News rater, anti-Palin group get govt Gulf work

I thought I was finished but this item wouldn't let me. In a classic example of "Who's zooming who?", the AP reports on some of the contracts awarded by the government in the cleanup of the BP oil spill.

I would have loved to get the $10,000 for the three minutes of video the guy in Baton Rouge got. I've shot about 15 hours of tape and produced about 3 hours of video features. I'm not getting dime one.

Local Heroes and Parting Thoughts

After two months, a dozen video reports and over 40 stories on the blog, it’s time to end the little red tar balls project and get back to a real job. But there’s a story I call “Local Heroes” that needs to be told. They have done nothing as spectacular as walking on the moon but to life on the Gulf Coast it’s every bit as important. All they are doing is working every day to preserve their coast. Their home.

I’ve recorded some of these people on camera. I’ve talked with many more with the camera safely in its case. These are the people get up every morning and live their personal and professional lives. In that way, they keep the Gulf moving forward.

I spoke with a woman on a lunch van who sets up every day only a few hundred yards from a major mustering point for the oil spill response team in Slidell, Louisiana. The spill workers have their lunches shipped in so her business is in the bin compared to other years, but she still sets up shop every day.

I spoke to several shrimpers who are having their nets torn up by the anchors that were used to secure the oil booms. When removing the booms, the workers didn’t winch up the anchors. They just cut the mooring lines leaving the anchors on the bottom all sharp and pointy. But the shrimpers still cast their nets and try to figure out how to deal with that sharp debris.

I’ve talked to entrepreneurs whose businesses are hurting because the summer tourist season simply didn’t happen this year. Some businesses have failed and others still may. The rest soldier on.

These are some of my local heroes.

Each of the local folks I interviewed on camera are most certainly local heroes. In the order they appeared in the video vignettes, they are…

Kenny DiNero, because the spill has put him up against the wall in so many ways. More than most, probably. Last week I asked him what was happening with his claim. BP came back with a payment offer of only 5% of his losses for this year. Five percent? Are they serious? He also went to a meeting with Ken Feinberg, the head of the government agency that’s taken over the claims process and didn’t feel any more confident about a realistic outcome. Through his frustration, he keeps on fighting for his business and his personal financial survival.

Finley Hughes and Dustin Renaud, because they facilitate a massive effort that will help scientists understand the effects of the spilled oil and the dispersants on the wildlife. They work cheerfully and, it appears, tirelessly. Finley drags himself all across the coast to work with different Audubon groups and external entities increasing their effectiveness. Dustin works with an ever-changing cast of volunteers to comb the coast for precious data points to feed to scientists. Plus, being a local, he is passionate about how the oil has hurt his coast and his beaches.

Darlene Carter, because she loves her home town and her community and refuses to sit idly by when there’s trouble. In the five years since Katrina and the birth of the Moss Point Visionary Circle, Darlene and members of her community have developed numerous programs to instill values in the youth and teach the power of personal empowerment to everyone. As I think I said here when I first posted her video, what MPVC does is in the best American tradition. Find a problem and mobilize community resources to solve it. There’s no waiting for the government or some outside group to come in and fix it for them. It’s see and do. Right now.

Barbara Ruddiman, because she makes sure that people get fed that otherwise might not have a good meal and she does it week in and week out. She works the logistics to make it all work and figures how to make it work for more people because there are others who really need a good meal. Did I mention that “The Lord Is My Help” was started by Kenny DeNiro’s mother and that the lady with white hair behind the counter is 100 years old and is Kenny’s grandmother? They are my heroes too.

Mark LaSalle, because he seeks the truth in the science in his studies on the Gulf. He has no agenda or ax to grind. He simply wants to know what’s happening as a result of the oil and the dispersant. The fact that he’s passionate, self effacing and has a wicked but subtle sense of humor make him a lot of fun to spend time with.

Bill Stallworth, Debi Thomas and all the people at Hope CDA, because they care. But more than that, they’ve taken that concern for their neighbors and their community and converted it into a powerful force, supported by tireless energy and amazing good cheer. I don’t think I’ve ever met so many good hearted and committed people all in one place. Did I mention they are also very, very bright? What I’ve seen them do, with my own eyes is amazing.

Each of these people and so many people I never got to meet are all local heroes to me.

I will admit here, in this final post of the Little Red Tar Balls Project, that I have some very strong political views. I have done my best to keep them out of the stories told here. Only you can judge if I’ve been successful. What I do like about all of the people I’ve talked with is their spirit of self reliance. It appeals to the libertarian streak in me. Even the Steps Coalition with a left leaning approach to things, have the same spirit. They watch over their neighborhoods and communities and take action when they think it’s needed.

How many of us have seen bad things going on around them and done nothing to change it… to help. I have and I’ve never been proud of that. It took me 57 years on this planet to get involved. All I could do was help these people tell their stories and to try to shed some light on what’s really happening down here. Had I been from this area and had roots in a town or city I could have connected to some group to be more hands-on. But I wasn’t. So I came down here to tell stories.

If my opinion is worth anything, this sort of self reliance and involvement needs to be exported from the Gulf coast to the big cities and suburbs all over this country. Transplant this spirit to St. Louis, Missouri, Long Beach, California, Fredrick, Maryland or anyplace where issues need tending. Keep the political agendas out of it and big things can happen. You can see it up in Harlem where a lot of people are improving public education with their charter school initiatives.

