<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Gulf Coast – New Orleans' Multicultural News Source | The Louisiana Weekly</title> <atom:link href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/category/environmental/gulf-coast-environmental/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com</link> <description></description> <lastBuildDate>Mon, 10 Mar 2025 16:35:10 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.33</generator> <item> <title>Experts: Talk now about drastic changes, or deal with coastal crisis later</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/experts-talk-now-about-drastic-changes-or-deal-with-coastal-crisis-later/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/experts-talk-now-about-drastic-changes-or-deal-with-coastal-crisis-later/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2015 20:51:34 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Regional]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=19053</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Bob Marshall The Lens The mouth of the Mississippi River should be moved north to Port Sulphur or English Turn and communities south of<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/experts-talk-now-about-drastic-changes-or-deal-with-coastal-crisis-later/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fexperts-talk-now-about-drastic-changes-or-deal-with-coastal-crisis-later%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/experts-talk-now-about-drastic-changes-or-deal-with-coastal-crisis-later/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/experts-talk-now-about-drastic-changes-or-deal-with-coastal-crisis-later/" data-text="Experts: Talk now about drastic changes, or deal with coastal crisis later" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/experts-talk-now-about-drastic-changes-or-deal-with-coastal-crisis-later/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/experts-talk-now-about-drastic-changes-or-deal-with-coastal-crisis-later/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Bob Marshall</strong><br /> <a href=“http://thelensnola.org”>The Lens</a></p> <p>The mouth of the Mississippi River should be moved north to Port Sulphur or English Turn and communities south of those points eventually will have to be abandoned if other parts of southeast Louisiana are to have a future into the next century.</p> <p>Those were among the more startling recommendations proposed by the winning teams of coastal engineering and sustainability experts from around the world who took part in Changing Course, a design competition sponsored by Louisiana that kicked off in 2013.</p> <p>Key features of the plans would represent dramatic departures from the state’s up-and-running Coastal Master Plan, a $50-billion, 50-year vision that has received generally high praise from the scientific community. Experts said their recommended changes should be taken seriously because subsidence and sea level rise will make many existing communities indefensible in the coming decades.</p> <p>“We want to stress this isn’t something anyone is saying needs to be done soon, but it is something we think will be necessary in the future – so we need to start planning for it now,” said Jeff Carney, director of the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio.</p> <p>“This is going to happen. So the choice is, do we get out in front of it over the next 50 years and manage the process, or wait for it to happen to us – wait for the next big storm to wipe out communities, erase the shipping channel in the lower river and throw commerce into chaos?</p> <p>“The leadership of the state needs to begin discussing these realities openly with residents now.”</p> <p>Participants were charged with designing long-term plans that could ensure the presence of sustainable coastal wetlands into the next century while also maintaining or improving river commerce and flood protection. The state hoped the global reach of the competition would provide new ideas from the rapidly evolving fields of coastal engineering and science, even as it moves forward with the Master Plan. Twenty-three groups responded, and the three finalists were awarded $300,000 each to refine their presentations. Funding came from a group of philanthropic foundations and Shell Oil.</p> <p>Although state officials didn’t commit to adopting any of the suggestions, the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – the major partners in the Master Plan – were on the competition’s leadership committee.</p> <p>However, Kyle Graham, executive director of the coastal authority, said his agency is investigating some of the specific land-building ideas and computer models that came out of the competition.</p> <p>The winning plans came from the teams of Baird & Associates, Moffatt & Nichol, and Studio Misi-Ziibi. They included review and participation from the shipping, fishing and energy industries.</p> <p>The Baird Team would move the mouth of the river to English Turn and retain the current navigation channel as a deeper slack-water entry to the port. Like the other plans this would also abandon communities along the lower river over several generations.</p> <p>Like the Master Plan, the winning designs focus on reconnecting the sinking, crumbling coastal wetlands to the freshwater and sediment in the Mississippi River.</p> <p>However, the Changing Course participants worked with key advantages over the architects of the Master Plan: They were given a 100-year time frame instead of 50, and they were unencumbered by the budget realities, public-review processes and political approval required by state actions. Those points gave them the freedom to let science and engineering guide their decisions.</p> <p>The three top designs reached consensus on several things:<br /> • The future delta and coastal wetlands along the lower river will be dramatically smaller than today’s because the river doesn’t carry enough sediment to offset the combination of subsidence and projected sea-level rise. As one team member put it: “We won’t have enough mud to fill the deepening holes.”<br /> • The required changes are so vast, expensive and socially disruptive they must take place over several generations.<br /> • The rates of sinking and sea level rise mean communities downriver must eventually be abandoned. The state should begin educating residents now so they can begin discussions on how and when relocations will take place.<br /> • Moving the mouth of the river north accomplishes several important goals. Sediment that now spreads out across the lower delta’s sinking basins and the nearshore Gulf with little benefit to the coast could be trapped and used for land building. Ships would have a shorter, quicker journey to port facilities. And the threat of river floods would be reduced because there would be a larger outlet closer to the city. The new channel would be dredged to the 50-foot depth soon to be necessary if the port is to remain competitive when the enlargement of the Panama Canal is completed.<br /> • Diversions being considered for the lower river should be cancelled, and new diversions should be planned north of the city. The new locations would be more efficient land builders because they still have enough wetlands that can trap sediment and will be in areas with less subsidence.<br /> • The coastal fishing industry cannot avoid dramatic relocation because major diversions are the only way to build and maintain enough wetlands habitat to supply its target species. Each of the plans hopes to rebuild basins on a schedule that would always result in enough estuarine habitat in some areas for viable fisheries on shrimp, crabs, oysters and fish such as speckled trout and redfish.</p> <p>Each of the plans include a host of other strategies to build barrier islands, oyster reefs and other natural features to aid in rebuilding and maintaining wetlands.</p> <p><strong>Effort At Saving Lower Delta Futile, Designers Agree</strong><br /> Some of the suggestions in the plans are not new. In fact, the master plan issued in 2012 stated that realignment of the lower river was “the best of any individual restoration project type” for building land. It recommended further analysis of that idea. Moving the mouth of the river northward would require building structures to redirect the current at that spot. That would cut off most of sediment supply to the rapidly subsiding lower delta.</p> <p>Some coastal experts have long maintained the master plan has not given enough weight to the impacts on the lower river of subsidence – as much as 5 feet a century for the bird’s foot delta – and sea level rise. In a 2009 paper, LSU researchers Harry Roberts and Michael Blum concluded there is not enough sediment in the river to prevent “significant drowning” of the area. They suggested moving diversions upriver of New Orleans.</p> <p>Roberts, who was on the Baird team, said a review of the latest research by the teams strengthened those convictions.</p> <p>“All three of the teams came to the same conclusions that the retreat of the coast and subsidence has outstripped our resources to solve the problem on the lower river,” he said. “I think everybody now realizes we’ve reached the point where you have to use the river’s resources in a big way to combat this – that anything else you do is kind of piecemeal and won’t last.”</p> <p>Roberts said the final plans also concurred with his 2009 assessment that spending effort.</p> <p>“Any new wetlands you build down there will eventually be isolated from the rest of the coast by subsidence and sea level rise,” he said. “By moving diversions north, we’ll be building wetlands in areas with less subsidence and that we can defend in the future against sea level rise.”</p> <p>Rather than criticize the master plan, team members said their visions expanded on ideas and results already evident in what the current plan hopes to accomplish.</p> <p>For example, even with its claim to build more land in aggregate than the state loses by 2060, the Master Plan forecasts a smaller coast and delta. It also has no plans to save the bird’s foot delta.</p> <p>But the design teams go much farther than the Master Plan in making the case for dramatic changes in the river’s lower channel, in the use of diversions and the need to relocate communities.</p> <p>The Baird team would move the mouth of the river to English Turn – within sight of New Orleans — then maintain the existing shipping lanes through Southeast Pass.</p> <p>The Moffatt-Nichol and Studio Misi-Ziibi groups would move the mouth to Port Sulphur and West Pointe a la Hache, respectively. They would dredge new shipping channels either west into Barataria Bay or east into Breton Sound.</p> <p>Each would result in the communities in lower Plaquemines Parish being connected to the rest of the state by bridges or ferryboats – and then only as long as those landscapes remained above the rising Gulf.</p> <p>Team members said the engineering and design work for the plans was the easy part, and the toughest jobs would be finding the political will even to begin the discussions their solutions should provoke.</p> <p>Steve Cochran, the Environ-mental Defense Fund’s director of the Mississippi River Delta Restoration coalition, which also helped manage the competition, said any chance at sustainability for the region would involve having discussions about these major changes coming from the communities involved — not being handed down by governments.</p> <p>“There’s been some incredible thinking coming out of the process, but the real value will be if we can have people take a look at what the future holds, and say, ‘OK, this is what we need to start thinking about. This is where we want to be in the future, and this is how we’re going to get there’.”</p> <p>This article was originally published by The Lens (<a href=“http://thelensnola.org”>thelensnola.org</a>), an independent, non-profit newsroom serving New Orleans, The Louisiana Weekly enjoys a partnership with The Lens.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the September 21, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/experts-talk-now-about-drastic-changes-or-deal-with-coastal-crisis-later/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Funds for tracing Gulf seafood slated to expire</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funds-for-tracing-gulf-seafood-slated-to-expire/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funds-for-tracing-gulf-seafood-slated-to-expire/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 10 Mar 2014 21:40:34 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=12785</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Susan Buchanan Contributing Writer Louisiana seafood vendors were hurt by the 2010 BP spill, fishing closures and consumers’ fears that Gulf shrimp, oysters and<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funds-for-tracing-gulf-seafood-slated-to-expire/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Ffunds-for-tracing-gulf-seafood-slated-to-expire%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funds-for-tracing-gulf-seafood-slated-to-expire/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funds-for-tracing-gulf-seafood-slated-to-expire/" data-text="Funds for tracing Gulf seafood slated to expire" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funds-for-tracing-gulf-seafood-slated-to-expire/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funds-for-tracing-gulf-seafood-slated-to-expire/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Susan Buchanan</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>Louisiana seafood vendors were hurt by the 2010 BP spill, fishing closures and consumers’ fears that Gulf shrimp, oysters and fish were tainted. The seafood catch isn’t fully back to pre-spill levels but vendors want to prove they have quality, local seafood to sell. <span id="more-12785"></span></p> <p>A program called Gulf Seafood Trace or GST that started in 2011 captures and adds to data from state trip tickets—which were launched in Louisiana in 2000 to document the catch unloaded by boats. Vendors participating in GST can show customers that their seafood is from Gulf states, not other U.S. coastal areas or Asia.