What Spill?

It seems as if the media has all but abandoned providing updates on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. How is the coastline doing? What about the wildlife? And the people? It must be all cleared up, right? Not so fast.

Excerpt taken from The Institute for Southern Studies website:

 BP's spilled oil is washing up in people
January 20, 2011

Though the gushing well was capped last July, oil continues to wash ashore along the Gulf Coast. BP's oil is also washing up in people's bodies, raising concerns about long-term health effects.

This month the Louisiana Environmental Action Network released the results of tests performed on blood samples collected from Gulf residents. Whole blood samples were collected from 12 people between the ages of 10 and 66 in September, November and December and analyzed by a professional lab in Georgia, with the findings interpreted by environmental chemist and LEAN technical adviser Wilma Subra.

The individuals tested were two boys ages 10 and 11, four men and six women. They included cleanup workers on Orange Beach, Ala., crabbers from the Biloxi, Miss. area  and people living on Perdido Key, Ala.

Four of the people tested -- including three adults and the 10-year-old -- showed unusually high levels of benzene, a particularly toxic component of crude oil. Subra compared the levels found in the test subjects to the levels found in subjects in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a research program conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Specifically, Subra compared the benzene levels in the Gulf residents to the NHANES 95th percentile value -- that is, the score below which 95 percent of the NHANES subjected tested. In other words, she compared the benzene levels found in Gulf residents to some of the highest levels found in the general population.

That comparison shows cause for concern, as the benzene levels in the blood of four Gulf residents ranged between 11.9 and 35.8 times higher than the NHANES 95th percentile value of 0.26 parts per billion. Benzene is known to cause a host of health problems including anemia, irregular menstrual periods, ovarian shrinkage and leukemia.

Comments from al.com regarding the beaches:

Gulf oil spill tarballs cover fort morgan
January 2, 2011

While the Gulf beach at Fort Morgan is relatively clear of tar, the several hundred yards of sand beginning at the mouth of Mobile Bay and wrapping around toward the ferry dock is another story.  

Tarballs ranging from the size of a nickel to the size of a person’s palm are spread liberally along the water’s edge and at the foot of the sand dunes well up the beach.

Along the water, the tarballs outnumber seashells and other flotsam. Hunks of oiled debris, including a mattress, were strewn along the beach Wednesday morning. Bits of tar were wedged into the crevices of fighting conchs and cockle shells.

On the higher sections of the beach, tarballs were so plentiful that they were seldom more than an inch apart.

And from CNN.com:

Louisiana officials: Parts of coastline still heavily oiled
January 8, 2011

More than eight months after an oil rig explosion launched the biggest oil disaster in U.S. history, Louisiana officials say they're still finding thick layers of oil along parts of the state's coastline. 

"Every day, this shoreline is moving inland," lessening flood protection for residents, Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said.

On Friday, Robert Barham, secretary of Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, joined Nungesser on a tour of portion of Louisiana's coastline still heavily oiled by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to a statement from the wildlife and fisheries department.

"It has been eight months since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, and five months since the well was capped. While workers along the coast dedicated themselves to cleaning up our shores there is still so much to be done," Barham said in the statement.

During a walking tour of an area called Bay Jimmy, Nungesser said oil can be seen from a distance. "When the tide is out ... you can see thick oil onto the water for 30, 40 feet out," the parish president said. "There's been no mechanism to clean that up thus far."

At one point on Friday, Nungesser began cursing at U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Dan Lauer.

"It seems like the federal agencies and the Coast Guard is there protecting BP. You guys ought to be as angry as me, that we don't have more people out here doing this," Nungesser said.

Lauer said officials are trying to determine the best way to rid the oil while considering long-term effects of cleanup techniques.
"The main thing we want to make sure of is ... in trying to get this oil out that we don't kill the rest of the isle -- that we don't do more damage to the environment long-term than the good we would do from removing this oil right now, " Lauer said.

"Clearly, there is oil. Clearly, this is heavily oiled marsh. But we are working together in a team," Lauer said. "No one is walking away. Clearly these are high priorities. But there are different phases in different areas."

Louisiana officials said biologists have found several oiled birds in the past few days, including at least two dead brown pelicans. The wildlife and fisheries department also said oiled boom remains in "numerous locations, forgotten or lost by contractors charged with their maintenance and removal."