The BP oil spill has been identified as the world’s worst man-made environmental disaster. The welcome news this week that some measure of success in using a containment cap to seal the leak had been obtained is now being overshadowed by news reports of storms moving into the Gulf of Mexico, thus threatening to shut down further work on the ruptured well.
Bad weather in the Gulf and the withdrawal of work ships could mean no work on the well for up to two weeks. Currently, a final piece of casing needs to be cemented at the bottom of what is being called the relief well before engineers can then drill into the damaged well and “kill” it with a mixture of mud and cement.
This less than stellar news comes on the heels of BP’s little white lie – a doctored image of the company’s Houston operations center showing 10 video screens monitoring underwater activity in the Gulf. In fact, only eight of the screens were actually in use and a BP photographer had used Photoshop to manipulate the image and make it seems as though all 10 screens were displaying active content.
While culpability for the oil spill disaster lies squarely with BP, lawmakers this week declared that federal regulators must share the blame. According to reports, the number of federal inspectors for deepwater oil facilities has not kept pace with the industry’s growth. In the Gulf, there were just 60 inspectors for the nearly 4000 facilities – an increase of just 5 inspectors from 1985, according to a memo prepared by the Democratic majority staff for the subcommittee of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
That we should be outraged on so many levels goes without saying. The damage to the environment, the wildlife and livelihood of those living in the Gulf is staggering to comprehend. The photos from the disaster site are some of the most difficult images ever viewed. At this point, 114,000 claims have been submitted to BP by residents and businesses of the Gulf Coast. Payments reached $201 million as the company increased its outreach to the thousands of people who have claimed a loss as a result of the disaster. The largest group of claimants include fisherman and shrimpers, who have received a combined $50 million to date. An additional $77 million has been paid for loss of income to a variety of occupations including deckhands and employees of seafood processing plants and other businesses left without work.
As of this writing, according to the BP Gulf of Mexico Response website, bp.com, well integrity testing is ongoing and active monitoring of the situation underwater continues. The well remains shut with no oil flowing into the Gulf and BP says that any changes will be reported immediately. Better news than we’ve heard in weeks.
Another bright spot – the powerful Gulf of Mexico “loop current” has suddenly changed course and scientists think this will help protect the coastline of south Florida and the East Coast from large amounts of oil.
Here at The Sun, we’re keeping our collective fingers crossed. At 74 days and counting, if nature cooperates and BP can actually keep the well capped, it seems that the worst may be over – at least in terms of more oil spilling into the Gulf. Now, rebuilding an area that has already been battered by the likes of Hurricane Katrina must take precedence. We stand behind the efforts to bring beauty and harmony to the Gulf of Mexico once more. It’s our view.