</p> <p>The trace program was authorized by Congress and is supported by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration award to the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission’s oil disaster recovery program. That award ends on December 31, however. </p> <p>“We’ve received no firm commitments from NOAA or any other sources about additional funding for the GST program,” Alexander Miller, staff economist and traceability coordinator at the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, said last week. “The funding from NOAA Fisheries is about $2 million, supporting the program from 2011 to the end of 2014.” The Mississippi-based GSMFC is an interstate group that develops and conserves fishery resources.</p> <p>Participation in Gulf Seafood Trace is voluntary across five states. The program uses Trace Register’s electronic platform to augment trip-ticket data with additional stats on products and vessels. Using the platform, businesses can share supply-chain facts that are almost real time with their customers. Trace Register, a company founded in Seattle in 2005, provides web-based technology used by more than 700 seafood buyers, suppliers and retailers in 24 countries.</p> <p>“The seafood business can tailor GST information to specific audiences with marketing modules—basically mini websites that allow users to view the product’s journey from Gulf to plate,” GST spokeswoman Malinda Kelley said last week. </p> <p>GST has traced 42 million pounds of Gulf seafood to date, drawing on the $2 million in federal funding. “Sixty-six Gulf companies have signed up,” Kelley said. “And because each company submits trace information that can span their entire supply chain, the list of program participants is actually 1,052 Gulfwide, including 987 fishing vessels, 38 processors, 19 dockside facilities and eight distributors.”</p> <p>Harlon’s LA Fish in Kenner is a member of Gulf Seafood Trace. “It takes time to educate seafood companies and fishermen about the value of the program,” company owner Harlon Pearce said last week. “We may be selling everything we’ve got but we could be doing a better job of it. You earn more if your product is viewed as high quality.” </p> <p>Keilen Williams, owner of New Orleans ShrimpMan LLC, a GST member based in Pointe a la Hache, said his is the only local and national African-American seafood brand. He feels the program hasn’t helped his company. “My brand is not in Walmart, Costco or other major chains because the Gulf trace program doesn’t provide the certification they want,” he said. Walmart U.S., for example, requires fresh and frozen, farmed and wild seafood suppliers to become third-party certified as sustainable, using Marine Stewardship Council, Best Aquaculture Practices or equivalent standards.</p> <p>The GST, meanwhile, has an auditing component. When the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, Trace Register and MRAG Americas, Inc. launched the regional trace program three years ago, much of the information was already available but needed to be repackaged. MRAG Americas, a Florida-based consultant in aquatics research management, supports the GST by conducting audits to see that facts presented to consumers are accurate. </p> <p>Last fall, GST and the Gulf Seafood Marketing Coalition partnered with the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association in a 13-week campaign called “Every Shrimp Has a Tale” at 46 restaurants. MHRA got a $325,000 grant from BP for that campaign to raise awareness about premium local shrimp, Malinda Kelley said. Sales swelled in Mississippi during the promotion. </p> <p>“BP has helped support the seafood industry by paying, or committing to pay, $82 million to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi for state-led seafood testing and marketing programs,” BP spokesman Jason Ryan in Houston said last week. “This includes $48.5 million that BP is providing so states can develop programs to promote Gulf seafood along the coast and around the country.” </p> <p>Ryan also said that according to federal data, Gulf fish populations are healthy and seafood is safe to consume.</p> <p>The jury’s still out on the post-spill health of Gulf seafood, however. Fishermen and dealers remain concerned about the reproductive potential of local species. In Barataria Bay and other areas directly impacted by the spill, fishermen have seen shrimp numbers only partly recover since 2010.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the Gulf & South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation, based in Florida, has assisted the Gulf Seafood Marketing Coalition with funds from the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission’s NOAA award. Last week, GSAFF seafood marketing director Joanne McNeely said the Gulf Seafood Trace program is a promising aspect of its retail and restaurant partnerships. “One of the coalition’s goals is to expand market share for wild seafood from the Gulf,” she said. “Working with retailers, we prepare recipes and provide samples to their store customers, who enjoy our natural, wild-caught seafood and learn that it’s easy to prepare.”</p> <p>Because of these promotions, “we’ve seen product sales increase by as much as 63 percent at some retailers, mainly in the U.S. Northeast or West, where customers have less access to flavorful Gulf seafood,” McNeely said. “We’ve also seen growth in sales from local promotions with stores such as Rouses Markets, but these increases weren’t as significant since Gulf residents are the biggest supporters of local seafood.” </p> <p>The local seafood industry is keeping an eye on government data. The brown shrimp harvest from July 2013 through June 2014 in the western Gulf of Mexico—for state and federal waters off Louisiana and federal waters off Texas—was forecast at 55 million pounds, below a 52-year average of 56.6 million pounds, by NOAA last summer. Shrimp caught in state and federal waters off Louisiana from west of the Mississippi River to the Texas-Louisiana border in the 2013-14 year was projected at 29 million pounds, while the Texas catch was seen at 26 million. For its predictions, NOAA monitors juvenile brown shrimp, makes growth estimates and weighs environmental factors.</p> <p>Louisiana’s white shrimp harvest was 67.9 million pounds last year, in line with pre-spill averages, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Sixty-eight percent of shrimp harvested in the United States is from the Gulf, mainly from Louisiana and Texas. </p> <p>After the spill, BP America asked the Gulf’s commercial fishermen to provide landings data from 2007 to 2010 to determine their eligibility for assistance. Louisiana’s Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries reviews industry trip tickets for accuracy to help fishermen and dealers receive compensation after oil spills, hurricanes and other disasters.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the March 10, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/funds-for-tracing-gulf-seafood-slated-to-expire/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Two CPRA lawsuits add to recent coastal litigation</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/two-cpra-lawsuits-add-to-recent-coastal-litigation/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/two-cpra-lawsuits-add-to-recent-coastal-litigation/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2013 19:15:10 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=11979</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Susan Buchanan Contributing Writer The blame game over who’s responsible for Louisiana’s wetlands loss and hurricane defenses and how to pay for them accelerated<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/two-cpra-lawsuits-add-to-recent-coastal-litigation/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Ftwo-cpra-lawsuits-add-to-recent-coastal-litigation%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/two-cpra-lawsuits-add-to-recent-coastal-litigation/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/two-cpra-lawsuits-add-to-recent-coastal-litigation/" data-text="Two CPRA lawsuits add to recent coastal litigation" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/two-cpra-lawsuits-add-to-recent-coastal-litigation/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/two-cpra-lawsuits-add-to-recent-coastal-litigation/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Susan Buchanan</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>The blame game over who’s responsible for Louisiana’s wetlands loss and hurricane defenses and how to pay for them accelerated this month. The state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority decided to sue the U.S. Army Corps, rather than participate in cost sharing in a $3 billion Mississippi River Gulf Outlet or MRGO restoration project. CPRA also doesn’t want to pay for maintenance associated with the Corps’ upgraded Algiers Canal levees. As it is, CPRA may be strained to come up with funds for its $50 billion, 50-year Coastal Master Plan, which is banking heavily on expected fines against BP for the 2010 Gulf oil spill.<span id="more-11979"></span></p> <p>CPRA’s board on Dec 3 approved two legal actions against the Army Corps. “The lawsuits pertain to interpretations of federal law,” CPRA chairman Garret Graves said last week.“ Of the eleven board members or their designees who were present at the CPRA meeting, all approved the litigation. ”In the case of the MRGO, Congress directed the Corps to construct this project at full, federal expense,” Graves said. ”CPRA will continue partnering with the Corps to advance this important project but the Corps’ effort to make the state pay a share of over $1 billion on a full, federal-expense project is out of line.”<div id="attachment_11985" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Flooding-in-the-Ninth-Ward-.jpg"><img src="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Flooding-in-the-Ninth-Ward--300x199.jpg" alt="Flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward during Hurricane Katrina was blamed on the MRGO channel, which was closed in 2009." width="300" height="199" class="size-medium wp-image-11985" srcset="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Flooding-in-the-Ninth-Ward--300x199.jpg 300w, http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Flooding-in-the-Ninth-Ward--1024x680.jpg 1024w, http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Flooding-in-the-Ninth-Ward-.jpg 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward during Hurricane Katrina was<br />blamed on the MRGO channel, which was closed in 2009.</p></div></p> <p>Graves said the state has committed more money than the feds to revitalizing the region near the now-closed MRGO. “We’re currently working on $100 million worth of restoration projects in the MRGO area,” he said. Among its efforts, the state has built hydrological barriers near the former shipping channel.</p> <p>So far, the Corps’ MRGO rehab work has centered on a study done from October 2008 to September 2012. “The MRGO Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study was completed last year at a cost of $15 million,” Ken Holder, public affairs chief at the Army Corps’ New Orleans District, said last week. “This was a 100 percent, federally-funded effort, which resulted in a signed Chief of Engineer’s report recommending the plan’s implementation, provided that a non-federal sponsor agrees to cost-share.” </p> <p>According to the Corps, Section 103 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 requires that all coastal restoration projects have a non-federal, 35-percent cost-share sponsor. If a sponsor is found for the MRGO’s eco-restoration, Holder said the Corps can begin reviving over 57,000 acres of wetlands and coastal habitat at the cost of $3 billion.