Gulf Watchers Monday -A Year Later, More Questions than Answers - BP Catastrophe AUV #505

A year after the "spill", problems with new regulatory agency.  Feinberg still under fire. Scientists may disagree about extent of damage to the Gulf, but most agree it is not over. A heartbroken father's fight to make things right.

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The pre-spill Minerals Management Service, partially blamed for the existence of the culture which allowed the BP spill to occur, has been reorganized and new stricter rules for offshore drilling have been put in place.So things are better, right?  Even Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, and Michael Bromwich, director of the new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement admit that we are a long way from rigorous oversight! The new agency, unfortunately, suffers from some of the same problems as its predecessor, the MMS. “M.M.S. became an agency systematically lacking the resources, technical training or experience in petroleum engineering that is absolutely critical to ensuring that offshore drilling is being conducted in a safe and responsible manner,” the panel said in its final report, issued in January. “For a regulatory agency to fall so short of its essential safety mission is inexcusable.” Many of those flaws remain, according to William K. Reilly, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator who was one of two chairmen of the commission. He said last week that Mr. Bromwich was doing a creditable job, but that the agency still lacked the technical expertise needed to oversee such a specialized industry. “They changed the name, but all the people are the same,” Mr. Reilly said. “It’s embarrassing.” Can the blame really be put on Bromwich, or is he doing the best he can? Bromwich is a former federal prosecutor and Justice Department inspector general, "pressured" by Obama into taking over the agency last June. The bureau’s budget has been basically flat since it was created in 1982, even as drilling activity in the deep-water gulf has drastically increased and the technology has grown more complicated. “Without more resources, we can keep doing what we’re doing, but we can’t grow,” Mr. Bromwich said in an interview during a recruiting trip to nine West Coast universities, where he was trying to lure young scientists and engineers to apply for relatively low-paying government jobs. “We need more people, and we need new people.” Mr. Bromwich has asked the Office of Personnel Management to adjust pay schedules so his office can compete with oil companies, which in some cases are paying twice the government salary for petroleum engineers. Mr. Obama has asked for an increase of more than $100 million to the agency’s roughly $250 million annual budget. Congress provided about half that amount in the short-term budget deal reached last week, but discussions have not begun on next year’s budget. While the oil spill commission proposed many changes in policy, the political atmosphere has changed dramatically with a now Republican controlled House. The oil industry and their allies in Congress believe that the agency's chief purpose should be the promotion of the development  of natural resources, not putting on new constraints. The House is considering three bills that would force the agency to move more quickly on drilling permits, to open vast new areas along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts to drilling and to reopen lease sales that had been canceled after the Deepwater Horizon spill. A separate bill would ease environmental rules for drilling off the shores of Alaska. “Much of the legislation that I have seen being bandied about, especially with the House Republicans, is almost as if the Deepwater Horizon-Macondo well incident never happened,” Mr. Salazar said last week. “If another Macondo happened and we didn’t have the ability to contain it, it would probably mean the death of energy development in the nation’s oceans.” Don't forget that the "new and improved" containment system, that allowed new drilling permits to be granted, has not been tested in real life conditions...and..would still allow hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil to escape before the well could be contained. 10 new permits have been granted, 15 are pending. Representative Markey, no longer chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, continues to critical of both government and industry regulators. There are some hopeful signs in all this, however. There are reports that rig inspectors are no longer accepting free meals and free transportation from the rig operators, “They’re bringing their own lunches when they make visits,” said Mark Shuster, Shell’s manager for gulf operations. He described inspections as more effective and comprehensive, but said the agency remained woefully understaffed and apparently lacking in resources to hire enough qualified new talent. “They need experienced people who really do know what they are doing,” he said.

