Industrial Incident Causes Massive Fish Kill in Louisiana

Another industrial incident takes a toll on the environment in Louisiana. The Temple-Inland paper mill in Bogalusa has taken responsibility for a fish kill in Pearl River and its tributaries stemming from an incident that began over a week ago. Attached are images I shot on Aug. 18 and 19th of the fish kill and the cleanup.

The paper mill knew they had a problem when they exceeded their limit of allowable discharge into the Pearl River. They didn't report the incident to DEQ ( Department of Environmental Quality) immediately, nor did they stop production. When they did cease operation, enough black liquor, a byproduct of the paper-making process, was released into the river to cause a major kill of fish including carp, drum catfish, eels , sardines and the endangered sturgeon, shellfish and turtles along 40 miles of river. By the end of this weekend, most of the dead fish have been picked up. Water fouled by chemicals that caused oxygen depletion have been flushing out into bigger bodies of water--first into the Rigolets and from there into Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, which both connect to the Gulf of Mexico. Damage to the Rigolets and the lakes is being monitored by the DEQ and other concerned parties. On the August 20, crabbers reported pulling up hundreds of traps full of dead crabs ( see local news report here  ) .
To see more images this link is to a set on Flickr  .
To see a video clip click here.
Nature's resiliency is remarkable. Though the tributary I documented was full of death, the maggots were very much alive, feasting on the fish carcasses. The Pearl River and other bayous I explored had signs of life returning, despite the black film still present in the water.

Cancer Alley

The Mississippi River's record-breaking levels prompted the opening of the Spillways north of Baton Rouge and New Orleans this spring. As a result, the cities' populations are out of danger and the petrochemical and oil industries based there have been protected. There was no disruption in production to further damage the national economy. With more extreme weather the vulnerability of such facilities throughout out the country is something to pay attention to .

The stretch along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans has been called "The Petrochemical Corridor." But in some quarters it's also known as "Cancer Alley," a reference to the many cases of cancer reported by communities on both sides of the Mississippi. There are disputes about the cancer statistics. Cases of certain rare cancers in children are above the national average, but according to The Louisiana Tumor Registry, the overall rate of cancer is not higher.

Louisiana gives generous tax breaks to industry and has a close relationship to oil companies brought to light during the BP oil spill crisis. Some say the Department of Environmental Quality has been acting in the interests of industry,too, instead of serving as a watchdog for the people it is meant to protect. . Along the same stretch of river is one of the National Oil Reserve locations as well as Waterford 3, a nuclear power plant serving the New Orleans area ,just yards from a levee. The tsunami in Japan that triggered a melt down at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant raises questions that reverberate in Louisiana. Are safety measures in place to protect plants from natural disasters as the 2011 hurricane season kicks off?
To see more images from this series click here to see a set on Flickr

A Year After the BP Oil Disaster; A Walk on Mississippi Beaches

Last weekend I went to Mississippi's Gulf Coast beaches. I arrived just before sunset. Before the light was gone I photographed four dead sea turtles and a variety of other animals--birds, jellyfish, stingray, armadillo and catfish. I walked the beaches on Saturday and Sunday too, exploring different spots from Waveland to Gulfport and shot over 100 carcasses.


Animals die. Sometimes you find them on the beach. But I don't believe that what I found on the Mississippi beaches in normal . Click here to see what i found from ARPRIL 15-17th. Is the BP oil disaster the cause of these deaths? There is no scientific proof one way or the other. Is there a connection to the oil that spilled and the dispersants that were dropped on the Gulf's surface that spread through the air and have found their way into the blood of many of the oil spill clean up workers? I can't say for sure. It is clear it wont be easy to pin the animail deaths on BP, the corporation responsible for the largest environmental disaster in American history.

So, sticking to the facts, if you want to take photographs of dead animals, including endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtles, head to the Mississippi beaches. Maybe the tourist industry that just received a generous chunk of money from BP ought to consider a new slogan"Visit our beaches where you can find a dead animals every 100 ft or so." A lot of us are into the macabre, right? The influx of dead animals could draw those into death to the coast which might balance out rooms lost to those concerned with the warnings at the beach warning people that the tar balls from the oil spill may be harmful to your health. Use the beach at your own risk..

