For Oil Spill Victims, Fair Compensation Requires a Crystal Ball; Gulf Residents Will Need to Predict Future Damages, in The Washington Independent. July 22.
According to a colleague who is doing field work in coastal LA, the incidents of stress and mental health problems are at a very high level. The needs of the local people are huge. I hope Mr. Feinberg can work out something equitable for those hardest hit.
Lessons Learned or Not, NYT, July 19. See some useful commentary on this article on the HLSwatch blog on July 21.
Looks like some signs of learning from experience. Oil Majors Building Disaster-Response System, NYTimes July 21.
Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC and ConocoPhillips are expected to announce Thursday that they are forming a joint venture to design, build and operate a rapid-response system to capture and contain up to 100,000 barrels of oil flowing 10,000 feet below the surface of the sea.
The system, consisting of several oil collection ships and an array of subsurface containment equipment, resembles the one developed by BP during three months of trial and error after the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20.
Some additional details from an NBC news article today. No question, $1B is a lot of money.
A detailed account of the lessons that we failed to learn from past disaster. Lessons from Exxon Valdez spill have gone unheeded, Wash. Post, July 13
Segmant of a post by Bill Cumming on his blog (7/11) federal management of the Oill spill disaster:
We are now witnessing …the totally inadequate response offered under the National Contingency Plan wherein with the US Coast Guard as Incident Commander it is now increasing faced with issues of on-shore impacts of the BP catastrophe including economic impacts and social and psychological impacts. The NCP is totally inadequate for these concerns and …has already demonstrated that fact as the Administration relies on a BP fund that will really only be fully implemented by the end of 2013 to fund damage and loss claims arising from their negligence. Yet both the Administration and Congress are betting their will be a BP around and that organizations other than FEMA can gear up for this largest environmental disaster in world history other than drought and that reliance is totally appropriate and adquate. I respectfully disagree.
The Gulf Oil Disaster: Three Steps to Federal Leadership; 3 pp. Commentary from the GWU Homeland Security Policy Institute, July 7, 2010. The authors argue for the involvement of DHS and the use of the National Response Framework.
See the Hazards Observer, July 2010, for new article titled The Long, Long Road from Exxon Valdez to Deepwater Horizon; pp. 7-10. This thoughtful article makes many useful points about the similarities and differences of the two events; I suggest you read it all. One quote worth remembering:
The overarching lesson we can share from our Exxon Valdez research is that the potential for negative, long-term community impacts must not be underestimated.”
Gulf Oil Spill: Scientists Beg For A Chance To Take Basic Measurements, Huffington Post, July 7.
A group of independent scientists, frustrated and dumbfounded by the continued lack of the most basic data about the 77-day-old BP oil disaster, has put together a crash project intended to definitively measure how much oil has spilled and where and how it is spreading throughout the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
To say “It’s complicated” is an understatement when it comes to how to regulate offshore oil drilling. Obama Decried, Then Used, Some Bush Drilling Policies, WSJ July 5.
The Obama administration’s actions in the court case exemplify the dilemma the White House faced in developing its energy policy. In his presidential campaign, President Obama criticized the Bush administration for being too soft on the oil industry and vowed to support greener energy forms. But, once in office, President Obama ended up backing offshore drilling, bowing to political and fiscal realities, even as his administration’s own scientists and Democratic lawmakers warned about its risks.
The dimensions of the problem seem almost endless. See this less-than-cheerful bit of information about the size of the oil reservoir. Relief well is last best hope to contain gusher. AP, July 5.
Chief Executive Tony Hayward said in June that the reservoir of oil is believed to hold about 2.1 billion gallons of oil. If the problem was never fixed, it could mean another two years of oil spilling based on the current flow rate until the reservoir is drained.
Readers are encouraged to check out the comments connected with this post, since they provide a variety of perspectives on the role of military in disasters.