</p> <p>The 60-mile MRGO, built as a shortcut from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico, was closed in 2009. The channel’s width grew beyond its original scope during the Corps’ dredging over four decades. MRGO’s existence allowed frontal waves during Katrina to attack levees that protected the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish. The channel is blamed for significant flooding, saltwater intrusion and wetlands loss.</p> <p>In its second, planned suit, CPRA doesn’t want to shoulder the expense of the refurbished Algiers Canal levees. “A 1999 and 2007 federal law states that the operations, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation and replacement of the Algiers Canal levee area remains a federal responsibility,” Graves said last week. He was referring to the Water Resources Development Acts of 1999 and 2007. “Contrary to the law, the Corps is attempting to force these responsibilities upon the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West,” he said.</p> <p>The SLFPA-West provides protection for the west bank of the Mississippi River in Jefferson and Orleans parishes, and is comprised of the Algiers Levee District—serving Orleans’ west bank—and the West Jefferson Levee District. The SLFPA-West’s jurisdiction covers 67 miles of levees, walls and gates to protect against hurricane flooding.</p> <p>Holder said the Army Corps spends about $250,000 annually on operations and maintenance, including grass cutting, on 18 miles of levees adjacent to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway-West/Algiers Canal. The levees are part of the detention basin for the West Closure Complex, which the Corps calls “the area’s first line of defense” against hurricanes. Under the Corps’ Algiers Canal Risk Reduction Features project, earthen levees were stabilized and raised over several years following Katrina. Levees along an area known as the Algiers Canal Industrial Reach were built to plus 8.2 feet, and berms were added on the levees’ inland side for stabilization. Work on gates and other structures along the Algiers Canal was completed last summer. When its mechanisms are shut, the GIWW-West Closure Complex is designed to block storm surge from reaching the Algiers Canal. </p> <p>“A pool of funds will be needed to pay for maintenance of the Algiers Canal levees,” State Senator Jean-Paul “JP” Morrell of District 3, including Algiers, said last week. Without help from the federal government, he’s concerned about upkeep. ”Most of the money that CPRA plans to spend in South Louisiana is on coastal restoration projects, not levee maintenance,” he said.</p> <p>The Army Corps has yet to hear from CPRA about the two lawsuits. “To my knowledge, at this point there is no pending legal action against the Corps by CPRA,” Holder said late last week. It would be speculative to comment on any possible litigation, he said. Preliminary legal work on the two suits has been done by the Office of the Louisiana Attorney General in conjunction with CPRA.</p> <p>Despite the current dust-up, Graves said CPRA remains committed to its partnership with the Army Corps. “In these two discreet cases, our attorneys have a difference of opinion with the Corps’ lawyers,” he said last week. “Our Congressional delegation agrees that our position is consistent with the law and Congressional intent.” CPRA wishes to use the more than $1 billion sought by the feds—for what the state views as federal liabilities—differently, and instead wants to build levees and restore coastal areas, meeting the priorities of Louisiana residents, Graves said.</p> <p>Graves and Governor Bobby Jindal, meanwhile, are battling the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East over a lawsuit filed last summer against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies. Graves has asked the levee board to drop the suit, saying it interferes with the state’s restoration strategies. When three seats on the SLFPA-East board opened in September, Jindal appointed three new members who oppose the litigation. But on Dec. 5, the SLFPA-East board voted 5-3, affirming its decision to sue oil-and-gas operators to make them restore damaged wetlands outside the East Bank levees or pay for harm that can’t be reversed.</p> <p>In other litigation, Plaquemines Parish in November filed 21 lawsuits against a number of oil-and-gas companies, and Jefferson Parish filed seven suits, all for violations of environmental regulations and failing to meet permit requirements. The St. Bernard Parish Council in early December authorized similar legal action. Officials of Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes, however, have said they aren’t pursuing oil-and-gas operators at this time.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the December 16, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/two-cpra-lawsuits-add-to-recent-coastal-litigation/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>BP defends its 2010 Gulf spill estimate in federal court</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/bp-defends-its-2010-gulf-spill-estimate-in-federal-court/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/bp-defends-its-2010-gulf-spill-estimate-in-federal-court/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:51:35 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=11474</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Susan Buchanan Contributing Writer Barrel counting continued at the quantification trial for the 2010 Macondo spill in U.S. District Court on Poydras St. last<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/bp-defends-its-2010-gulf-spill-estimate-in-federal-court/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fbp-defends-its-2010-gulf-spill-estimate-in-federal-court%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/bp-defends-its-2010-gulf-spill-estimate-in-federal-court/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/bp-defends-its-2010-gulf-spill-estimate-in-federal-court/" data-text="BP defends its 2010 Gulf spill estimate in federal court" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/bp-defends-its-2010-gulf-spill-estimate-in-federal-court/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/bp-defends-its-2010-gulf-spill-estimate-in-federal-court/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Susan Buchanan</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>Barrel counting continued at the quantification trial for the 2010 Macondo spill in U.S. District Court on Poydras St. last week. With Judge Carl Barbier presiding, BP and Anadarko called their witnesses after the U.S. Justice Department rested its case the previous week. According to BP’s defense, 3.26 million barrels spewed into the Gulf three years ago while the United States says it was five million barrels, including what was collected. BP rested its case late last week. Data presented in the quantification trial will determine how much BP is fined per barrel under the Clean Water Act.<span id="more-11474"></span></p> <p>Petroleum engineering professor Curtis Whitson at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology at Trondheim, under questioning from Hariklia Karis for BP Tuesday, said he and others built a model for the Macondo reservoir’s fluids. Whitson also said that his group evaluated a model by thermodynamics expert Aaron Zick and saw a couple of serious flaws in it concerning shrinkage. From his group’s modeling, Whitson calculated a shrinkage factor of 42 to 44, depending on how solubility was treated. That meant 42 to 44 barrels reached the ocean’s surface for every 100 barrels that rose from the Macondo formation below. Liquid barrels at the surface are called stock-tank barrels in the oil industry.</p> <p>Justice Dept. witness Aaron Zick, who testified the week before, had estimated that 50.6 to 50.7 barrels of liquid were left for every 100 barrels in the formation when oil floated slowly to the surface. And under a different measure, Zick put shrinkage at 49.4 barrels, using a four-stage, separator-process method that’s based on the way companies extract oil. BP maintains that less liquid was left in barrels that surfaced than the feds estimate.</p> <p>Questioned Tuesday by Mike Brock for BP and Anadarko, rock mechanics Professor Robert Zimmerman at Imperial College in London said he’d analyzed Macondo reservoir data, collected by Houston-based Weatherford Laboratories, to gauge pore-volume compressibility. He said the Macondo rock was weakly consolidated sandstone. “My estimate of the average compressibility of the rocks in the reservoir was 6.35 microsips,” Zimmerman said. Microsips are used by the oil industry to measure compressibility.</p> <p>The higher the microsips, the greater the amount of oil thought to be in a rock formation, meaning more of it could escape. For awhile during the spill, BP scientists recommended using 12 microsips for rock compression at the Macondo site. But BP’s defense this fall has focused on a figure of around 6 microsips, suggesting less oil was in the formation. </p> <p>Petroleum engineering professor Alain Gringarten at Imperial College in London, questioned Tuesday by Martin Boles for BP and Anadarko, said he evaluated total discharge from the Macondo well in two steps. He calculated permeability from pre-spill data at the reservoir level. Then he used that permeability, along with pressure measured during the spill and the well’s shut-in afterwards, to calculate discharge. “I found that the permeability of the reservoir is 238 millidarcies and that the cumulative discharge of oil is between 2.4 and 3 million stock-tank barrels,” Gringarten said. Millidarcies are a permeability unit used in petroleum engineering. Gringarten also estimated that 810,000 barrels had been collected at the Macondo site.</p> <p>In the quantification trial, BP examined a number of witnesses from Imperial College in London, with which it has research ties. </p> <p>Reservoir engineering director Robert Clifford Merrill, Jr. at BP Exploration in Houston was questioned Wednesday by Martin Boles. Merrill said his Macondo spill work included estimating pressures during flow-rate uncertainty. In modeling with his team early in the spill, he used six microsips for the Macondo’s rock compressibility. But in early July, the team also experimented with 12 microsips in its calculations. After the well’s July 15 shut-in, Merrill used six microsips for rock compressibility, and said he supports that number now because it was the measured value. </p> <p>Multiphase flow expert Michael Zaldivar, president and founder of Evoleap, LLC in Houston was questioned Wednesday by Barry Fields for BP and Anadarko. Zaldivar said the well’s sunken riser pipe in late April caused a “slug flow,” or alternating exodus of oil and gas from the Macondo reservoir from May 13 to 20. The riser pipe had a kink with holes in it. Based on riser-end-flow and kink-leak-flow modeling, Zaldivar calculated a well flow rate of 24,900 to 35,900 stock-tank barrels per day from May 13 to 20, 2010, with a best estimate for that period of 30,000 bpd. </p> <p>Under the Clean Water Act, fines against BP could range from $1,100 per barrel spilled if simple negligence is found to as much as $4,300 a barrel if the company is considered grossly negligent. Judge Barbier is hearing the trial without a jury and must decide how many barrels spewed. Eighty percent of CWA fines will be directed to economic and ecological restoration along the Gulf Coast.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the October 21, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/bp-defends-its-2010-gulf-spill-estimate-in-federal-court/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>More oil from BP spill found on La. coastline in mid-2013</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/more-oil-from-bp-spill-found-on-la-coastline-in-mid-2013/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/more-oil-from-bp-spill-found-on-la-coastline-in-mid-2013/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:47:25 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[National]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=11493</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Gordon Brillon The Lens Oil collection on the Louisiana coastline from the Deepwater Horizon spill continues to increase three years after the disaster, a<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/more-oil-from-bp-spill-found-on-la-coastline-in-mid-2013/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fmore-oil-from-bp-spill-found-on-la-coastline-in-mid-2013%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/more-oil-from-bp-spill-found-on-la-coastline-in-mid-2013/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/more-oil-from-bp-spill-found-on-la-coastline-in-mid-2013/" data-text="More oil from BP spill found on La. coastline in mid-2013" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/more-oil-from-bp-spill-found-on-la-coastline-in-mid-2013/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/more-oil-from-bp-spill-found-on-la-coastline-in-mid-2013/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Gordon Brillon </strong><br /> <em>The Lens</em></p> <p>Oil collection on the Louisiana coastline from the Deepwater Horizon spill continues to increase three years after the disaster, a governor’s office representative told the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority at the board’s monthly meeting in Baton Rouge last week.