LOUISIANA
OIL SPILL NEWS
Hurricane Alex damages oil spill barrier erected at Perdido Pass
Published: Thursday, July 01, 2010, 5:09 PM Updated: Thursday, July 01, 2010, 5:14 PM
The Associated Press
Six-foot waves from Hurricane Alex have damaged a new, $4.6 million system meant to prevent oil from flowing into Perdido Bay.
Dave Martin, The Times-PicayunePieces of a $4 million oil booming system in Perdido Pass in Orange Beach, Ala., came apart when 6-foot seas caused by Hurricane Alex battered the pass Thursday.
The structure is composed of more than 3,000 feet of long steel pipes that are strung together in Perdido Pass between dozens of pilings in Orange Beach to guard against the massive Gulf oil spill.
But the city's coastal resources manager, Phillip West, said Thursday about 800 feet of the protective system began coming apart when thick bolts started shearing off in heavy seas. Workers took apart other sections to prevent further damage to the system, which wasn't yet finished.
West said the steel booms should be back in place with thicker bolts by Saturday. He said not much additional oil entered the bay because of the failure.
In Louisiana, the storm pushed an oil patch toward Grand Isle and uninhabited Elmer's Island, dumping tar balls as big as apples on the beach.
"The sad thing is that it's been about three weeks since we had any big oil come in here," marine science technician Michael Malone said. "With this weather,we lost all the progress we made."
The loss of skimmers, combined with gusts driving water into the coast, left beaches especially vulnerable. In Alabama, the normally white sand was streaked with long lines of oil. One swath of beach 40 feet wide was stained brown and mottled with globs of oil matted together.
Dozens of vessels that were being used to combat the oil spill were tied to docks Tuesday as Alex, more than 500 miles away, approached the Texas-Mexico coast. Most days, the fleet would have been skimming oil from the Gulf and ferrying workers and supplies. But the hurricane turned many people fighting the 11-week-old spill into spectators. And they will be for days.
The nasty weather will likely linger in the Gulf through Thursday, National Weather Service meteorologist Brian LaMarre said.
Officials scrambled to reposition boom to protect the coast, and had to remove barges that had been blocking oil from reaching sensitive wetlands. Those operations could soon get a boost. The U.S. accepted offers of help from 12 countries and international organizations. Japan, for instance, was sending two skimmers and boom.
Alex is projected to head for the Texas-Mexico border region and stay far from the spill zone off the Louisiana coast. It is not expected to affect work at the site of the blown-out well. But the storm's outer edges complicated the cleanup.
Early Wednesday, Alex had maximum sustained winds near 80 mph (130 kph). The National Hurricane Center said the Category 1 storm is the first June Atlantic hurricane since 1995. It is on track for the Texas-Mexico border region and expected to make landfall Wednesday night.
Skimming efforts off the coasts of Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi had mostly stopped.
At the main staging area for oil cleanup efforts around Grand Isle, stacks of boom, bottled water, ice chests and cleaning materials stood ready to load up when the work restarted.
Brothers Otis and Vahn Butler of Houma got there jobs just three days ago.
"I like the work," Otis Butler said. "We've been steady busy until today. Now we're mostly standing around and looking around. We just find things to do when we can today. But once this is over, I bet we'll be twice as busy."
Scientists have said the rough seas and winds, though, could actually help break apart the oil and make it evaporate faster.
The wave action, combined with dispersants sprayed by the Coast Guard, have helped break a 6-by-30-mile oil patch into smaller patches, Coast Guard Cmdr. Joe Higgens said.
"It's good news because there is less on the surface," Higgens said. "It's surface oil that washes up on the beaches."
On the beach, cleanup workers struggled with wind that blew sand into their eyes and mouths and humidity that let the sand stick to their skin.
Jefferson Parish Council member Chris Roberts said the oil was entering passes Tuesday at Barataria Bay, home to diverse wildlife. A day earlier, barges that had been placed in the bay to block the oil were removed because of rough seas. Boom was being displaced and had to be repositioned, he said in an e-mail.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement said 28 platforms and three rigs in the path of the storm in the western Gulf have been evacuated. Still in the water are vessels being used to capture or burn spewing oil and gas and those drilling relief wells that officials say are the best hope for stopping the leak for good.
Hurricane warnings were posted for parts of the coast along Mexico and Texas. Except for the border area itself, though, most of the warning area is lightly populated.
So far, between 70.8 million gallons and 137.6 million of oil have spewed into the Gulf from the broken BP well, according to government and BP estimates. The higher estimate is enough oil to fill half of New York's Empire State Building with oil.
More containment help could be arriving after the storm lets up. Mexico, Norway, Holland and Japan are providing skimmers; Canada is providing containment boom; and Croatia is pitching in with technical advice. Only one offer has been rejected, according to the chart. Dispersant chemicals offered by France are not approved for use in the U.S.
The U.S. rarely faces a disaster of such magnitude that it requires international aid, though it did accept assistance after Hurricane Katrina.