Yet another new element to the long-term recovery plans and processes for the oil spill outcome. On June 30th, President issued a Memorandum from the President on the Long-Term Gulf Coast Restoration Support Plan. As published in the Federal Register , July 6. Some key aspects of the plan include:
(a) Led by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus; (b) Aimed at helping the affected residents to recover from the BP oil spill and to ensure that a similar crisis does not occur again; (c) Result in ensuring economic recovery, community planning, science-based restoration of the ecosystem and environment, public health and safety efforts, and support to affected third parties; and(d) Include a comprehensive assessment of post spill needs, short and long-term objectives and support to individuals and businesses who suffered losses due to the oil spill. Also, the plan should consider the resources currently available to respond to the disaster and to use them to complement the ongoing oil spill efforts. Finally, Secretary Mabus would have to coordinate state, federal and other agencies.
First time the Navy has been involved in major civilian oil spill or any other disaster recovery. Should be an interesting study in public administration to see how he coordinates state and other agencies, not to mention the private and non-profit sector organizations involved. Note to Researchers: great material for a study!
See additional commentary on the blog exchange www.hlswatch.com, dated July 3.
Volunteers ready but left out of spill cleanup. According to the AP news service, there still are problems in effectively using the volunteers and boats being offered to help with the spill cleanup.
BP and the Obama administration face mounting complaints that they are ignoring foreign offers of equipment and making little use of the fishing boats and volunteers available to help clean up what may now be the biggest spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Coast Guard said there have been 107 offers of help from 44 nations, ranging from technical advice to skimmer boats and booms. But many of those offers are weeks old, and only a small number have been accepted. The vast majority are still under review, according to a list kept by the State Department.
BP spill nears a somber record as Gulf’s biggest, AP, July 1.
The oil that’s spewed for two and a half months from a blown-out well a mile under the sea is expected to surpass the 140 million gallon mark, eclipsing the record-setting Ixtoc I spill off Mexico’s coast from 1979 to 1980. Even by the lower end of the government’s estimates, at least 71.2 million gallons are in the Gulf.
“It’s an important number to know because it has an impact on restoration and recovery,” ….
On a positive note, the US has finally figured out how to accept international assistance re the oil spill cleanup. AP, June 30th story: US accepts international assistance for Gulf spill Arrangements for accepting help from a dozen countries are close to settled.
But one more negative note: The AP wire story on June 30 provides one more reason the BP Oil Spill response plans were inadequate. BP Oil Spill Cleanup Did Not Consider Hurricanes
Rep. Edward Markey says BP’s disaster response plan for an oil spill doesn’t mention hurricanes or tropical storms. Markey says the omission is yet another example of what the oil giant was not prepared to handle.
It is truly disgraceful that the oil spill emergency plan mentioned walruses in the Gulf but neglected to mention hurricanes was approved by the Minerals Management Service of the Dept. of Interior. Reform in the successor agency cannot come soon enough!
Gulf Disaster Changes Landscape for Scientists Eager to Do Research. ProPublico, June 29.
At a time when some scientists are more eager than ever to gather information on the state of the Gulf, it seems their access to the Gulf is also more limited than ever. That’s because the federal government has swept up the available research vessels and hired consulting firms to do the work, according to Richard Shaw, associate dean of the School of the Coast and Environment at Louisiana State University. As a result, ship time–and direct access to the Gulf to take samples–is nearly impossible for independent scientists to come by.
Other problems include the Gulf State Governors directing research funds to their state institutions.
Yesterday I mentioned an organization that most of us had never heard of before — the Marine Spill Response Corp. Details about that organization and how overwhelmed and inadequately prepared it is for the BP oil spill were published in the Washington Post today, 6/29. See Oil industry cleanup organization swamped by BP spill.
“There is no asset MSRC has that is designed to collect oil 5,000 feet under the seas,” said Brett G. Drewry, chief executive of the industry-backed organization that funds MSRC.
That fact did not stop BP and other companies from citing MSRC, alone or alongside for-profit cleanup companies, as their first responder for massive spills. Oil companies, Congress and regulators point to MSRC as evidence of lessons learned from Valdez. *** safeguarding the coasts should not be left to private industry.
“It seems to me there is a real significant conflict of interest here,” he said. “When you are dealing with an issue that has such enormous stakes for public health and safety, it should be in the government’s hands.”
Recovery Diva 