Gulf oil Spill Events, May 9, 2010

Image by nasa1fan/MSFC via Flickr

Not good this weekend:

In Louisiana, truckloads of sand were being delivered and put in sandbags to be dropped by National Guard helicopters along Fourchon Beach, which is southwest of New Orleans. It's one of the few beaches along the Louisiana coast, with about two miles of public sand and another seven miles that is privately owned.

Officials declared a state of emergency and closed the beach until further notice.

Oil estimate now greater: It has been pouring into the Gulf from a blown-out undersea well at about 210,000 gallons per day.

Booms have been put out to protect estuaries, marshlands and coastlines, from west of the Mississippi River to points as far east as Panama City, Fla.

Source.

Alabama: Oil Spill - BP Officials meet residents of Bayou La Batre

It was a packed house at the community center in Bayou La Batre. With no air conditioning it was also a sweaty, hothouse. Officials from BP, the Coast Guard and others tried to update an uncomfortable crowd on the oil spill. At times the meeting was tense. One man grabbed the microphone and called it BP propaganda. A BP spokesman updated the room on what they're doing to contain the spill and offered numbers for people to file claims with the company. Bayou La Batre Mayor Stan Wright urged fishermen not to sign anything with the company if they do get a settlement.

People left the meeting with some contact sheets, but many wanted more.

“You know I just think there's so many questions they don't have answers for all of them yet, they seem to be doing the best they can with what they have to work with,” says charter and commercial fisherman Skipper Thiery. Most people wanted some idea of how the oil spill was going to affect them and their way of life--something we won't really know until the oil gets here.

From another source:

On Saturday afternoon May 1, as the oil spill continued to work its way onto the northern Gulf Coast, BP held what it had said would be a public information meeting in the south Alabama fishing town of Bayou La Batre. Those in attendance included town leaders, fishermen, local business owners and townspeople, all of whom are certain to be economically damaged by the oil slick now bearing down on the coastline. However, BP converted the public meeting into a public relations and litigation ploy. BP told the fishermen, business owners and local officials present that it will be unnecessary for them to hire their own legal counsel, that if they call a BP 1-800 telephone number and claim total damages for themselves and their businesses of less than $5,000 dollars, then BP would pay a claim of less than $5,000 but the damaged individuals and businesses in Bayou La Batre will be required to sign BP paperwork. If the claim against BP is more than $5,000, BP told the audience they would be required to deal directly with BP's legal department.



Local town leaders took the microphone from the BP representative, and told the townspeople present not to sign BP’s paperwork.


It is astonishing that BP, with its hordes of high-priced lawyers, would tell innocent victims not to obtain legal help for themselves, and that BP would try to lure these victims into dealing directly with BP's legal department.

Gul Oil Spill Lawsuits/State Actions: Florida, Alabama, LA, Miss and TX get together

The top law enforcement executives for five states will meet to talk about legal options for dealing with the effects of a massive oil spill threatening their Gulf of Mexico shores.

The attorneys general from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas will meet Sunday in Mobile, Ala.

A statement said the meeting will discuss legal options, strategies, and preparations for the spill that erupted after a drill rig exploded April 20.

Asked if the states may file lawsuits against oil company BP PLC and other firms, a spokeswoman for Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said he is looking at all possibilities.

Lawyers for private plaintiffs including fishermen have filed at least 26 potential class action lawsuits so far for damages from the spill.

Gulf Oil Spill and the Law: Fishermen wait for spill effects

From: http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2010/04/29/fishermen-lawyers-wait-for-oil-spill-effects/

Shrimp fishermen in south Louisiana have traded in their fishing gear for garbage bags and anything else they can use to collect as much of the crude oil now leaking at about 200,000 gallons per day from a collapsed BP rig and posing an increasing threat to their livelihood.

“We’re trying to save our industry at this point,” said Kim Chauvin, fourth generation co-owner of Mariah Jade Shrimp Co. south of Houma.

While environmentalists and ecologists struggle to predict the coastal impact of the slick, which has already come aground on the Mississippi Delta, Chauvin is optimistic that the central and western parts of the state will not be affected.

“There’s no need for alarm in the central and western parts of the state,” she said.


In New Orleans, a team of lawyers from throughout the Gulf Coast has been assembled to prosecute claims for affected commercial fisherman. With the oil just now reaching land, the attorneys said that there is still no way of knowing what kind of monetary impact the oil leak could have on fisherman. But in any case, they’re taking “pre-emptive action.”



On Wednesday, the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries opened up an area to shrimp harvesting a couple weeks early in anticipation of damage from the oil slick.