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Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Gulf Shores, Ala., Kevin McGill and Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans and Matthew Lee in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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Wednesday, Jun 30, 2010 09:52 ET
Distant hurricane pushes oil onto beaches
Six-foot waves and 25 mph winds help to dumb tar balls the size of apples on the Louisiana coast
By MARY FOSTER and TOM BREEN, Associated Press
AP
Rough seas generated by Hurricane Alex pushed more oil from the massive spill onto Gulf coast beaches as cleanup vessels were sidelined by the far-away storm's ripple effects.
The hurricane was churning coastal waters across the oil-affected region on the Gulf of Mexico. Waves as high as 6 feet and winds over 25 mph were forecast through Thursday just off shore from the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
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CNN's Anderson Cooper is back in New Orleans to cover yet another disaster: the oil spill
Published: Thursday, July 01, 2010, 8:14 PM
The Times-Picayune
A crowd of about 40 people watched raptly on a recent night as Anderson Cooper, the blue-eyed heartthrob of CNN fame in town to cover the Gulf oil spill, stood against the backdrop of the Crescent City Connection and prepped for his shot.
Perhaps the most well-known cable television reporter in the country, Cooper repeated his line several times using different intonations, until he got it just right.
"It's Day 67 of the catastrophe that has devastated the Gulf, devastated the region and left thousands out of work," Cooper began.
Ralph Del Ciotto, on vacation from Atlanta with his partner, David Gregory, sat on the grass in Woldenberg Park, enthralled. "He repeats himself so much so he gets it right," he said.
Del Ciotto giggled with another Cooper fan, Cathy Parnell, on vacation from Peach Tree City, Ga. Parnell's husband stood in the back with Gregory, both men looking bemused.
"I knew he was here because I watch him every night and I recognized the bridge," Cathy Parnell said.
Her husband chimed in: "She just kept saying, 'That's the bridge, that's the bridge.'"
News media descend on New Orleans
For the second time in less than five years, New Orleans is playing host to a disaster watched around the globe, with the world's biggest media outlets setting up shop to broadcast images of misery. Woldenberg Park has become an outdoor studio of sorts for them, with anchors and reporters from ABC and Al Jazeera and everything between filming standups in the shadow of the Westin Hotel and Harrah's New Orleans Casino, against the bridge's distinctive silhouette.
The most consistent presence is Cooper, who became a local media darling during Hurricane Katrina and has returned often since. Dozens gather to watch him shoot prerecorded segments of his show and film live broadcasts.
"Please, no flash photography," said the show's producer, Ismael Estrada, as Cooper rehearsed his introductions in the dark, illuminated by three CNN lights and a few flash bulbs.
Cooper forged ahead.
"Suicide is a difficult thing, and no one can ever judge the forces that lead to it," said Cooper, referring to the suicide a day earlier of William Allen Kruse, an Alabama boat captain despondent over the oil spill. "The concern is that he won't be the last."
'I am watching Anderson Cooper put on bug spray'
Behind him, the Natchez paddleboat let out a series of blasts on its calliope, forcing the crew to reshoot several segments. No one in the audience seemed to mind.
"I am watching Anderson Cooper putting on bug spray in front of the Natchez in New Orleans," typed Arizona physician Michelle Doroz, into her Facebook page.
"I'm sending a message to my sister," she said. "She's a big Anderson Cooper fan, but she's in Israel right now on a tour of the Middle East."
Doroz came down after spotting Cooper's camera crew setting up their shot from the rooftop of the Westin.
"Does he live here?" she asked. "I'm drawn to him because he seems like a normal person. I watch him on Oprah, and the women like him, too. At least my sister does. She's got a big thing for him."
'He could be the mayor of New Orleans'
"Anderson Cooper has done a lot for New Orleans," said Tom Naylor, a disc jockey at local radio station WEZB-FM, drinking a beer. "He was here before Katrina, he was here afterward. He could be the mayor of New Orleans, honestly, he's so popular with the people down here."
Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser joined Cooper on the air, sporting a white parish cap. Nungesser, who has been almost as omnipresent as Cooper during the disaster, has seen his entourage swell recently too, to include a writer from a national magazine, who took copious notes on Nungesser's performance.
After his segment was complete, Nungesser was effusive about Cooper.
"I think he was critical in getting the president down here," Nungesser said. "When I met with the president in Grand Isle, he said, 'If you've got a problem call me, don't call Anderson Cooper. If you call me and I can't fix it, then you go on Anderson Cooper.'"
Nungesser has been on Cooper's show more than 10 times in the past month.
Cooper wrapped up his show shortly after 10 p.m. to a round of applause from the crowd. Dressed in a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he spent time posing for photographs and talking with the crowd.
"I have a regular pair of steel toe boots from Walmart," he said, when asked about his incongruously casual sneakers. "They get a little uncomfortable by the evening so I change into the sneakers. But if people are paying too much attention to my footwear, then I'm doing something wrong."
Digging in for the story
Cooper often spends extended time on location after a disaster -- a month in New Orleans after Katrina, three-and-a-half weeks in Haiti after the January earthquake.