<span id="more-11493"></span></p> <p>The combined efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard, state authorities and BP resulted in the discovery of 2.9 million more pounds of oily matter between March and August this year than in the same period in 2012, said Drue Winters, an attorney with Gov. Piyush Jindal’s office.</p> <p>“It just goes to show there’s still a ton of oil out there, it’s difficult to find, and we need to keep working to find it,” Winters said.</p> <p>Large oil mats are still being found on beaches and barrier islands, Winters said, including one mat spanning more than 10,000 square feet found recently at Fort Livingston. The mat’s proximity to the historic fort is delaying cleanup operations, she said.</p> <p>Dean Blanchard, a resident of Grand Isle, expressed concern that the state is not doing enough to protect coastal communities or to hold BP accountable for the results of the spill. BP workers are “trying to get out of here as fast as they can. If they can, they’re leaving. Out of sight, out of mind.”</p> <p>John Barry, who was forced off the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East by Jindal for leading the agency’s lawsuit against oil and gas companies for coastal damages, did not attend the meeting as expected. Barry, who still holds a seat on the coastal authority board under an appointment by the governor, was represented instead by Tim Doody, the Flood Protection Authority board president who also is expected to lose his seat on that panel due to his support for the suit.</p> <p>“I agreed with Tim it was best to let everything cool off for the moment,” Barry said in an email. “This is a long war. If I’m still on the CPRA next month, almost certain I will go then.”</p> <p>Winters also updated the board on the ongoing federal lawsuit against BP.</p> <p>The first phase of the trial, which involves determining who is at fault for the blowout of the rig and whether the reaction can be characterized as “gross negligence,” has been put on hold until the second phase has been completed, she said.</p> <p>Winters said the ongoing second phase involves calculating the flow rate of oil after the spill and determining BP’s efforts to contain it.</p> <p>The third phase of the suit, which will remain unscheduled until the other phases have concluded, will determine penalties to the company under the Clean Water Act.</p> <p>The board also heard updates on several ongoing coastal restoration projects throughout southern Louisiana.</p> <p>Coastal authority board member Steve Wilson said efforts to build a new levee near Lake Pontchartrain have run into an obstacle as residents of the area are unhappy with the planned levee route. Wilson proposed another route that he said was endorsed by parish presidents in the affected area and would take the place of a proposed extension to the raised portion of Interstate 10.</p> <p>Wilson said further raising the highway would have a negative impact on the surrounding wetlands and would be more expensive than his levee proposal.</p> <p>The Cameron Parish shoreline project, which will extend 8.7 miles of beach and protect 40,000 acres of wetlands, is expected to be completed in February 2014, said Robert Routon, project manager for the state coastal agency. The project had to be scaled back slightly from the original proposal because of budget constraints, he said.</p> <p>Kyle Graham, deputy executive director of the coastal agency, said the group is accepting bids for a long-distance sediment pipeline project that will become the largest-ever marsh creation effort in Louisiana.</p> <p>“We’re definitely in the largest construction and restoration period in the state’s history,” he said.</p> <p>Graham said the project will be headed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but the state will pay for a private contractor to work with the corps.</p> <p>Staff writer Bob Marshall contributed to this story.</p> <p><em>This story was originally published by The Lens (thelensnola.org), an independent, nonprofit newsroom serving New Orleans. The Louisiana Weekly enjoys a partnership with The Lens.</em></p> <p><em>This article originally published in the October 21, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/more-oil-from-bp-spill-found-on-la-coastline-in-mid-2013/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Under siege by tar sands, Gulf Coast ‘draws the line’</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/under-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/under-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 16 Sep 2013 17:00:53 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=11125</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Cherri Foytlin Contributing Writer (Special from Bridge The Gulf) – The first time I saw a picture pertaining to tar sands extraction was on<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/under-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Funder-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/under-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/under-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line/" data-text="Under siege by tar sands, Gulf Coast ‘draws the line’" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/under-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/under-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Cherri Foytlin</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p><strong>(Special from Bridge The Gulf) –</strong> The first time I saw a picture pertaining to tar sands extraction was on Marty Cobenais’ computer. We were both attending an event in Houston, Texas, and found some time to talk shop.<span id="more-11125"></span></p> <p>By this time I knew well of the struggle to stop the Keystone XL—the proposed 2,174 mile-long pipeline that would carry toxic bitumen (tar sand oil) from Canada to the Gulf Coast. In fact, just a few months prior I had been one of the 1,252 people arrested in front of the White House in protest of the project which then NASA scientist James Hansen has called “the dirty needle” and “game over” for the planet. (Marty had been arrested too, but on a different day than I.)</p> <p>I knew about the carbon bomb that the Keystone XL had the potential to be, and that coupled with the 12 to 17 percent higher greenhouse gas emissions from its extraction, this pipeline and the continuation of production would yield more of the devastating impacts of hurricanes on my beloved Gulf Coast. It was the global warming connection, which scientists have repeatedly confirmed contributes to deadly storms like Katrina and Rita, that launched my interest in fighting against the tar sands.</p> <p>The first photo Marty showed me that day was of a man holding what, at initial glance, looked appropriately like a large cow patty. As I pulled the screen closer, I became startled by the similarities between the glob of heavy sand and oil and one of BP’s tar hunks that I have seen so frequently since the deep water drilling disaster.</p> <p>As Marty, who is Red Lake Ojibwe and a “champion pipeline fighter” with the Indigenous Environmental Network, began flipping through his collection of photos, he told me about the devastating and egregious health and economic impacts that tar sand operations in Canada have caused to our relatives up North. The health impacts, including an increase in leukemia and lung cancer, mirror not only some of the specific health effects of the BP disaster but also of historically marginalized environmental justice communities all along the Gulf Coast.</p> <p>As for the extraction process itself, Marty’s photos depicted that of an alien landscape. Comparison photos of the once lush and boldly beautiful Canadian Boreal forest next to the black and grey “mines of Mordor” made my heart sink. As pictures of scarred earth alongside repugnant tailing ponds flashed upon the screen, I realized that big greasy balls of toxins lying at our feet are not all that Gulf Coast communities and Canadian First Nations have in common.</p> <p>Actually, the list of similarities is quite long, including: toxic ponds that leach poison into water and air, similar to those found in Grand Bois, La.; a rise in asthma symptoms among children, like those living in Manchester, Texas, and Baton Rouge, La.; struggling economies and poverty stricken fence line communities, such as Port Arthur, Texas, Mossville, La., and Africatown, Ala.; the desolating loss of culture and subsistence living, comparable to that of Gulf Vietnamese American fisher folk, Gulf Coast First Nations and of Acadian fishing communities.</p> <p>From “Cancer Valley” in Canada to “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana and all along the Gulf Coast—health denied, food deserted, poverty stricken, education deprived, school to prison, voiceless communities, being destroyed by industries that prefer the health of their bottom line to that of the people they effect—the quiet shame of an entire continent, pinned between a lack of representation, a bought out system of government and billions of muscular corporate dollars.</p> <p>It was then that I realized, the Gulf Coast had found her sister (just as she had in Appalachia, in Valdez, Alaska, in Mayflower, Ark., in Kalamazoo, Mich., in the Niger Delta, the Caspian Sea, Indonesia, Bhopal, and on, and on).</p> <p>I thought to myself, I am viewing the first victims of tar sands extraction, and if the Keystone XL were to go through, the Gulf bound destinations of Port Arthur and Houston, Texas, would be the second.</p> <p>And so it was a sorrowful day, when soon after my revelation in Houston, the Keystone XL Southern Leg was green lighted by the Obama administration.</p> <p>More recently, the building of the 485-mile southern leg has become a nightmare to both TransCanada and to the affected citizenship in Texas. While landowner Julia Trigg Crawford prepares to take her battle to the Texas Supreme Court, pipeline construction has been delayed by courageous protestors and plagued with whistle blower statements of shoddy construction that harbors “dozens of anomalies, including dents and faulty welds,” and that the company has been “ignoring pipeline regulations and engineering codes.”</p> <p>Yet while Texas battles to keep the tar sands snake out, Alabama is already receiving the venom. Presently, Canadian National is carrying diluted bitumen by rail, traveling south from Canada, through the Memphis, Tenn. area and through Mississippi, to Mobile, Ala. From there it is trucked across the Mobile river to the Arc Terminal, where it is loaded upon a barge for transport to the Chevron Refinery to Pascagoula, Miss.</p> <p>But wait, it gets worse.</p> <p>If a plan proposed by Arc Terminals is approved, Mobile could soon be receiving 120 rail car loads or nearly two million gallons a day.</p> <p>Arc’s plan includes building a rail car off-loading facility in downtown Mobile—three blocks from an existing housing development. </p> <p>Last year, with almost no opportunity for public input or comment, the Army Corps of Engineers granted Plains Southcap a permit to build the controversial pipeline under the watershed of Big Bear Creek Lake (which provides drinking water to all of the Mobile area), through numerous wetlands, across the Escatawpa River (twice) and through Moss Point, Miss.—another historic African-American and environmental justice community. That pipeline is 70 percent complete and local officials are fighting to keep it out of the drinking watershed.</p> <p>Located in Jackson County, Miss., Chevron’s Pascagoula refinery was ranked as one of the highest polluting facilities in 2002. One year after 95 percent of that facility went under water during Katrina, health statistics for the area included 622 incidents of cancer, including 245 cancer-related deaths. In 2007 alone, the refinery released over one million pounds of 47 different toxic chemicals, including 50,000 pounds of benzene and 150,000 pounds of ammonia. With the new intake of Canadian tar sands, high levels of life-stealing sulfur dioxide has been added to the cocktail.</p> <p>Plans are in the works to complete rail facilities that would move even more bitumen to the Gulf Coast, with facilities either planned or under construction in Louisiana (Manchac, St. Rose, Norco, Geismar, St. Gabriel, Baton Rouge) and Mississippi (Natchez). </p> <p>All of this while Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant ponder the commercial development of the Hartselle Sandstone area (found in the northern portion of both states) for tar sand production. </p> <p>Meanwhile, the Enbridge Eastern Gulf Pipeline from Patoka, Ill., to St James, La., is preparing to force tar sands through their mostly repurposed natural gas line that will carry 660,000 barrels per day by 2015.</p> <p>Twenty miles southeast of that Gulf destination, in Raceland, La., Genesis Energy is planning a yet-to-be-permitted, new rail facility that will carry 140,000 barrels of “Canadian crude” per day. Although the initial plans for that structure did not include the steaming equipment necessary for tar sands transport, the companies’ CFO, Bob Deere, was recently quoted as stating, “that’s not to say it can’t be added in the future.”