“In consideration of the potential threat to these resources… this special season should provide fisherman with added economic opportunity through harvest and sale of over-wintering white shrimp,” the release says.

The LDWF has been trying to figure put what kind of economic impact the oil leak could have on the state’s seafood industry. It has begun gathering the dockside value of commercial seafood landings with a focus on the the Mississippi Delta area and parts east.

“We identified an area likely to suffer because of the spill,” said Jack Isaacs, an economist with the LDWF.

From 2007 to 2009, the average annual value of shrimp caught in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin was $9.24 million or 7.1 percent of the state’s total commercial seafood landings. In the Mississippi Delta, there was nearly $7.41 million worth of shrimp caught yearly, or 5.68 percent of the state’s total.

There is a total yearly dockside commercial value of seafood at $44.8 million in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin and $8.7 million in the Mississippi Delta, and the values do not include any additional value added by wholesalers, processors, packers, distributors, retailers or restaurants, Isaacs said.

Perhaps more worrisome for the seafood industry is the vulnerability of oysters. State research shows that 78 percent of oysters harvested from public reefs in Louisiana are in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin, representing $11.7 million in value. Another 45 percent of oyster coming from private leases in the state are in that same basin, totaling $12.7 million in value.

“The good thing for shrimp and fish is that they can swim away as the slick of oil approaches them,” said Cliff Hall, co-owner of seafood distributor New Orleans Fish House. “Oysters, unfortunately, will not be so lucky, as they are connected to the reefs and cannot move.”

Like Chauvin, Hall is anxiously hoping that winds keep the slick to the east of the Mississippi River delta.

“While it’s not good for the east side of the river, the positive part of this is it’s not affecting west side of river,” Hall said. “We’ll continue to draw from those resources for our restaurants.”•

Alabama/Georgia/Florida Oil Spill Damage Information

Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Flickr

I grew up in Florida, and consider the Gulf Coast South my home - from the Bayous of LA, to favorite places like Fairhope, to Seagrove Beach - all in the path of a man made disaster that may be worse than any hurricane.

How to help:

For folks in Mississippi: Please call 1.866.448.5816. If you want to register your desire to help and receive updates, visit Volunteer Mississippi.

www.mcvs.org/

If you're in Louisiana: To report oiled or injured wildlife, please call 1-866-557-1401.For spill claims: 1-800-440-0858.

For Community and Volunteer Information, please call 1-866-448-5816

Also worth a look is: www.emergency.louisiana.gov.

For Alabama citizens: The Alabama Coastal Foundation at 251-990-6002; the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program at 251-431-6409; or Mobile Baykeeper at 251-433-4229.

For the Coast of Florida: Go to www.volunteerfloridadisaster.org/

Gulf Oil Spill Lawyer Information

From my friend Rick Kuykendall, whose home is in South Alabama:

Rick is a key founder of a litigation team of Gulf state lawyers that is one of the first to file for damages arising out of the growing oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This suit seeks damages for fishing and other industries as well as property owners impacted by the spill and are the first of many actions to be filed by the group.

Kuykendall has extensive experience litigating environmental damage cases, and has extensive experience litigating against the oil industry. In 2009, he was co-lead counsel against Constellation Energy in an action that resulted in pollution abatement and damages to citizens whose water had been contaminated by chemicals. In major cases against Weyerhauser Paper, Shell, Exxon, Hoechst Celanese, Conoco and others, Kuykendall has demonstrated a no nonsense approach.

" We are witnessing the beginning of what may very well become the largest environmental disaster in the history of the United States. The source of the spill is still spewing upwards of 50 million gallons of oil a day into the spawning grounds of shrimp, snapper and oysters in areas of the Gulf waters. If the spill isn't contained, it will soon threaten critical gulf beaches and marshlands. The impact on individuals and small businesses still recovering from a series of hurricanes is incalculable. The oil industry, like the financial industry, asked the citizens that populate the Gulf coast to trust them with our most valuable resource and they breached that trust. They must be held accountable and I, along with the group of dedicated environmental lawyers, have the skills and resources to do just that. While we all pray for a good ending, the courthouse doors of the Gulf Coast must be opened to protect our citizens and ecosystems."Said Kuykendall.

Kuykendall’s commitment to environmental concerns is evident. He was appointed by the governor of Alabama to a select Commission on the Environment, is an Honorary Member of the Board of Directors of Mobile Bay Keepers and Co-Founder of the Pensacola River Keepers. Combining his concern for the environment with his legal expertise and resources Kuykendall has successfully brought polluters to justice.

Call him at 256-702-5005