To see more of my work on the BP oil disaster check out page on my site here.

Dead Kemp's Ridley Turtles Washing up in MS and an Update from Bay Jimmy

Dead Kemp's Ripley sea turtle in Waveland MS

Dead Kemp's Ridley sea turtle spray painted so it wont be counted twice 

Dead sea turtle left for days next on beach in Waveland MS

Dead Kemp's Ridley sea turtle in Pass Christina MS

Dead Kemp's Ridley sea turtles on the Mississippi beaches, images I kept seeing on Facebook posts, prompted me to check it out for myself. I found four in the course of three hours. The beaches where I found some of the turtles are closed as of Sunday due to high bacteria counts caused by runoff of fecal matter, I've been told, not oil and dispersant.


On Fox 8, a local news station, John Snell recently went out to Bay Jimmy as I did days before to check on the status of the marsh. He and I came back with very different visuals. Snell went out during high-tide, the time when the damage to the coast is hidden under water.I went out low tide after a storm, when the lasting effects of the BP oil spill are best seen. Neither of us came back with the full story. Coastal restoration is a huge issue in Louisiana, one that, like the oil spill, effects the whole nation. The science can't be told in soundbites. The opinions of business owners and politicians are important too, but one has to question the motivation of whoever is speaking. Facts trump opinion and unfortunately not much scientific evidence is available yet or has been shared in the mainstream media . The dolphin die offs are under wraps; researchers are under a standing gag order. During the spill, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had one from the federal government and released more misinformation than fact.


The mess in the Gulf, yeah, it could have been way worse, but that doesn't mean it wasn't and still isn't bad. Who's to say what the lasting effects will be? Who's to judge how much the killing of the marsh grass by the oil and chemical will effect an already disappearing coast line? Why are dozens of endangered Kemp's Ridley turtles washing up dead? I don't have the answers, but I do believe in documenting what I have seen.


In an article by the AP on April 7, 2011 the day before I found the turtles, april 7th 2011 they they said NOAA was pointing the blame at fishing and shrimping boats as the cause of the turtles deaths. In response to the article on line Clint Guidry , president of the Louisiana shrimp association wrote, "Totally and utterly RIDICULOUS! Shrimper's have been using TED's ( turtle excluder devices) for years now, without these turtle mortality rates. This spike in turtle mortality should be placed squarely where it belongs, BP oil disaster and the use of toxic dispersants. What is the limit to the extremes the US agencies will go to protect BP's liability in this oil disaster?"


Before you go to a Gulf Coast beach, you should check government sites to see if the water is safe: That's what the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality suggests. Their reports are meant to protect our health and safety. We rely on government regulatory agencies that check self-policing energy corporations that say they are not putting more pollutants into the environment than are legally permitted. Their work is of the utmost importance. But organizations like Mineral Management Service have grossly failed us. And if you watch tv or read news stories on line, you've seen BP ads telling us they are making the Gulf Coast whole again. How nice if that were true.


I don't have answers to any of the pressing concerns facing the Gulf Coast, but I do know something has failed the endangered Kemp's Ridely turtles and the loggerheads too. That much I know.

Oil in the marsh at Bay Jimmy

Oil remains where marsh grass was killed by the oil in Bay Jimmy

Dead marsh grass in Bay Jimmy

Oil washed further in to the marsh after a storm in Bay Jimmy 

Return Trip to Site Where Oil Coming From Unknown Source Was Found Off Grand Isle

 Emulsified oil 1/2 mile due south of Grande Isle on March 21st 

On March 21, I returned to Elmer's Island and Grand Isle, where the day before I photographed oil and oil sheen washing into Caminada Bay . The Coast Guard confirmed that there was oil on the water on March 21, but still hasn't identified the source. By Monday only a small amount of sheen and foam could be found. Some of the oil had already been cleaned off the beach, some was skimmed, but a lot of what I saw yesterday had already made its way into Caminada Bay, a rich estuary. About half a mile due south of Grand Isle, we encountered  a plume of emulsified oil. Plumes were reported by Jefferson Parish officials during flyovers the day before. Also off shore, we spotted a young dead dolphin, adding to the high number already reported this year by New Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.