</p> <p>If so, the toxic bitumen would then travel by a newly proposed pipeline infrastructure to St. James and Baton Rouge, La., refineries for processing.</p> <p>So, by adding the known list of coming and existing projects, the Gulf Coast has the potential of receiving upwards of 170 million barrels per day of toxic Canadian tar sands by rail and pipe, while on its way to foreign market — the knowledge of which is overwhelming. </p> <p>Yet, we must not hang our heads with impending doom to the days ahead. As Gulf Coast citizens and as members of humanity, we must join our Northern relatives in Drawing the Line in the tar sands to say, “No more!”</p> <p>The Sept. 21 day of action, hosted by 350.org, is the perfect opportunity for communities from Texas to Florida to join our “sisters” in sending a loud and clear message to local, state and national representatives, as well as to those corporations who would destroy our planet, that we will no longer be forced into the margin of sacrifice. That we will stand for and with Canadian First Nations and Gulf Coast communities who are, at present, locked in the tortuous back room of dirty, archaic energy production. We will defend ourselves and future generations from the sociopaths whose inverse priorities seek profit over life.</p> <p>While it is my sincere hope that many of you will join me on that day in New Orleans for Draw the “Second Line” on Keystone XL, I encourage you to consider hosting an event of your own.</p> <p><em>The above article originally appeared on Bridge The Gulf (BridgeTheGulfProject.org).</em></p> <p><em>This article originally published in the September 16, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/under-siege-by-tar-sands-gulf-coast-draws-the-line/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Tuscaloosa shale drilling revs up in Louisiana and Mississippi</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/tuscaloosa-shale-drilling-revs-up-in-louisiana-and-mississippi/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/tuscaloosa-shale-drilling-revs-up-in-louisiana-and-mississippi/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 16 Sep 2013 16:54:31 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=11121</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Susan Buchanan Contributing Writer Many Shreveport area residents were enriched by Haynesville, the nation’s top shale play before its wells started producing less. Farther<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/tuscaloosa-shale-drilling-revs-up-in-louisiana-and-mississippi/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Ftuscaloosa-shale-drilling-revs-up-in-louisiana-and-mississippi%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/tuscaloosa-shale-drilling-revs-up-in-louisiana-and-mississippi/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/tuscaloosa-shale-drilling-revs-up-in-louisiana-and-mississippi/" data-text="Tuscaloosa shale drilling revs up in Louisiana and Mississippi" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/tuscaloosa-shale-drilling-revs-up-in-louisiana-and-mississippi/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/tuscaloosa-shale-drilling-revs-up-in-louisiana-and-mississippi/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Susan Buchanan</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>Many Shreveport area residents were enriched by Haynesville, the nation’s top shale play before its wells started producing less. Farther south, activity in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale or TMS deposit–thought to contain seven billion barrels of recoverable oil–is accelerating now. Extending east through central Louisiana, the TMS play gets as close to New Orleans as St. Tammany Parish.<span id="more-11121"></span> It includes the state’s Florida parishes and several Mississippi counties located above the foot of Louisiana’s boot. </p> <p>The eastern swathe of the TMS is near oil infrastructure, including the St. James terminal between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and major refineries on that stretch.</p> <p><div id="attachment_11123" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/St-helena-parish-rig-drilli.jpg"><img src="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/St-helena-parish-rig-drilli-200x300.jpg" alt="A rig drilling Encana’s Weyerhaeuser 73H-1 well in St. Helena Parish. Courtesy of Encana Oil & Gas USA." width="200" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-11123" srcset="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/St-helena-parish-rig-drilli-200x300.jpg 200w, http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/St-helena-parish-rig-drilli-682x1024.jpg 682w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">A rig drilling Encana’s Weyerhaeuser 73H-1 well in St. Helena Parish.<br />Courtesy of Encana Oil & Gas USA.</p></div>Tuscaloosa drilling dates back to the 1970s and earlier. But the play’s wells, boring down 11,000 feet and then drilling horizontally, are costly. “The main, added expense for these wells over most others drilled in South Louisiana is their long horizontal laterals,” Patrick Courreges, Louisiana Dept. of Natural Resources spokesman, said last week.</p> <p>Drillers fracture the Tuscaloosa formation in stages, forcing water, mixed with sand or ceramic material and chemicals to crack the shale. The cracks open, releasing oil. Tuscaloosa rock is softer and more clay-like than many other shales, however. Rather than cracking as planned, it can absorb injected fluids. What’s more, when Tuscaloosa shale fractures, the clay rock sometimes seals cracks.</p> <p>The Tuscaloosa play was sporadically drilled without much success for decades. But companies kept trying new techniques. “Sixteen wells have been completed in Louisiana in the past couple of years and are currently producing, while two more were drilled and are awaiting completion,” Courreges said. “Most production to date has been from wells drilled in St. Helena Parish.”</p> <p>St. Helena, two parishes away from Orleans, is east of the Mississippi River at the top of the foot of boot. Just north of it are Wilkinson and Amite Counties in Mississippi–both lively, drilling spots now, mainly because of that state’s oil-friendly policies. </p> <p>“Encana has 11 wells total in the Tuscaloosa play and all of them are currently on production,” Doug Hock, spokesman for Encana Oil & Gas USA in Denver, said last week. Encana Corp. is a natural gas and oil producer based in Canada. “Eight of our wells are in Mississippi and three are in Louisiana,” he said. All three Louisiana wells are in St. Helena Parish.</p> <p>Two other Encana wells in Mississippi, the Anderson 17H-2 and the Anderson 17H-3, will enter production in the next few weeks, Hock said. Most of Encana’s Tuscaloosa acreage is in Mississippi, where the company’s first Tuscaloosa well was drilled in Amite County in 2011.</p> <p>Hock said the company’s three, latest Tuscaloosa wells cost about $16 million each to drill, complete and bring it into production. The company is still in the exploration or design-of-experiment phase, and hopes to reduce its costs. </p> <p>Encana’s Haynesville wells have been only slightly cheaper to drill than its Tuscaloosa units. Estimates for its Haynesville wells were in the $14 million range in Encana’s second-quarter 2013 conference call on July 24, Hock said. The company’s goal is to reduce its Tuscaloosa price tag to $12.8 million per well. “Our costs have steadily declined as we’ve drilled these wells,” making Encana more confident that it can profitably operate in the TMS, he said.</p> <p>“Once we’ve figured out the best well design, providing the most economic and efficient resource recovery, we can drill multiple wells on a pad in a repeatable fashion and create a truly commercial play,” Hock said.</p> <p>Encana doesn’t release production data. But Patrica Wells, mineral production analyst with Louisiana’s DNR, said as of May — the state’s last, required reporting period — Encana’s top Weyerhaeuser 60 H No. 001 well in St. Helena Parish produced 976 barrels of oil per day.</p> <p>As for distribution of oil and gas from that site, “we don’t have gathering lines and infrastructure currently from wells in St. Helena Parish,” Hock said. “We sell at the lease to our buyer, and they have multiple options as to where they take the crude. Trucks come to the lease and pick up the product.”</p> <p>Tuscaloosa wells mostly produce Light Louisiana Sweet crude, fetching $108 a barrel early last week. Assuming 976 barrels of crude at $108 a day, gross revenue from Encana’s Weyerhaeuser 60 H totals $105,408 a day.</p> <p>Light Louisiana Sweet crude can sell at a 15 to 18 percent premium to West Texas Intermediate because it’s easier to refine, Dan S. Collins, minerals consultant and landman in Baton Rouge, said last week.</p> <p>Meanwhile, other companies having drilled the TMS include Goodrich, Devon Energy, Indigo Minerals, EOG, Halcon, Denbury Onshore and Justiss Oil. Houston-based Goodrich controls 320,000 acres, the largest area in the play, after it acquired Devon’s two-thirds share of 277,000 leased acres for $26.7 million this year. </p> <p>“We’ve been running one rig full time for most of the year in Mississippi,” Robert Turnham, Jr., president of Goodrich Petroleum, said last week. “That will grow to two in Mississippi in October because we’re completing our Foster Creek well there now.”</p> <p>A second rig will drill the company’s Weyerhaeuser site in St. Helena in October, and then it will head to Tangipahoa Parish, Turnham said. “We’ll likely run two and a half rigs in 2014, spread between Louisiana and Mississippi, with the locations not yet finalized,” he said. A half rig operates six months of the year. The company’s Weyerhaeuser location is a former Devon property.</p> <p>In addition to St. Helena, other parishes where TMS drilling has occurred include East Feliciana, West Feliciana, Tangipahoa, Rapides and Vernon.</p> <p>In St. Helena, oil and gas companies have dealt directly with landowners, Randal Cooper of Cooper Real Estate in Greensburg said last week. “So far, we only have a few wells here in the northern part of the parish,” he said. Landmen, or mineral consultants, aren’t swarming the way they did in the Shreveport area and have done in Wilkinson and Amite Counties in Mississippi. “We’ve heard about drilling interest in St. Helena for at least two years now but people aren’t jumping up and down and hollering about it,” he said. </p> <p>While rural St. Helena still doesn’t have a red light in the entire parish and traffic isn’t an issue, Amite and Wilkinson officials are wondering how to pay for road maintenance as drilling there attracts huge trucks and heavy equipment. </p> <p>As for lease rates, minerals consultant Collins said by late last year most of the promising TMS acreage had been purchased. In 2010, rates were around $150 an acre for three-year leases but that grew to $300 to $450 an acre last year, he said. Leases in the TMS are unlikely to ever reach the tens of thousands of dollars per acre seen for awhile in Haynesville. “Haynesville leases peaked at over $30,000 an acre but that was during oil-and-gas price escalation,” Collins said. “People thought oil and gas would keep rising but they didn’t.”</p> <p>Collins discussed the recent flurry of interest in Mississippi. “Mississippi passed a severance-tax reduction law this year that’s a little better than Louisiana’s,” he said. “It trumped Louisiana.” A severance tax is a levy on the removal of nonrenewable resources, including oil and natural gas. Effective in July, Mississippi’s tax rate on hydrocarbons from horizontal wells was slashed to 1.3 percent from six percent for the first 30 months of production or until the well pays out. During the first two years of drilling in Louisiana, the state has no severance tax on sales of oil produced. But Louisiana’s tax jumps to 12 percent after two years.</p> <p>Another reason operators are gravitating to Mississippi is its “forced pooling,” if a landowner doesn’t want to sign a lease, Collins said. In Mississippi, if Tuscaloosa operators can lease a third of the mineral rights in an area, they can “force-integrate” holdouts, giving them the terms of the best lease they gave to the first third.</p> <p>Also in Mississippi, the State Oil and Gas Board has permitted very large drilling units, exceeding Louisiana’s units, which range from 640 to 1,520 acres. With bigger units, companies can hold onto their leases but drill fewer wells.</p> <p>“I anticipate Louisiana will follow Mississippi in the future so I look for much larger units in Louisiana as well,” Collins said. </p> <p>Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is assessing possible impacts of hydraulic fracking on drinking water resources at the request of Congress. A draft report from that study should be released next year for public comment.