flagged vessels have indeed been cleared to operate in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/24/AR2010062405500.html



So, the cost is the only impediment to our accepting more foreign help in this containment & clean-up?


On Edit: Dummy me, I tend to forget that BP is to reimburse ALL clean-up & containment costs. Sure.

BP wrecked the Gulf Coast. Jones Act was fairly central to whole hearing. Upshot was, US skimmers and shippers should get the work but if they're not available or don't have certain expertise, foreign skimmers will be used.

Amazingly both Dems and repukes agreed on this. :)

WTF :wtf: I thought they were paying for everything since it's they who caused the disaster.

Apparently, they want the US Govt. to pay up front because??

Because they don't trust BP to pay??

The next question is why hasn't the Obama admin. enlisted every possible tool on the planet to get this contained and cleaned up immediately?

A proposed answer:

Obama and his team do not trust BP to reimburse them? (Some thing about no money because of two wars?)

OR...

Obama and his advisers do not think this disaster is dire enough to warrant THEIR immediate action.(?)

Are they truly naive enough to think BP is taking care of all of this?


Is he that naively uninformed? Elliott Spitzer seems to think that Obama is that naive. He said, "Obama needs to do more to take charge of the oil spill response." Then added:
"He trusts people too much....He trusted Wall Street. He trusted the Republicans to engage in a meaningful way. He trusted BP. He's 0 for three."



I could not be more disappointed in Obama about this situation.

of this disaster. As of today, France has still not received a response.
- Christophe Rousseau, Expert at Cedre, Center for the documentation, research and testing on water pollution due to (industrial) accidents. www.cedre.fr www.marées-noires.com

(translation from original French into English by Pooka Fey)

"Dès le début de la catastrophe, l'État français a proposé d'envoyer ses professionnels. Il n'y a pas eu de réponse à ce jour."
- Christophe Rousseau, Expert au Cedre, Centre de documentation, de recherche et d'expérimentation sur les pollutions accidentelles des eaux. www.cedre.fr www.marées-noires.com

Published in the July, 2010 edition No. 761 "Sciences et Avenir" (Science and the Future) page 29 sciencesetavenir.fr Article title: "La marrée noire américaine est imprévisible"
_________________________________________________


The American press and the White House are often not reliable sources of news and information. What strikes me as especially boorish is that the US government hasn't even bothered to acknowledge France's offer to help. Apparently we just prefer to let the Gulf of Mexico become a giant dead zone.

:cry:

(edited for improved translation)

Wrapped in cotton sheets. The oiled cotton sheets can be shipped back to France, where French laundries can clean and iron, and then ship back to us to re-sell to China. This could be a pretty good business. Seriously, what exactly are these French experts going to do? We got experts coming out of our ears. What we need is guys with a shovel picking up tarballs, and we got plenty of those, and small boats with skimmers, and we already got thousands of those running around in the Gulf.

:sarcasm:

I think the Gulf needs all the help it can get, no matter who.

You gotta problem with that?

I guess he's being a little more honest that way.

They sure like their Senators in the South.
"When we buy Senators down here, boy, they stay bought."

Dukes of Hazzard redux ---

They're just good ol' boyz
Never meaning to do nobody no harm
They just want to drill everywhere
Even on your grammy's old farm

Now they drill down in the Gulf
Of old Mexico down that a'way
There ain't no use in you complainin'
You cain't stop us anyway

nt

Louisiana's fragile wetlands have been hardest hit by the oil but Mississippi had escaped damage until Sunday, although some oil had tainted its barrier islands. Oil has also come ashore in Alabama and Florida's Gulf coast.

Oil from the spill hit two tourist beaches at Ocean Springs, about 10 miles east of Biloxi, Mississippi, and a beach used by fishermen close to an inland marsh.

Mississippi state officials and the U.S. Coast Guard, who said they expect more oil to arrive, were waiting on BP contractors to start cleaning up.

"We cannot clean up or catch the oil until BP gets here. They have all of our people," said Earl Etheridge, a spokesman for Mississippi's Department of Environmental Quality.

More: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65O5TA20100628

... that it would have been far more effective if they were lying down,
head to foot, rather than standing up with big gaps in between each pair
of non-absorbent feet. They'd stop a lot more oil that way.
:shrug:

Still, at least they could drive to the beach on a sunny day, hold hands
and pray ... that must have really helped the situation ...