According to one reporter, Kenneth Feinberg is viewed in Louisiana as "a smooth-talking carpetbagger who doesn't deliver on promises." He describes himself as "bloodied but unbowed"  Are folks angry because they haven't been fairly compensated, or is it his arrogant, larger than life personality? Apparently he pissed off a lot of New Yorkers also. When BP and President Barack Obama first chose Feinberg to run the $20 billion oil spill fund, he was known for masterfully compensating victims of Agent Orange, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Virginia Tech shooting. It appears he has earned the opposite reputation on the Gulf Coast. But the truth is that any effort to put a dollar value on lost lives or lifestyles will rub many the wrong way, and Feinberg -- the putative hero of Sept. 11 compensation -- actually made many enemies in that process, too. "I was constantly attacked by 9/11 families," Feinberg said in a documentary about that Victim Compensation Fund, called "Out of the Ashes: 9/11." The film shows that many families came to despise Feinberg for making them justify their lost loved ones' worth, even though that's precisely what he was tapped to do -- and did for no pay. Marilyn Berger, the law professor at Seattle University who made the film, said Feinberg's strong personality exacerbated his troubles. Berger believes that's also what has fueled the controversy surrounding his work on the BP fund. "He never should have taken that role, but his ego wouldn't let him turn it down," Berger said. "He thought it would be a cakewalk because he would have all this money at his disposal and he could go right in and start paying. Until he gets slapped around a lot, he doesn't really get it." The numbers of resolved claims will never tell the whole story. Many waited months for checks, were forced to resubmit documents, or took much less just because they needed to pay their bills. Medical claims, except for physical injury are not being paid. So what has Feinberg accomplished thus far. So far, about 116,000 claimants have taken a final payment from Feinberg -- or 56 percent of those who have sought a settlement that bars them from pursuing any further spill-related claims in court. Those are Feinberg's clear wins. Another 50,000 people and businesses have filed lawsuits against BP, rig owner Transocean and others for causing the spill. But any of them can withdraw at any point if they get a better deal from Feinberg, meaning they're still in play for him. Then there are the 150,000 claimants waiting for a final offer or pursuing interim payments on a quarterly basis while they assess their damages. They also could take the cash, or file suit, depending on how Feinberg does. ... Eight months after Feinberg took over the claims process from BP, his organization has paid 176,000 claimants more than $3.7 billion, about $21,000 on average. The $21,000 average is disturbing since we know that some businesses received hundreds of thousands, and one particular claim, not vetted by Feinberg received millions. Also disturbing is the number of "final" claims that have been "quick settlements" These are payments to anyone who received an emergency payment, $5000 for an individual, $25,000 for a business and require no further documentation. Worry is that folks are being forced to accept these payments, (and acceptance means giving up your right to bring a civil lawsuit against BP), because of desperation Nearly 90 percent of the final payments to date have been "quick payments" of $5,000 for individuals and $25,000 for businesses. Feinberg created that option in December to get easier, non-recurring claims out of the way. It certainly did that. But payments for the more complex claims haven't followed. ... Feinberg has paid fewer than 10 percent of the claims from 100,000 people and businesses seeking full reviews, not the flat quick payments. Fishers and business claimants are especially upset that he has paid fewer than one in every 10 quarterly interim claims -- because that method of payment is available, by law, as a way of offering rolling compensation to those still suffering losses, without forcing them to sign away their right to sue later on. Critics complain that Feinberg is sloughing off on interim payments to protect BP from open-ended liability. On the flip side, some people say the delay in interim payments has forced victims to take inadequate quick payments out of desperation. As usual, it's the little guy that gets hurt. Jackie Jackson of Metairie, a longtime waitress at Carmine's Restaurant in Metairie, was laid off last year. After sending her documentation to the claims facility no fewer than six times, she was three months behind on rent and about to be evicted. Last week, she took the $5,000 quick payment so she could pay her landlord and cover two more months of bills while she looked for a new job. She believes a full settlement would have covered about $19,000 in lost earnings. "I signed the waiver, but I sent in a paper stating I signed it under duress," she said. "If I could have had more time, it would have worked much better."

