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Citizen Groups Announce First Suit To Enforce Federal Environmental Laws Directly Against BP
Gulf
Restoration Network, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, and
Environment America Intend to Use Federal Clean Water Act to Force BP
to Full Disclosure and Deployment of All Means Available to Clean Gulf
Water
NEW ORLEANS - Local,
state, and national environmental groups announced today that they
intend to use the citizen enforcement provision of the federal Clean
Water Act to sue BP in federal district court in New Orleans to force a
more effective response to the ongoing oil disaster in the Gulf of
Mexico.
The Gulf Restoration Network (GRN), the Louisiana
Environmental Action Network (LEAN), and Environment America announced
that last Friday they sent a formal notice letter alleging that BP is
violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) by discharging millions of gallons
of oil into the Gulf from the Deepwater Horizon drill site, by failing
to accurately measure its plume and flow, and by failing to remove the
oil from the waters on and within the Gulf of Mexico.
"'Remove'
does not mean hiding oil beneath the sea surface or leaving it to
naturally decay. Remove means take away. If BP can remove oil from
miles beneath the earth, under 5000 feet of water, it can remove oil
plumes from the Gulf," said Joel Waltzer, one of the attorneys
representing the environmental groups.
A special series of interviews and stories is being produced by the the renown filmmaker, writer and adventurer Jon Bowermaster .
This is the second episode in a 5-part series examining the human impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Video interviews have been excerpted from the documentary film SoLa: Louisiana Water Stories.
NEW IBERIA, Louisiana—Traveling around southern Louisiana with Wilma Subra can be both enlightening and depressing. A chemist by training and environmental activist by choice, on every corner, at every railroad crossing, each empty lot and even in the air she sees either a toxic wasteland or one on the verge.
Watch our very own Wilma Subra on Toxic America with Sanjay Gupta
M.D. on CNN tomorrow June 2 at 7 p.m.!!
Environmental warrior takes on industry
By David S. Martin, Senior Medical Producer
May 25, 2010 8:45 a.m. EDT
Chemist
and environmental activist Wilma Subra collects a water sample in
Gueydan, Louisiana.
New Iberia, Louisiana (CNN) -- Chemist Wilma Subra was working at
her desk by a picture window one cool June evening in 2006 when the
passenger in a passing car fired a single shot in her direction. The
bullet lodged in a brick a few feet from where she was sitting.
Not your typical day at the office for a chemist, but Subra is not a
typical chemist.
"I think they were just trying to scare me and get
me to back off," says Subra, a soft-spoken grandmother who has made it
her life's mission to help communities fight against chemical threats
from industry.
Subra didn't quit. She moved her desk away from
the window and went back to work. The gunman was never caught.
"I can't close up and not be out there," she says matter-of-factly.
"Out there" means traveling to communities across the country worried
about pollution.
Is enough being done to protect us from
chemicals that could harm us? Watch "Toxic America," a special
two-night investigative report with Sanjay Gupta M.D., June 2 & 3
at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.
"Communities need so much
help, and you educate and empower them, and then they take on the fight
and the issue. They just need that little bit of information to make
them aware."
We have had numerous fisherman, that have been hired through BP's
Master Vessel Charter Agreement to work on the oil spill response, tell
us that their BP "bosses" have told them that if they use a respirator
or any safety equipment not provided by BP that they would be fired.
A shrimp boat rigged up to skim oil from BP's oil spill. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ann Marie Gorden
Hundreds
of fisherman have been hired to attach booms to their shrimp boats in
place of nets and drive their boats directly through the oil slicks to
corral and collect the oil that is spilling from BP's broken well in
the Gulf of Mexico. These fisherman have one of the highest potentials
for exposure to toxic air pollutants from the crude oil out of all of
the responders working the spill. In addition to crude oil there is the
added danger posed by the aerial application of dispersant chemicals
and there have already been reports that fishermen working on the spill
feel that they have been impacted by the dispersants.
LEAN Adviser Observes Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Trace Atmospheric Gas
Analyzer (TAGA) Mobile Monitoring in St. Bernard Parish, May 27, 2010
by Wilma Subra
Technical Adviser to Louisiana Environmental Action Network
On
May 27, 2010, Louisiana Environmental Action Network was given the
opportunity to observe the mobile monitoring being performed by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with their Trace Atmospheric Gas
Analyzer (TAGA) monitoring unit in St. Bernard parish. The TAGA is a
Recreational Vehicle that has been repurposed as a mobile laboratory
and outfitted with an array of environmental monitoring equipment. The
TAGA was set up to monitor the air for the dispersants Corexit 9500 and
9527. Corexit 9500 and 9527 are being used in association with the
Deepwater Horizon disaster to disperse the crude oil slick in the Gulf
of Mexico and the crude oil as it leaks from the well head 5,000 feet
below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
During
a press conference on May 29, 2010 at 5:10 p.m. BP Chief Operating
Officer Doug Suttles announced that the Top Kill will no longer be
continued.
ROV video feed screen capture from May 29, 2010 at 4:10 p.m.
As
can be seen in this Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) video feed screen
capture taken at 4:10 p.m. today, May 29, 2010, a large plume of
material continues to billow out of the end of the riser pipe.
U.S.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry praised the cleanup effort and BP and
the Coast Guard's success at "fighting the oil offshore."
BP's next move is to cut off the bent Riser Pipe and replace it with a "Lower Marine Riser Package Cap" (LMRP Cap).
Mr. Suttles stated that he believes that the LMRP Cap will capture "a great majority" of the flow but not all of it.
Adm. Landry stated that the ultimate solution remains the relief well. The relief well appears to be weeks away from completion.
Note: The relief well is not expected to be completed until sometime in August. At least 5 weeks from now.
Visit SaveOurGulf.org
to get more information about the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster from
Waterkeeper organizations across the Gulf Coast and donate to Save Our
Gulf!
