How safe will the Gulf Coast & Mississippi River be in the forseeable future for all forms of life?
The environmental impact of the sewage leaks, the chemical spills/ explosions, the hospital waste and morgues, the “major” oil spill… this is disasterous.
Why are we not talking about it?
There will be severe health implications for hundreds of thousands of residents in the Gulf coast & potentially further north as the spill is at the mouth of the Mississippi, for many years to come. Drinking water will be contaminated and yet the majority of the poor who inhabit the region cannot afford bottled water.
Wells will be contaminated and livestock and crops will be ruined as they will have nothing but the poisoned water to drink… and fish will be killed with the toxins in the water. Wildlife will be infected and die. Alligators will need to be hunted and killed as they will carry diseases from eating so many dead and contaminated corpses.
Sorry for all the doom and gloom, but it’s a big deal.
This is a major environmental disaster. And we need to start hearing about a plan for clean up asap from the Federal Gov’t.
The spill was first spotted Thursday during a flyover, department spokeswoman Jean Kelly told MSNBC.com, “but we still don’t have access to the area.”
The spill was just north of Venice, a town in the Mississippi River Delta, and 65 miles southeast of New Orleans.
….
Each tank is 20 feet tall and 200 feet in diameter, she said. The department initially estimated that total capacity could be one million barrels each but later reduced that to 80,000 each.
Kelly said the department still doesn’t know who owns the tanks and therefore can’t be sure how much oil is in them.
….
Homeland Security officials were restricting access to the area, and Kelly said the state agency had notified both the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency so that they can begin clean-up.
Coast Guard officials in St. Louis said they were looking into the report but that their priority was search and rescue in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
MSNBC ~ `Major oil spill’ seen on Mississippi River
It’s great that they’ve identified a big problem, but not so great that they still don’t know who owns them, how much oil is in them and therefore potentially in the Mississippi and gulf… and have no real plan to clean it up and protect the public health.
This whole thing is a complete and utterly tragic failure in emergency preparedness or response. Criminal really.
Military coup — NOW! They can take care of this shit. The government can’t and we can’t — we can take care of people, but we cannot, as you pointed out elsewhere, provide helicopters, hazmat teams, etc. etc. etc.
Bush has fucked us all — he must go, by hook or by crook.
I can not even begin to imagine the long term effects-besides the obvious short term effects-that this environmental devastation is going to cause and that would be in a best case scenario where all the money/help was given for thousands of people and agencies to do clean-up, making sure everything from water, the ground, everything is environmentally safe. And we already know that is absolutely not going to happen.
And after watching bush on c-span today is obvious even after being briefed he still had no goddamn fucken clue(he asked no questions)..besides making a joke about old party days in NO.. and no nothing about environmental came up at all that I remember.
You’re right brinn, we simply can’t afford to have him in charge for several more years..dear god several more years and there will be absolutely nothing left of this country.
Funny, I’ve been thinking along the same lines, but didn’t want to say it. You did, and I’m glad. Perhaps a coup is exactly what need but I hope it is a coup by the people (remember solidarity) with cooperating military presence.
There needs to emerge a leader, a “sinner”, someone who doesn’t give a shit about “moral” issues, or fundamentalist “values”, except those that involve taking care of each other.
Check out http://unenviablesituation.blogspot.com, a very underappreciated excellent blog for thoughts on that.
I’ve reversed my thinking on impeachment. We need much, much more than that. We need a clean sweep.
be careful what you wish for… the military could work well in the short term, but longer term they aren’t too big on “freedom of speech” and “democracy”… not their bag baby… as Jack said in A Few Good Men… “we follow orders or people die”… probably not in the end what you would be okay with as a government… 🙂
so yes, get Bush out, but do it with civilians… 🙂
I feel your pain and outrage… This whole thing is absolutely criminal.
one or more other countries who stand ready to help us, but are being kept back by the Court Jester — please!! Invade us for our own good!
Yeah, that part I just really can’t grasp… how on earth do you refuse help when people are dying? It makes no sense. This whole thing makes no sense to me… how can they really be this cold and evil?
I had the same thought today.
This is so short, I’m posting it all but the last sentence, which just said the Department of Environmental Quality had no more details.
Major oil spill spotted on Mississippi River
9/2/2005, 6:03 p.m. CT
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — State officials said Friday they have spotted a huge oil spill near two storage tanks at the town of Venice, on the Mississippi River downstream from New Orleans.
A flyover by the Department of Environmental Quality revealed what was described as a “major” oil spill.
“Two tanks with the capacity of holding two million barrels appear to be leaking,” the statement said.
DEQ officials didn’t yet know how much oil had spilled into the Mississippi River and were doing further flyovers to determine the extent of the spill, spokesman Darin Mann said.
NOLA
Tomtech posted at Kos:
“That was 2 million barrels which is 84 million gallons. 8 times as much as Exxon Valdez.”
The diary died after a brief dispute over the numbers, but this seems really ghastly! This is going into the Gulf of Mexico, considerably smaller than the Pacific. Eight times as much as Exxon Valdez!
It’s not an unreasonable question to ask and demand answers on – they discovered this Thursday and yet today we still don’t know for sure how much oil was in there ~ anywhere from 160,000 barrels to 2 million? That’s just unacceptable. This is a major disaster either way since, as you pointed out, the Gulf is much smaller and more populous than the North Pacific…
Add in the chemical plant explosions, the raw sewage, the dead people, etc. it’s just horrific… and we need a plan and somebody taking some action quick.
is at Venice, La., where the oil spill is.
http://www.fws.gov/delta/
Although we must concentrate on the immediate human relief effort, the long term environmental damage is going to be incalculable.That corridor there, which is already called ‘Cancer Alley’, may become known as Chernobyl West.
AAGH.