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the September 16, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/tuscaloosa-shale-drilling-revs-up-in-louisiana-and-mississippi/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Lawsuit proceeds against Taylor Energy over a 9-year Gulf leak</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/lawsuit-proceeds-against-taylor-energy-over-a-9-year-gulf-leak/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/lawsuit-proceeds-against-taylor-energy-over-a-9-year-gulf-leak/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 29 Jul 2013 22:17:16 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Regional]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=10625</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Susan Buchanan Contributing Writer Early last week, U.S. District Court Judge Susie Morgan in New Orleans paved the way for a lawsuit to continue<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/lawsuit-proceeds-against-taylor-energy-over-a-9-year-gulf-leak/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Flawsuit-proceeds-against-taylor-energy-over-a-9-year-gulf-leak%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/lawsuit-proceeds-against-taylor-energy-over-a-9-year-gulf-leak/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/lawsuit-proceeds-against-taylor-energy-over-a-9-year-gulf-leak/" data-text="Lawsuit proceeds against Taylor Energy over a 9-year Gulf leak" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/lawsuit-proceeds-against-taylor-energy-over-a-9-year-gulf-leak/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/lawsuit-proceeds-against-taylor-energy-over-a-9-year-gulf-leak/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Susan Buchanan</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>Early last week, U.S. District Court Judge Susie Morgan in New Orleans paved the way for a lawsuit to continue against Taylor Energy Co. for oil leaking eleven miles off the southeast Louisiana coast since 2004. She denied the company’s motions to dismiss or stay the lawsuit. The suit, claiming violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act and the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, was filed in February of last year by Apalachicola Riverkeeper, Louisiana Environmental Action Network on behalf of Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper, and the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance to stop Taylor from discharging oil. Last week, Morgan said a date for a bench trial will be set on August 16.</p> <p>“Now that the suit can continue, I hope Taylor will take things more seriously and cease the flow of oil,” Paul Orr, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper in Baton Rouge, said last week. “And I hope this sends the oil and gas industry a message that it isn’t free to damage land, water and wildlife—the foundations of our unique local culture—without consequences.”</p> <p>Marc Yaggi, executive director of the Waterkeeper Alliance in New York, said the suit is needed because of Taylor’s slow pace in staunching the flow and secrecy surrounding its response to the spill. He said the spill threatens public resources. Waterkeeper Alliance is a member of the Gulf Monitoring Consortium, a group that collects and analyzes sky and surface images to investigate oil pollution.</p> <p>Taylor Energy maintains a New Orleans office involved in containing the leak. But in 2008, Taylor sold its Gulf of Mexico assets to two companies, Korea National Oil and Samsung Oil & Gas USA.</p> <p>The U.S. Coast Guard, as the federal on-scene coordinator under a Unified Command with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, has monitored Taylor’s discharges from Mississippi Canyon 20 since the platform and a connected 25 wells were damaged during Hurricane Ivan.</p> <p>“We and the rest of the Unified Command have responded to the Taylor Energy site since Ivan triggered a mudslide and toppled Taylor’s platform in Sept. 2004,” Lushan Hannah, chief of the Incident Management Division at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, said last week. “Since 2008, an aircraft contracted by Taylor Energy flies the Gulf every morning at the same time to observe, photograph and report on the sheen. The current company is Southern Seaplane. The pilot and Taylor Energy’s spill management team, Witt O’Brien’s in Slidell, phone in a daily National Response Center report.”</p> <p>The sheen changes in size from day to day, Hannah said. “On a calm day, the expression of oil on the water’s surface is larger,” he said. “In rough waters or storms, the sheen is smaller, and sometimes there’s no sheen at all.”</p> <p>The size of the surface sheen has diminished in the years since Ivan, Hannah said. “We’ve worked with Taylor Energy and BSEE to decommission the site and contain leaking oil,” he said. “In 2008 and the first half of 2009, work started on intervention wells that were drilled to mitigate wells that may have been the source of the sheen,” he said. The rig was moved off site and well intervention operations were halted in mid-2009 before hurricane season from July to Sept. 2009. The rig returned to work in Oct. 2009 for nine months until the next storm season. That nine-months-on, three-months-off pattern continued until nine well interventions were completed in April 2011, Hannah said. Removal of the platform deck and debris collection were finished in July 2011.</p> <p>“Since 2009, a subsea containment system funded by Taylor and built for the site has been used to capture oil,” Hannah said. The equipment’s containment domes sit on the mud line and capture hydrocarbons as they’re released. A subsea collector and separator stores oil. Collected oil is brought ashore for disposal by an environmental waste contractor.</p> <p>The sheen at the Taylor site has averaged about 3 gallons a day recently, Hannah said. “Average annual discharge since our observations began in July 2008 is 4,500 gallons per year,” he said.</p> <p>“We continue to evaluate environmental effects from the leak, and have brought in other stakeholders—local, state and federal agencies—to assess ecological risk,” Hannah said. “The spill has not had a major impact on fish, birds and other wildlife, as far as we know. There has been no known shoreline impact. No oil has washed ashore since our response began in 2008, as far as we can tell.”</p> <p>Taylor Energy has spent over $400 million on decommissioning and containment activities since 2008, Hannah said. In Sept. 2004, the U.S. Dept. of Interior ordered Taylor to put $500 million into an account for the cost of the cleanup. The $400 million in spending has been drawn from that account. </p> <p>Taylor’s now-small New Orleans staff has been solely involved in decommissioning and containing the leak, Hannah said. He said questions about the cost of aerial monitoring and subsea containment have to be directed to Taylor Energy. But Taylor’s New Orleans office didn’t respond to phone calls last week. </p> <p>The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration monitors the sheen. “This sheen is not of one specific, unchanging size,” NOAA spokesman John Leslie said last week. “Its size differs every day. That isn’t to say that it is not a significant size—significance being in the eyes of the beholder.”</p> <p>NOAA views imagery from National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s MODIS, or Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, and Landsat satellites to look for oil slicks and forwards information to the U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA users, Leslie said. He said NOAA can’t comment on the size of Taylor Energy’s discharges with any precision at this time.</p> <p>Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper Paul Orr said the slick is regularly 15 to 20 miles long and a few hundred feet wide. “The times we’ve visited it by plane or saw it on satellite, it was in that range,” he said. Reports of sheen sizes and estimated spill volumes are often significantly lower than what he has observed.</p> <p>SkyTruth and the Gulf Monitoring Consortium have watched the site since May 2010, or the early days of the Deepwater Horizon spill. “That’s when we noticed the slick on satellite images,” said David Manthos, spokesman for nonprofit SkyTruth in Sheperdstown, W.V. SkyTruth uses satellite imagery and aerial photos to research environmental issues.</p> <p>In February 2012, SkyTruth estimated the cumulative amount of crude oil leaked by Taylor Energy from Sept. 17, 2004 to the end of 2011 as somewhere between 251,677 and 1.174 million gallons, based on differing scenarios for the slick’s thickness. SkyTruth used data from National Response Center reports, which the group assumed were from flyovers paid for by Taylor. Sometimes the reports were spotty, and SkyTruth filled in gaps with observations from satellite images.</p> <p>“We came up with a range of possible daily flow rates for 2011, from a low-scenario of 37 gallons per day to a high-scenario of 174 gallons per day,” Manthos said. “We haven’t revisited the cumulative observations—from which we extrapolated the daily flows—since then. But we probably will at some point.”</p> <p>Jonathan Henderson, Coastal Resiliency Organizer with the Gulf Restoration Network in New Orleans, said Taylor’s sheen may have had an environmental impact. “I’ve been on the water in the sheen in a boat, and my eyes burned, the fumes were heavy and I became light headed,” he said last week. “It’s hard to imagine that wildlife, birds or fish that came into contact with it wouldn’t be affected.”</p> <p>Henderson wondered whether any government agency or Taylor Energy had looked for shoreline impacts. “The Taylor leak has been ongoing since 2004 so why only now are other local, state and federal agencies being brought in to assess ecological risk?,” he asked.</p> <p>Henderson said he’s concerned that a major hurricane might come barreling through and do more harm.</p> <p>He prefaced his comments by saying GRN isn’t part of the current litigation. “But GRN has monitored the Taylor leak from the air and sea when opportunities arise,” he said. “We’re a member of the Gulf Monitoring Consortium and we work collaboratively on monitoring.” He has met with the Coast Guard on other Guff oil leaks but not the Taylor leak.</p> <p>Henderson expressed support for the Coast Guard. “I’m confident that the USCG would do whatever’s within their capacity, with the tools at their disposal, to fix the Taylor problem. If they could have done something, they would have.”</p> <p>Henderson said the response side of Gulf oil and gas activity lags exploration and production. “This needs to change immediately,” he said. “Gulf communities, wildlife and the environment continue to pay dearly for this discrepancy.”</p> <p>Plaintiffs have asked the court to order Taylor to pay the U.S. Treasury $37,500 a day until the company shuts its leaking wells, plus an award of other civil penalties and attorney’s fees.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the July 29, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/lawsuit-proceeds-against-taylor-energy-over-a-9-year-gulf-leak/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>ExxonMobil is scrutinized in Baton Rouge after past leaks</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/exxonmobil-is-scrutinized-in-baton-rouge-after-past-leaks/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/exxonmobil-is-scrutinized-in-baton-rouge-after-past-leaks/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:16:23 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=10464</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Susan Buchanan Contributing Writer State and federal agencies cash advance in smithfield va and neighbors are keeping an eye on Baton Rouge’s ExxonMobil complex,<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/exxonmobil-is-scrutinized-in-baton-rouge-after-past-leaks/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fexxonmobil-is-scrutinized-in-baton-rouge-after-past-leaks%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/exxonmobil-is-scrutinized-in-baton-rouge-after-past-leaks/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/exxonmobil-is-scrutinized-in-baton-rouge-after-past-leaks/" data-text="ExxonMobil is scrutinized in Baton Rouge after past leaks" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/exxonmobil-is-scrutinized-in-baton-rouge-after-past-leaks/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/exxonmobil-is-scrutinized-in-baton-rouge-after-past-leaks/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Susan Buchanan</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>State and federal agencies <a href="http://exceptionmusicfestival.com/cash-advance-in-smithfield-va/">cash advance in smithfield va</a> and neighbors are keeping an eye on Baton Rouge’s ExxonMobil complex, located next to the Mississippi River on Scenic Highway just north of the Governor’s Mansion. Some neighbors want the authorities and the plant to do more to reduce emissions and also to alert them about hazardous discharges. <span id="more-10464"></span>The Louisiana Dept. of Environmental Quality is deciding now on how it will penalize ExxonMobil for failing to notify the agency about changes in discharges in a June 2012 leak. Last month, New Orleans lawyers Smith Stag, LLC filed a class action suit on behalf of residents affected by that leak.