On the health of the Gulf, improvement but room for worry. In an Associated Press survey of three dozen scientists, there was a feeling that the overall health of the Gulf is close to what it was pre-spill, but there are specific concerns regarding the sea floor and wildlife.  Remember that the Gulf had already been compromised by oil, hurricanes,overfishing and the effects of run off from the Mississippi River. More than three dozen scientists grade the Gulf's big picture health a 68 on average, using a 1-to-100 scale. What's remarkable is that that's just a few points below the 71 the same researchers gave last summer when asked what grade they would give the ecosystem before the spill. And it's an improvement from the 65 given back in October. At the same time, scientists are worried. They cite significant declines in key health indicators such as the sea floor, dolphins and oysters. In interviews, dozens of Gulf experts emphasized their concerns, pointing to the mysterious deaths of hundreds of young dolphins and turtles, strangely stained crabs and dead patches on the sea floor. ... In the survey, some categories, such as red snapper and king mackerel, even average out to higher grades than before the spill, mostly because months of partial fishing bans have helped populations thrive. While that sounds good, the average grades for the sea floor plunged from 68 pre-spill to a failing grade of 57 now. Dolphins initially seemed to be OK, but as more carcasses than usual kept washing up - almost 300 since the spill - the grade fell to 66, compared to a pre-spill 75. Oysters, always under siege, dropped 10 points, crabs dropped 6 points. And the overall food web slid from 70 before the spill to 64 now. Of course, opinions vary depending how much recent research one has done. Samantha Joye, from the University of Georgia has led 5 separate expeditions and taken 250 cores of the sea floor and traveled 2600 square miles. She says much of the invisible oil in the water and on the sea bottom has been chemically fingerprinted and traced to the BP spill. She also has pictures of oil-choked bottom-dwelling creatures like crabs and brittle stars - starfish-like critters that are normally bright orange but now are pale and dead. ... Joye said before the oil spill she would have given the sea floor an "A" grade of 90. Now she gives it a 30. Overall, Joye, who has been one of the more hands-on researchers exploring Gulf damage, said its health has plunged from an 80 before the spill to a 50 now, but she was the most pessimistic of the researchers. As on the sea floor, oil is hidden in the marshes and the wetlands. This is hidden from view. Eugene Turner, an LSU wetlands scientist, has looked at marshes in Louisiana's Barataria basin, and found oil buried in the mud and sand. "You can't smell it. You can't see it. It's not this big black scum out there, but it's there," Turner said. At this point, the oil is only obvious in a couple of places - with Bay Jimmy the worst-hit. Today, a crust of oil still lines miles of the outer fringe of marsh in the bay, a remote spot deep visited by the occasional fisherman and oil worker. Most tragic, and the more difficult to access are the deaths of marine mammals and turtles. Were they a direct effect of the oil, or were they starved because of effects lower in the food chain? Florida State University oceanographer Ian MacDonald warned his fellow scientists to be on the watch for deaths of big marine mammals. That was in October. Since January, 155 young or fetal dolphins and small whales have washed up on Gulf beaches - more than four times the typical number - according to NOAA. A new study estimates that for every dead dolphin that washes ashore there are 50 dolphins that are never found. That suggests more than 7,500 dolphin deaths the first three months of this year alone. ... Fifteen of this year's dead dolphins had oil on them, and NOAA chemically linked six of those to the BP well. It's not just dolphins that are dying. NOAA reports in the first few months of this year, 141 endangered sea turtles were stranded -a higher than normal number. On top of that, Monty Graham, a researcher at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, noticed fewer jellyfish last year. "We are looking at how the food web could have shifted in general," Graham said. "We think we have growing evidence that the system shifted and became starved for food" for larger sea animals. At Tulane University, scientist Caroline Taylor is investigating strange orange droplets inside crab larvae. Her team has taken samples from thousands of crabs, but they have not begun to analyze the abnormalities. As with the dolphin deaths, there is data being collected by the federal government that is not being made public, nor is it available to scientists doing research. At least until penalties and fines for the environmental damage have been calculated.

