GULF SHORES, Ala., April 23 — A new mother dips her child into Little Lagoon Pass in Gulf Shores, Alabama, one year after the BP oil gusher released an official estimate of 4.9 million barrels over three months into the Gulf, much of it making landfall along the marshes of Louisiana and Mississippi, and the beaches of Alabama and the Panhandle of Florida.
Then, an official estimate of 1.8 million gallons of Corexit, a byproduct of oil used as a dispersant, was dumped in the Gulf and along the shoreline, sinking the oil to the sea floor. It is still re-emerging on a daily basis somewhere along the coast, from the marshes of Louisiana to the beaches of Bon Secour, Alabama.
Would you let your kids swim in this water? Think about this…
Boat Captain Sean Kelly, interviewed in Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama (see video below)
by Glynn Wilson
GULF STATE PARK, GULF SHORES, Ala., April 24 — When British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 platform workers and pumping crude into the Gulf of Mexico by the millions of gallons, boat captain Sean Kelly of Seattle, Washington was traveling in Florida. Once the scope of the disaster became known after a few days, he got an opportunity to help by working the spill off the coast of Alabama.
“You want to help protect the shoreline and help the people that live here,” he said. “Whether its sucking oil over here or laying boom over there, you want to do your best to help.”
Little did he know that opportunity would ultimately cause such a major, devastating effect on his life and health. Kelly’s blood even now, a year after his direct exposure, shows higher levels of the petrochemicals associated with BP’s oil and chemical catastrophe than anyone doctors have tested thus far.
Thousands of people on the Gulf Coast are still suffering from the human health effects of the disaster one year after the event, a fact that we have been documenting since last September, when many news organizations would not cover the issue and some commentators were still calling the very idea of the story itself a “conspiracy theory.”
A strong F-5 tornado struck Tuscaloosa Wednesday. As usual, you can count on Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen to document the event on video, especially since this one hit his neighborhood hard.
He watched as Hurricane Creek vaporized and came up the hill as a huge fog bank, he said. “I have been to a couple of state fairs and one hog breeding and I have never seen anything like this in my life.”
Today is Workers Memorial Day, a day that we mourn for those hurt or killed on the job. We also renew our fight for the living.
Today, in hundreds of ceremonies across the country, working families will honor workers who died or were injured on the job in the past year.
With 4,340 workplace deaths and roughly 50,000-60,000 deaths from occupational illnesses annually, according to the Bureau for Labor Statistics, this fight could not be more critical.
In a Workers Memorial Day proclamation, President Obama says the nation must “recommit to keeping all workers safe and healthy [and] make sure the full force of the law is brought to bear in cases where workers are put in harm’s way.”
The League of Women Voters is hosting author Dr. Riki Ott, author of Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, to speak on Saturday, May 7 at 11:30 a.m. in Pensacola, Florida at New World Landing, 600 South Palafox.
According to the Facebook event invitation, she will share her views on the BP oil spill in the Gulf. Tickets are $17 per plate and the luncheon follows the League’s annual business meeting, which starts at 10 a.m. For more information or to reserve a seat contact the League at 937-7769.
You may recall Dr. Ott from our story and video coverage of her presentation in Orange Beach on October 11, 2010. If you are new to the story, click on the link to get a glimpse of her views of the disaster and the health crisis.
Your bridges are burning now.
They’re all coming down;
It’s all coming ‘round.”
- Foo Fighters
Guest Column
by Ray Vaughan
Founder and Executive Director WildLaw
Dear Friends:
Many of you may have heard rumors about the future of WildLaw and what is happening with our organization. Due to tough economic times drying up all our major funding sources and due to some other factors, WildLaw, quite simply, has no future; the organization is done and wrapping up operations.
WildLaw will cease operations on May 31, 2011, and after 25 years of public interest legal work, I am retiring. This memo contains my thoughts and reflections on what an incredible journey WildLaw and I have had.
I am an educator in the state of Alabama. I have been under attack in my native home. Since the session began in March, so have you!
It appears that some members of the legislative body have forgotten that educators are living, breathing human beings. Apparently, we are just dollars and decimal points on a piece of paper, or a name on an association roster. Perhaps, we are their favorite target, or bless his heart, perhaps Dr. Hubbert is.
If that is the case, we obviously fail to be seen behind him. We are continuously taking on shrapnel, and the children of Alabama are being hit with falling debris.
Whatever the case, I, like many of you are being pushed to the brink of poverty. Professional chaos and disorder in my career, loom in the shadows, its name is “Putting Students First Act.” With the signing of Senate Bill 2, when we were told what we could do with the money in our own paycheck, the parade of injustice began.
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