</p> <p>Neighbors are watching the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to see how it handles findings from a surprise inspection of the complex’s refinery last July. <div id="attachment_10467" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ExxonMobil-complex-near-the.jpg"><img src="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ExxonMobil-complex-near-the-300x222.jpg" alt="ExxonMobil industrial complex near the Mississippi River. Courtesy of Wikimedia.org" width="300" height="222" class="size-medium wp-image-10467" srcset="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ExxonMobil-complex-near-the-300x222.jpg 300w, http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ExxonMobil-complex-near-the-1024x759.jpg 1024w, http://www.louisianaweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ExxonMobil-complex-near-the.jpg 1547w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">ExxonMobil industrial complex near the Mississippi River.<br />Courtesy of Wikimedia.org</p></div></p> <p>Tonga Nolan, secretary of the Standard Heights Community Association, said her young daughter became violently ill in the early hours of June 14, 2012 after a chemical leak at ExxonMobil. Standard Heights is directly south of the complex. “We’re footsteps from the Exxon plant, my daughter’s bed was near what you’d call a show case window and the fumes got in,” Nolan said last week. “She was vomiting and bleeding and we rushed her to the hospital.” </p> <p>Nolan said as a child she viewed Exxon, Honeywell and other nearby plants as places where people made a living. Since then, she’s become concerned about hazards in her industrial surroundings. “Our community doesn’t have a park, and our kids are playing outside with runny eyes and noses, asthma and nose bleeds.” She’s noticed a lot of what seem to be premature deaths and wonders why. “In the last seven years, thirteen neighbors on my street of all ages, up to 65, have died of emphysema, cancer, female and other problems,” Nolan said last week. </p> <p>SmithStagg LLC in New Orleans, filed a class action suit last month of behalf of ten African American, Standard Heights residents and seven minor children, sickened by the June 14, 2012 leak. Early that morning, a bleeder plug, which slowly drains off gas and liquids at the complex’s Aromatics Production Unit, leaked benzene and other hazardous substances.</p> <p>“On the day of the incident and in a report to DEQ six days later, Exxon grossly underestimated the amount and types of hazardous substances emitted, ”attorney Stuart Smith said last week. The suit, seeking compensation for personal injuries, pain and suffering and property damage, will be tried in state district court in East Baton Rouge in a year or two. Residents of Dixie and other communities near the plant can join the petitioners, Smith said. “It’s time that ExxonMobil faces the music, acknowledges people’s losses and then moves them out of that neighborhood,” he said.</p> <p>ExxonMobil reported its June 14, 2012 incident in a timely manner, DEQ spokesman Rodney Mallett said last week. But after that, the company failed to notify DEQ of changes in the nature and rate of its discharges. DEQ filed a compliance order and potential penalty notice against ExxonMobil on July 19, 2012. According to background information in that order, ExxonMobil discovered the leaking bleeder plug at around 4:35 a.m. and notified the Louisiana State Police at about 5:04 a.m. that the leaking plug had caused an unauthorized discharge. The company reported that the release was controlled at 5:06 a.m. and said the amount of benzene emitted had exceeded the state’s required, reportable quantity or RQ of ten pounds. Then ExxonMobil reported that it had surpassed the state’s RQ of 1,000 pounds for toluene. The next day, the company said that 1,364 pounds of benzene had been emitted.</p> <p>In a June 20, 2012 report submitted to DEQ, Exxon detailed pollutants and amounts released on June 14 as follows: 28,688 pounds of benzene, 10,882 pounds of toluene, 1,100 pounds of cyclohexane, 1,564 pounds of hexane and 12,605 pounds of additional Volatile Organic Compounds. Later, the company admitted its releases had been greater than stated in its June 20 report. </p> <p>According to ExxonMobil, the June 14, 2012 incident wasn’t a threat to public health. “ExxonMobil conducted air monitoring at more than 100 points along our fence line on the day of the incident, and with DEQ we continued to monitor air quality for two weeks after the incident,” Stephanie Cargile, public and government affairs manager at ExxonMobil Baton Rouge said last week. “Four types of air monitoring equipment were used for a total of 236 <a href="http://denizasutay.com/top-cash-advance-STL/">top cash advance STL</a> readings. With respect to the fence line along Scenic Highway, all readings were well below the state’s ambient air standard for benzene. Only two of the 236 readings taken detected any emission readings at all. These two readings were at the 0.20 parts per million level, which is a fraction of the state’s annual ambient air standard for benzene and below standards set by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration established for worker safety.”</p> <p>DEQ and ExxonMobil received no community complaints of odors or health impacts on June 14, 2012 or in the week after the incident, Cargile said. “Unfortunately, activist groups spread misinformation after the June 14, 2012 plant incident, trying to incite fear and concern by alleging that it had impacted the community.”</p> <p>Cargile said the company kept the community informed. “On the morning of the incident, we proactively notified local media and elected officials,” she said. An ExxonMobil community phone line was updated with incident information and the company phoned civic association contacts and members of its Community Dialogue Group over the next few days. ExxonMobil managers met with North Baton Rouge neighbors at face-to-face meetings, she said, without detailing those discussions. “We provided factual information and answers to clarify the misinformation circulated by activists,” she said.</p> <p>EPA made a surprise visit to the Baton Rouge refinery from July 16 to 20, 2012 to see if it complied with the Clean Air Act. A report issued by EPA in late February of this year said the refinery contained heavily corroded pipes and ruptured pipelines; pipes and other equipment that were overdue for inspection; and inadequate documentation for emergency and shutdown procedures.</p> <p>“We have reviewed findings from the inspection with EPA to fully understand each allegation,” Cargile said last week. EPA’s report wasn’t a citation or notice of violation, she said, and since the inspection the company has given EPA additional information addressing its concerns. “The EPA is still reviewing the inspection report to evaluate whether any of its observations require enforcement action,” she said.</p> <p>Fast forward from last summer’s incident to this spring. A leak in a tail gas clean-up unit at ExxonMobil’s refinery was reported to DEQ on May 22. DEQ issued a compliance order and notice of potential penalties to ExxonMobil on May 24, and said an ongoing leak from a pipe had released up to 24 tons of sulphur dioxide a day. The compliance order required ExxonMobil to take every step needed to meet air quality regulations; reduce production until repairs were completed; conduct offsite monitoring and control sulphur dioxide emissions.</p> <p>On May 30, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade did a door-to-door survey of 92 residents in Standard Heights, asking about the impact of the sulphur dioxide leak. Thirty six percent said they had suffered nausea, 22 percent reported headaches, 15 percent had respiratory irritation, 7 percent had eye irritation and 4 percent reported skin irritation. Standard Heights residents phoned the Bucket Brigade during the plant incident and reported foul smells, the Brigade said.</p> <p>Notification about accidents and excess emissions at the plant is an issue for neighbors. Tonga Nolan said she and her mother have never received calls from Exxon about imminent, hazardous releases. But Lois Dorsey, a retired school teacher who lives next to the Exxon plant gate in Dixie, said she and her neighbors do receive phone calls. And Dorsey contacts the plant when she has concerns. “Recently, I asked the plant if it was prepared for hurricane season and they said they were,” she said last week. </p> <p>Dorsey, a 64-year-old retired school teacher, has grown up next to the plant. “I may be the longest resident in Dixie,” she said. Dorsey is asthmatic but hasn’t had an asthma attack in years. “The air is cleaner than it used to be,” she said. “I watch my diet, have regular checkups and keep a log.” She also keeps her windows closed. Dorsey is a member of ExxonMobil’s Community Dialogue Group in Baton Rouge. She said anyone can attend the group’s meetings.</p> <p>Melanie Heck, a clerical worker and single mom of four raising two kids in Standard Heights, said she constantly worries about her kids if they’re home while she’s at work. Her big fear is plant lockdowns. “In an emergency, we’re supposed to shut our windows, turn off the air conditioning and stay in the house,” she said. “The plant takes injured employees to the hospital but <a href=""></a> we can’t drive away.” If she’s home, the moment she hears a siren from the plant she gets her kids in the car and drives off before the area is cordoned. “The authorities lock us in here in ten minutes,” she said.</p> <p>Mallet said any orders to shelter in place are made by local law-enforcement authorities. “We don’t make that call at DEQ,” he said.</p> <p>Rhonda Swazer has lived in Standard Heights for six years, and last week said if she threw a rock from her back door it would hit the plant. “Odors from the plant aren’t bad every day,” she said. “But when they are bad, it’s like whoa,” she exclaimed. “Suddenly you’re nauseated, have a killer headache and need to lie down.” On those occasions, her 26-year-old son lies down and coughs a lot. “We’d like Exxon to warn us before they start burning something so we can leave,” Swazer said. She doesn’t receive warning calls from the plant.</p> <p>Stephanie Anthony, a former Standard Heights resident who moved away after Gustav damaged her home last August, said Standard Heights, Dixie and other communities nearby, including the insides of nearby schools, are polluted. “The company sends out newsletters about how much they’re doing to help the schools, and employees from the plant do some tutoring,” she said. “But those are band-aid approaches.” If ExxonMobil really wanted to do something meaningful it would have clinics and asthma camps for kids in the area, she said.</p> <p>“Exxon’s like a man who gives the image of being an ideal husband and father to his fishing buddies but meanwhile he’s not taking care of his family,” Anthony said.</p> <p>Last week, Cargile said dialogue between the company’s employees and its neighbors is critical to relations. “That’s why we regularly host Community Dialogue Group meetings, where neighbors who live near our plants can speak directly with company management about our operations,” she said. “We maintain a 24-hour, information phone line with the current status of our operations at 225-977-0410. We distribute a quarterly newsletter to about 26,000 households, participate in civic and neighborhood meetings, and offer tours and employee speakers for neighborhood groups.”</p> <p>Cargile said employees volunteer in schools and participate in community events..”They roll up their sleeves at events like HOPEFest, where more than 700 neighbors enjoy science demonstrations and learn about community resources, and the United Way Day Action, in which employees painted the cafeteria at Istrouma High School. Both of these events were sponsored by ExxonMobil.” Employees spend 40,000 hours annually volunteering in schools and non-profits in Baton Rouge.</p> <p>“Visiting activists who go from community to community to fundraiser, spread misinformation, and use media stunts to garner attention simply have no role here,” Cargile said.</p> <p>ExxonMobil’s environmental performance in Baton Rouge continues to improve, Cargile said. “From 1990 to 2012 , we saw a 75 percent decrease in VOC emissions, a 63 percent decrease in SO2 emissions, a 39 percent decrease in NOX emissions, and a 73 percent decrease in CO emissions,” she said. Flare VOC emissions at the complex declined by more than 31 percent from 2010 to 2012. “These improvements resulted from an investment of about $250 million per year in new projects locally to better protect the environment,” she said. </p> <p>Safety continues to improve at ExxonMobil Baton Rouge, Cargile said. “The Baton Rouge complex had its best-ever, personnel safety performance in 2012, with a Total Recordable Incident Rate down 35 percent from 2011 and down 75 percent from the previous five-year period,” she said. “Over the past five years, we have reduced the number of incidents that exceed a reportable quantity, with an 86 percent reduction of events at our refinery and a 47 percent reduction at our chemical plant.”