Heartbroken father fights to change the law. Click and read the entire article. Have your hankie ready. It is the human toll of this unnecessary and tragic disaster that really is unbearable to me. No parent wants to live to see their child die, and not in such a way. But to feel that there is no justice that will be done... Keith Jones' son, Gordon was killed in the blast that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon. Gordon Jones, a mud engineer, was just 28 years old and the father of a 2 year old son. Three weeks after his death a second son was born. Advocacy has been on the mind of Jones, 59, a lawyer, for much of the past year. He has been consumed by a mission to change the Death on the High Seas Act. Passed in 1920, the law prevents the survivors of victims in wrongful death cases at sea from recovering anything other than direct damages, such as funeral costs and loss of a paycheck through retirement. Other damages common in wrongful deaths on land -- pain and suffering, loss of a loved one -- do not apply. "It's a terrible law, so unfair," he said. "It's draconian. It screams out for change." M-I SWACO, the company Gordon Jones and one other victim worked for, has been paying Michelle Jones the salary her husband received when he died. But she sued the other companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon incident, among them BP and Transocean. Keith Jones says that Transocean at least reached out to them and expressed their condolences. They were invited to be part of the memorial service that Tranocean held. But BP, which oversaw and directed the ill-fated drilling, has not even contacted the Joneses, much less apologized about what happened, Keith Jones said. He hopes holding them liable for much more than a minimal sum of money may begin to encourage safer drilling methods, so that his son's death at least generates something positive. BP insists that it was part of the memorial service and that it remembers the dead workers on a daily basis. "As a company worldwide, we will be taking a standdown on April 20th to remind ourselves that 11 of our colleagues lost their lives in service of meeting the energy challenges and demands of the U.S. and the globe. As we do, by the way, every month on the 20th in our operations, and every Sunday we stop and remind ourselves. I think for many of us, we remind ourselves every morning when we get up. I know I do." "...lost their lives in service of meeting the energy challenges..." Really chokes you up, doesn't it. How about in the service of the greed and avarice of the BP corporate heads, Mr. Micheal Utsler, head of BP's Gulf Coast Restoration Organization. Keith Jones has made eight trips to Washington to testify in front of various Congressional committees. he has even met with President Obama. Efforts such as those appeared to be paying off in July. Despite resistance from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Texas U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, then the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, the House approved a bill overhauling limits to the amount of damages the dead rig workers' families could recover. But after cruise lines and shipping companies lobbied against the legislation, Sen. James DeMint, R-S.C., blocked the Senate from voting on it in December, shortly before the congressional session ended. "One or two people can block the entire process," said Sandra Jones, Keith Jones' wife, about the outcome of her husband's quest. "It's so disheartening." Several families of the men killed on the Deepwater Horizon have reached undisclosed settlements with various companies involved in the blast. But others have not -- and for them, Keith Jones has resolved to convince the House to once again introduce a bill. It is not just the oil companies the Keith Jones is fighting against. The politics of the Gulf, as it relates to drilling, makes him just as mad. In March, his other son Chris, also a lawyer, testified before the House Committee on Natural Resources as it debated new drilling permits. Late in March, Chris Jones testified before the House Committee of Natural Resources as it debated new drilling permits. "Consider the repercussions of not ensuring the safety of these (rig) workers before allowing BP and others to keep doing business as usual," he pleaded. But Scott Angelle, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, testified that the deepwater drilling moratorium after the Deepwater Horizon explosion badly harmed the Gulf's economy. House members asked Angelle which of the National Oil Spill Commission's safety recommendations he objected to. Angelle acknowledged that Louisiana understood drilling "should not be business as usual," but first he answered that he was not familiar with all of the suggested safety guidelines. Keith Jones still bristles at the answer. "No one down here thinks about these rigs operating in a safer way," he said. "It made me ... resentful ... (that) nothing concerned him about the loss of life. He couldn't care less. It was all about the money. Every mistake they made, every risk they took was to make more money faster."

PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

Previous Gulf Watcher diaries:

4-17-11 12:02 PM	Gulf Watchers Sunday - Chronic Re-oiling and Residue Balls - BP Catastrophe AUV #504	Lorinda Pike
4-15-11 06:37 PM	Gulf Watchers Block Party - Who Are You?	Lorinda Pike
4-15-11 08:15 AM	Gulf Watchers Friday - We'll Have Another Blowout Within Five Years - BP Catastrophe AUV #503	Lorinda Pike
4-13-11 06:00 AM	Gulf Watchers Wednesday - Mississippi AG v/s Feinberg, Round 2 - BP Catastrophe AUV #502	peraspera

The last Mothership has links to reference material.

Previous motherships and ROV's from this extensive live blog effort may be found here.

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