This new oil spill raises many questions: What is the source of the oil and is it still leaking? How much of it is there? Could it be connected to the BP disaster? Is it a good idea to restart deepwater drilling? Are the regulators regulating? Why are the polluters often not fined the maximum allowed and why do regulators let some code breakers get away without any penalty? And what is causing an unusually high number of young dolphins to die?  The answers are still up in the air, but the Coast Guard, NOAA and private citizens are all busy trying to get the facts.

Dead young dolphin found floating in the Gulf, cause of death undetermined, adding to the abnormally high dolphin mortality  rate this year. 

Emulsified oil 1/2 mile due south of Grande Isle on March 21st

Boom put out on March 21st across the cut leading into Caminada Bay, an rich estuary. Oil washed through the cut on March 20th. See video clip of oil getting in 

Emulsified oil 1/2 mile due south of Grande Isle on March 21st 

More Oil Washes Up on the Gulf Coast as One Year Anniversary of BP Disaster Appoaches

Wildlife and Fishery Agents Check out Oil off Elmer's Island 

The mayor of Grand Isle, LA, held a press conference Sunday afternoon to say that reports of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, which started circulated on Friday, are heartbreakingly correct. Oil was spotted by fishermen, residents and members of OnWingsOfCare.org, a non profit organization who flew over what they described as a slick 100 miles long by 12 miles wide on Friday. 

On Sunday morning, the Coast Guard still hadn't confirmed there was oil in the Gulf so I took a ride down to Grand Isle to see for myself. Finding the oil was easy. It took ten minuets by boat headed to the cut in Caminada Bay where Grande Isle and Elmer's Island almost come together. Oil was rolling in with the tide. I spoke to Wildlife and Fishery agents who had no doubt it was oil. It smelled like oil, looked like oil and felt like oil. Coast Guard were on the Elmer's Island beach, which is still closed to the public. A clean up crew seemed to be inspecting the situation, rather than cleaning. Later on Sunday the Coast Guard acknowledged that oil is washing up on Elmer's island, Grand Isle and Port Fouchon, but discounted reports of oil further up the coast; it is silt from the Mississippi River, according to the Coast Guard.

Where the oil is coming from is unclear at this point. If more is on the way and just how much was leaked, no one seems to know. Coast Guard Commander John Burton suggested the source could be oil that was released for 4-6 hours on Saturday while a drilling site was being plugged, but the investigation is ongoing.  After conducting tests, the Coast Guard said the Gulf waters are within acceptable pollution limits. But the fact is more oil in the Gulf is washing up on the coast less than a year after the BP oil spill. That didn't stop some beach goers from swimming and fishermen from fishing. "Call it Island Apathy," a long time resident said.

Click here for video of oil washing into Caminada Bay and here.

Grand Island beach with oil in the water

 Oil of Elmer's Island 

Cut leading into Caminada Bay where oil rolled in on 3/20/11

Boat passing through oil off Elmer's Island

Oil on the beach at Grand Isle

Oil on trash on the beach at Grand Isle

People swim on Grand Isle beach despite new oil washing up

GREED- Common Ingredient in Compounding the Horror of Natural Disasters and Crushing Human Rights

I will not being going to Japan to cover the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. The threat of radiation and living in fear of its consequences scares me. With Japan on my mind, I took a trip to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, home of the National Data Buoy Center, where tsunami detecting buoys are made and monitored, after reading they might be hit by funding cuts proposed by the GOP budget bill. A small story, compared to the nuclear meltdown. But the idea of cutting a program that protects human life made me want to research the Data Center myself.

The stories I've recently covered have one thing in common: GREED. In Haiti, builders put up shoddy buildings with no concern for the safety of those who inhabited them. After the earthquake. despite the contributions of so many people who wanted to help, aid never got to most of the needy. Lives were surely lost due to the misuse of money and outright stealing.