</p> <p>Among the neighbors interviewed for this story, however, all but one felt ExxonMobil needs to do more to reduce emissions, increase plant safety and keep them informed. And they don’t want to be chastised for questioning conditions at the plant. Tonga Nolan said speaking out about her concerns and working as a neighborhood advocate got her fired from her job as an attorney early this year. But she said the safety of her family and community is more important to her than her occupation. “I’m a mother, daughter and family member first and then an attorney,” she said.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the July 15, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em> <div class="wpclass_2265"></div> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/exxonmobil-is-scrutinized-in-baton-rouge-after-past-leaks/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Terrebonne tribe struggles to preserve its way of life</title> <link>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/terrebonne-tribe-struggles-to-preserve-its-way-of-life/</link> <comments>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/terrebonne-tribe-struggles-to-preserve-its-way-of-life/#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:00:27 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[admin]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Environmental]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gulf Coast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Local]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.louisianaweekly.com/?p=10028</guid> <description><![CDATA[By Susan Buchanan Contributing Writer Theresa Dardar, a member of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe in Terrebonne Parish, is down to the last bag of shrimp she<br /><br /><a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/terrebonne-tribe-struggles-to-preserve-its-way-of-life/">Continue Reading </a> »]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="bottomcontainerBox" style="background-color:transparent;"> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisianaweekly.com%2Fterrebonne-tribe-struggles-to-preserve-its-way-of-life%2F&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=85&action=like&font=verdana&colorscheme=light&height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:85px; height:21px;"></iframe></div> <div style="float:left; width:80px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <g:plusone size="medium" href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/terrebonne-tribe-struggles-to-preserve-its-way-of-life/"></g:plusone> </div> <div style="float:left; width:95px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"> <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/terrebonne-tribe-struggles-to-preserve-its-way-of-life/" data-text="Terrebonne tribe struggles to preserve its way of life" data-count="horizontal"></a> </div><div style="float:left; width:105px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script type="in/share" data-url="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/terrebonne-tribe-struggles-to-preserve-its-way-of-life/" data-counter="right"></script></div> <div style="float:left; width:85px;padding-right:10px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px;height:30px;"><script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1&r=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/terrebonne-tribe-struggles-to-preserve-its-way-of-life/"></script></div> </div><div style="clear:both"></div><div style="padding-bottom:4px;"></div><p><strong>By Susan Buchanan</strong><br /> <em>Contributing Writer</em></p> <p>Theresa Dardar, a member of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe in Terrebonne Parish, is down to the last bag of shrimp she froze in late April 2010 after the BP spill. The state opened the shrimp season early that spring before oil began lapping at the coast. Her husband Donald, a commercial fishermen, hauled in all he could that April and May. The Dardars have worked through their frozen supplies and aren’t sure they trust fresh shrimp—something that’s always been a staple of their diet. <span id="more-10028"></span></p> <p>Pointe au Chien, 20 miles southeast of Houma on Lake Chien, is a close-knit Native American community that was hurt by the spill and a string of hurricanes. Last week, Dardar said the area’s shrimp catch is declining, some of the local fish look diseased and oiled marshes are rapidly eroding.</p> <p>Residents include 68 families from the Pointe-au-Chien tribe, along with some Cajuns. “People here work mainly as commercial fishermen and a few are tugboat captains,” Dardar said. She’s a board member of GO FISH, a south Louisiana advocacy group formed after the spill. Her husband Donald is second chairman of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe.</p> <p>The Dardars are distressed by what they’ve seen trawling “Last year, my brother-in-law caught a fish that didn’t have scales and threw it back,” she said. “Then my husband pulled in what we call a triple tail, and it didn’t have scales. Last summer, my husband’s uncle started to prepare a drum fish he caught but saw it had hardly any meat.”</p> <p>Shrimp season opened May 13 and the catch is down for the second year in a row. “This May, my brother caught a fish that had a tumor on it when he was shrimping,” Dardar said. Her brother-in-law reeled in a puppy drum with lesions. She discussed her concerns with Louisiana State University AgCenter. “I have the puppy drum in my freezer, and LSU has agreed to pick it up for lab inspection,” she said last week. “I’m worried the lesions could be some form of cancer.”</p> <p>Dardar suspects BP oil and dispersants have taken a toll on seafood. “Tests were done on our seafood in 2010 and the results weren’t good,” she said last week. “Dillard University found heavy metals in our shrimp, and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade detected cadmium in our oysters.” She wants to know whether the local catch is safe. “We want seafood in this area tested further,” she said. “And I hope the authorities will tell us the results.”</p> <p>In mid-October 2010, Dillard chemistry professor Edwin Agwaramgbo, in conjunction with the Treme-based People’s Environmental Center, sampled soil, water and seafood at Pointe au Chien. They found high levels of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in water-bed sediments. Shrimp were full of arsenic and oysters were loaded with zinc. They found high levels of copper in the Pointe’s shrimp, oysters and snails.</p> <p>Oysters collected at Pointe au Chien in August 2010, and tested by Pace Analytical Service in Wisconsin in December 2010 for the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, contained amounts of cadmium that greatly exceeded federal standards. Last week, Anne Rolfes, president of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade said LABB paid for that sampling at the request of the Pointe-au-Chien community. In large doses, cadmium is a human carcinogen.</p> <p>Three years after the spill, all federal waters and most state waters have reopened for fishing. Federal and state officials continue to collect and test Gulf seafood. Tests show seafood in reopened areas is as safe to eat as it was before the spill, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.</p> <p>Last week, Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries spokeswoman Laura Wooderson said “we’re doing extensive testing along the coast.” But she provided no details about findings.</p> <p>Dardar and her husband, along with her brother-in-law and sister-in-law next door, are shying away from fish and shrimp now. “Other people in this community are eating seafood since the feds and state say it’s safe,” Dardar said. “And that worries me. I’m more concerned about how children might be affected by bad seafood than I am about my husband and me since we’re getting on in years.”</p> <p>Bigger fish are eating smaller fish, and “the problems are just going up the food chain,” she said.</p> <p>Dardar said oil remains in the Gulf and the bayous. “After shrimp season started this year, my brother-in-law and his cousin caught some tarballs,” she said. “Last year, my husband’s cousin caught a big block of oil that may have broken away from an underwater mat.”</p> <p>Land at Pointe au Chien has eroded more quickly since the spill. “Oil in the bayou is killing the marsh grass,” Dardar said. “Once the grass is gone, there’s nothing to hold the dirt together.”</p> <p>Dardar wants to see more attention to land loss. “A year ago, we asked Terrebonne Parish to install rif-raf to stop land erosion near a tree in our community,” she said. Rif-raf or broken cement is sometimes used to shore up land. “The parish told us they’d do it, but never did, and now the tree is dead in the water and thirty feet from land.”</p> <p>Dardar said the area is known for its trees. Traditionally, it was called Pointe aux Chennes, meaning “point of the oaks.” Today, it’s name is sometimes translated as “point of the dog.” </p> <p>Barrier islands near Pointe au Chien are rapidly disappearing. “We want to see our barrier islands rebuilt,” Dardar said. “In the past, they slowed incoming water and protected us. We’ve just about lost Timbalier, Whiskey and Last Islands, leaving us much more vulnerable to storms. Lower Pointe au Chien, where I live, gets water. And in recent storms that water has spread to Upper Pointe au Chien, which didn’t used to flood.”</p> <p>The Dardars live ten feet above ground in a house they built with insurance money after Hurricane Juan damaged their mobile home in 1985. Lower Pointe au Chien residents need to be up high. “We had three feet of water in our yard two years ago from Tropical Storm Lee and then another three feet from Hurricane Isaac last August,” Dardar said. “That’s more than we used to flood.”</p> <p>Dardar likes some of what she’s seen in the state’s 50-year Coastal Master Plan, approved by the legislature last year. “In the last community meeting I attended on the plan, Whiskey Island was going to be saved,” she said. “And I’ve been assured that the Morganza to the Gulf project will include Pointe au Chien. Depending on when it’s built, that project could protect us.” </p> <p>Morganza to the Gulf is a planned, $10.3 billion system of levees and floodgates that will be funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state and local levee districts to protect Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes from storms. The state and the parishes are building parts of the levee system now but the fed’s contribution still has to be approved. When those levees are finished, thousands of residents outside of them might be encouraged to relocate, according to planners. </p> <p>Dardar said her neighboring community, Isle of Jean Charles, has been left out of the Morganza to the Gulf plan.</p> <p>“We have a few, old levees here now,” she said. “But they’re not really hurricane protection. The one behind our house is eight feet high and was built after Hurricane Juan.”</p> <p>Dardar said her tribe’s burial grounds lie below Pointe au Chien and aren’t included in the Morganza to the Gulf project. “We have four or five different cemeteries named after tribal leaders, and we visit them by boat,” she said. “One of our ancestral mounds is already starting to wash away.”</p> <p>She explained why her tribe and other Native Americans live deep in the bayous by the Gulf. “Our ancestors were chased down here centuries ago,” she said. “Andrew Jackson said he wanted every Indian killed and our people made their way down into the boondocks.” Jackson oversaw anti-Indian campaigns before and during his two terms in the White House from 1829 to 1837. </p> <p>In addition to the Pointe-au-Chien, tribes in south Louisiana include the Bayou Lafourche, Grand Caillou/Dulac and Isle de Jean Charles bands of the Biloxi-Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogees, or the BCCM.</p> <p>The Pointe-au-Chien tribe adapted to its watery circumstances long ago. “Everyone comes back after a big storm here,” Dardar said. “No one has left except for some young people who got married. Our elders don’t want to move. No one I talk with wants to leave.”</p> <p>But Isle of Jean Charles has considered moving somewhere else, Dardar said. “Communities in Alaska are trying to do that,” she noted. A number of Eskimo villages, threatened by melting ice as the climate warms, are considering new sites. Waves of climate refugees, moving to safer locales, are expected in the United States this decade.</p> <p><em>This article originally published in the June 17, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.louisianaweekly.com/terrebonne-tribe-struggles-to-preserve-its-way-of-life/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> </channel> </rss>