"This is the longest I've spent in one place covering one story," he said. "Just the scale of it, the time frame. Normally you'll have one event happen and then the aftermath, but here the disaster is ongoing. I can't imagine being anywhere else."
The Woldenberg reports haven't pleased everyone. Steve Perry, president of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau, recently told a local reporter that Cooper's presence in Woldenberg Park -- with the distinctive cityscape in the background -- "sends a message to the world that associates [New Orleans with the disaster unfolding on the coast] by inference."
"I don't think he's been watching," Cooper said. "Every single night we reiterate the point that New Orleans is open for business, and I've interviewed Lenny Kravitz on that point, and Terence Blanchard. I get that concern, I understand the frustration, but frankly I don't think those people are paying attention to the broadcasts."
Stefan MaGee, a registered nurse who paints under the name Doké, offered Cooper a couple of oil-themed T-shirts he had just printed. One said "New Oileans," in squidgy black letters. Another showed a cartoon drawing of a fish's skeleton, covered in tar balls.
"I can't accept gifts," said Cooper, asking MaGee how much they cost.
"Oh, it's all right," MaGee replied. "I'll accept a photo with you, that would be fine."
Cooper pressed the point, giving MaGee $40 from his wallet for two shirts, and posed for a photo.
"I couldn't believe it," MaGee said afterward. "He bought the first ones I've sold."
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Louisiana hazwoper news
Sand blows across a tiger dam on a beach as the outer edges of Tropical Storm Alex approach the Louisiana coast in Grand Isle, La., Tuesday.
The ship works by taking in water through 12 vents, separating the oil and pumping the cleaned seawater back into the Gulf.
"In many ways, the ship collects water like an actual whale and pumps internally like a human heart," TMT spokesman Bob Grantham said in an e-mail.
A Whale is being tested close to the wellhead because officials believe it will be most effective where the oil is thickest rather than closer to shore.
The ship arrived in the Gulf on Wednesday, but officials have wanted to test its capability as well as have the federal Environmental Protection Agency sign off on the water it will pump back into the gulf. Although the ship cleans most of the oil from seawater, trace amounts of crude remain.
The wait has frustrated some local officials, who say the mammoth skimmer would be a game-changer in preventing drifting streams of oil from washing ashore on vulnerable coastlines.
During a Thursday tour of the inlet to Barataria Bay, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said it was exasperating to have A Whale anchored offshore instead of being put to immediate use.
"They've used the war rhetoric," Jindal said aboard a Louisiana state wildlife boat floating in oil-slicked waters near Grand Isle. "If this is really a war, they need to be using every resource that makes sense to fight this oil before it comes to our coast."
A smaller flotilla of oil skimmers was back at work along the Gulf coast Saturday, after being forced to stand down for several days because of nasty weather whipped up by distant Hurricane Alex.
The bad weather also delayed the hookup of a vessel called the Helix Producer at the wellhead. The ship can collect up to 25,000 barrels of oil a day, which would virtually double the amount now being captured at the site by two other vessels and then burned or transfered to other tankers.
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point person in the oil spill response, said Friday crews will resume getting the Helix Producer in place over the weekend, with production starting around July 7.
Elswhere on the Gulf coast, environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson visited Pensacola Beach on Saturday, her first trip to Florida since the explosion and her sixth trip to the Gulf.
Jackson watched as workers in yellow and orange vests flicked penny-sized gobs of tar into nets, sifting them to filter out the sand and smaller pieces of tar. Officials overseeing the cleanup showed her how the oil had been buried by successive waves of sand, and how more layers with tar were under the top layer of sand.
Jackson said that despite the level of contamination on the beaches, it should be up to local officials to decide whether they should be closed. Officials in Escambia County have posted oil warnings at beaches but not closed them.
"From a commonsense perspective there is nothing that I am going to be able to tell you in chemical lab that you can't learn about the safety of the water from a bathing purpose by looking at it and smelling it," she said.
Reporters pressed Jackson on whether she would wade into the water Saturday based on what she had seen.
"I would not go into the water today," she said
NEW ORLEANS – Gulf of Mexico cleanup crews working to block millions of gallons of oil from reaching land may soon have a giant on their side, if a weekend test of a new skimmer goes well.
The Taiwanese vessel dubbed "A Whale," which its owners describe as the largest oil skimmer in the world, began showing its capabilities on Saturday just north of the Macondo Deepwater well site. An April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig there killed 11 workers and began what is now the largest oil spill in Gulf history.
The vessel will cruise a 25-square-mile test site through Sunday, according to TMT Shipping, the company that created A Whale by retrofitting an oil tanker after the explosion sent millions of gallons of crude spilling into the Gulf.
The U.S. Coast Guard, along with BP, are waiting to see if the vessel, which is 10 stories high and as long as 3 1/2 football fields, can live up to its makers' promise of being able to process up to 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water a day.
AP – Pelicans sitting on an oil boom drink water from a marsh that is impacted by oil from the Deepwater Horizon …