The BP Gulf Coast oil disaster was caused by a corporation that cut corners, costing 11 people their lives. No one is in jail for malpractice or reckless endangerment. And now countless Gulf Coast residents are sick from a new toxicity in their environment. Baby dolphins are dying by the dozen. Many who work along the Gulf Coast are going broke, not able to pay their bills or feed their families, yet the man responsible for deciding the outcome of the claims they've filed gets almost a million a month for his services.

At the same time I hear that Hillary Clinton has promised the military now ruling in Egypt 90 million dollars, I get a report from a friend that his friends are being jailed with no legal proceedings, no trials, no medial treatment. We supported Mubarak, an evil dictator, and considered him our friend; now the US seems to be following the same path with questionable leaders in the same county. And then there is Libya, where Qaddafi crushes his own people while the world stands by and does absolutely nothing.

Why can't we simply do what is morally right? Why is our foreign policy determined by people who profit greatly from relationships with those who crush human rights? It seems we support dictators to protect our flow of oil yet still have no new energy concept in the works. Are we governed by the possibility that the cost of fuel will go up again? I read that half of the our nuclear reactors are over 30 years old. Can we trust the nuclear regulators as we did the regulators of the deep sea oil platforms? It's best not to think too much about all the catastrophes that can occur, I remind myself. But it's very hard not to.

To read entry about the Data Buoy center scroll down to next entry

Tsunami Detecting Buoys Program May See Budget Cuts

Do we really want to cut the funding of our own tsunami warning system? The GOP's proposed spending bill threatens to do just that, slashing the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by as much as $450 million. And that will effect the work of the National Data Buoy Center at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where tsunami-detecting and weather buoys are assembled and tested. The buoys are part of the DART (Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) system, which monitors buoys deployed around the world, sounding the alarm if America's West Coast is threatened.

There are those who are critical of the DART system. I spoke to officials at NDBC about a report recently published by MIT questioning DART's reliability . Is it true that only 60 per cent of the buoys are operational at any given time? I was told that those number were taken from a report made a year ago based on data from a year before that. Since that time, improvements have been made. As of March 14th, when I sat in on a morning briefing, 90 per cent of the buoys are reporting back.

The buoys have to stand up to extreme currents and weather conditions. But they are more likely to be damaged by humans or sharks than the elements. Their solar panels have been stolen. Large fish congregate near their nylon ropes, which fisherman have been known to cut. Fish gnaw on the ropes, eating barnacles that attach themselves to it. Drug dealers have used them to stash drugs and those lost at sea, for refuge. On-site inspection, repair or replacement, to say nothing of the shipping costs, don't come cheap, but do we want to do without a tsunami early warning system?

Someone mans the National Data Buoy Center 24/7. On March 11, shortly after the earthquake struck Japan, DART analyst Tracy Bourdreaux woke up and checked the out the data right away. Life at the Center has been busy ever since, with the aftershocks continually setting off the tsunami buoys.

Images: Top: Tsunami detecting buoys being fabricated at the National Data Buoy Center / Helmut Portmann, director of the National Data Buoy Center, with a tsunami detecting buoy Bottem: Tsunami buoys being fabricated at the National Data Buoy Center /Satellites that receive information from tsunamis buoys at The National Data Buoy Center / Message shown at the end of a National Date Buoy Center morning briefing. In the bAckground, a buoy in the Pacific Ocean /DART analyst Tracy Bourdreaux's chart of the 39 tsunami buoys / Tracy Bourdreaux , a DART (Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) analyst looking at data from the tsunami buoys in the Pacific Ocean/ A weather detecting buoy made in the 1960's at the National Data Buoy Center, much larger then the current models/ Nylon rope used in the fabrication of tsunami detecting buoys/ Broken tsunami buoys awaiting repair / Nylon rope to be used with the tsunami buoys . The thicker pink rope is fish-bite resistant and used at the top of the buoy/ Computer electronics that make up the "brains" of the tsunami buoys

Click here to see a video clip of Helmut Portmann explaining how the tsunami buoys work