The improvements might not be as big as we’d like, but each step in the right direction is one step farther from the wrong direction. We must add our light to the sum of light because as Bill Stallworth recounted in his interview, “Evil thrives when good men and good women do nothing.”

Richard Lucas
September 9, 2010
Biloxi, Mississippi

Hope

"Add your light to the sum of light." That's a line from a movie that has emerged as a theme of this whole "Little Red Tar Balls" project. That's because no single individual can fix things alone. Whether it's the Katrina recovery or dealing with the BP oil spill, it's the local groups that bring the people together into a force to be reconed with. Large or small, they are integral to the workings of this region.

I've looked into a few of them over the course of this project. From "The Lord Is My Help" food pantry to the Steps Coalition, Moss Point Visionary Circle and even the Audubon Society, they are all marshaling forces to improve things on the Gulf Coast.

There's one more that deserves some time, Hope CDA, a group I've spent a lot of time with over the last two weeks. These are the people behind the "Phenomenal People" celebration of recovery from Katrina. At the risk of giving too much of their story away, this is a small group with limited resources that has achieved remarkable things since coming into being after Katrina. They are a non-denominational, faith-based non-profit group focused primarily on providing housing to the low income and minority communities across Mississippi's coastal counties.

From what I've seen, a large part of their success comes from enlisting the support of businesses and organizations. Not just locally but across the country. At the nexus of all this activity is Bill Stallworth who divides his time between roles as Executive Director of Hope CDA and Biloxi city councilman. Aided by Marketing Development Officer, Debi Thomas, Wan, Ashley and the rest of his highly enthusiastic and motivated team, Bill is the spiritual motivator behind all that they do.

I was introduced to Bill by Debi during the "Tears to Cheers" beach celebration and was invited for an interview, recorded late afternoon on August 26th. It was sandwiched between Bill's interview with Tom Foreman of CNN and that evening's "Phenomenal People Gala" awards banquet.

This is very much worth watching for it shows that people like Bill and his team bode well for the future of the Gulf Coast. And they are just one group. How many more groups are out there across the USA doing work like this? I would ask that you find the one in your area that shares your view and volunteer with them.

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BP spent $94M on ads during spill

So says Politico.

And so it goes.

A Second Big Bang and Dispersant

GERALD HERBERT/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Another explosion. What initially sounded like deja vu from last April appears to be a minor event. Thankfully, the dozen workers on the rig escaped safely and reports now state there is no oil leaking. Time will tell if the last part is true.

At almost the same time, reports surfaced that evidence of dispersant were discovered in relatively large quantities near Horn Island off the Mississippi coast. This is odd since BP stopped using dispersant  on July 19, and according to a representative of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the dispersant has a half life of seventeen days. (Statement made at about 2:00 into this video.)



Something seems amiss. If it's been nearly one and a half months since dispersant was applied in the Gulf, and the half life data is correct, there should be less than 25% of it remaining. So why is it showing up many miles from the blown rig sight in these concentrations? Why also did it show up over in Alabama in late-August?

This story on al.com, posted August 31, reports of dispersant discovered elsewhere in the Gulf and quotes attorney Stuart Smith, who represents the Louisiana-based United Commercial Fisherman’s Association and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network who said that he saw C-130s spraying dispersant near the shore of the Florida Panhandle.

Smith clearly has a dog in this fight and one might rightly be skeptical of his report, but his is not the only one. I have heard several reports from Gulf fishermen that they've seen the same thing in Mississippi. Evidence suggests that the whole story of dispersant use is not being made public.

Another brick in the wall is this video with representatives of Orange Beach, AL who discuss dispersant levels in Cotton Bayou.


On a personal note, the vast majority of people I've spoken with recently believe that they are getting lied to about the oil spill. When I ask who's doing the lying, they say BP and the government. Since they control most of the direct information about the spill, one should not be surprised to see more stories like this in the future.

Phenomenal People

One would have to have been living under a rock not to know that it was five years ago last Sunday that Katrina roared ashore onto the Gulf Coast. The network and local media coverage showed the recovery work done over the years and stated that there still was more work to do. That's true, but they also have to deal with the BP oil spill. So one crisis has been largely handled but there's another one simmering under the Gulf waters and the fat part of the hurricane season is upon them.

What's become clear to me over the last months is that these people are fighters. They have to be because life down here isn't that easy. It isn't easy anywhere but places are few where entire communities can have their houses ripped apart in a single day. Beginning August 30, 2005 Moss Point started rebuilding. So did Waveland and Pascagoula. Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Bay St. Louis and all the coastal towns and cities started the long march back to their new normal. They had help from individuals and groups of people who came down from around the country to help them rebuild. They are Phenomenal People, and there was a week-long celebration of that recovery that lead up to the anniversary. Although at first glance it doesn't seem like there's a connection, but there is. You see these people came back from an epic nightmare. Now they face another one with the oil spill and what they all really want is a break to catch their breath.

I'm including a video piece here because it shows the kind of people that live here and that they are going to fight through the oil spill and come out the other side whole. It's a different kind of fight than Katrina, and it will take different skills and talents to do it, but the brains and the talent are here. There's another thing here too... grit. Most of these people don't know anything about giving up.

They'll need that ability now because this spill will take years to play out.

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Follow the link to ExposureRoom to watch in HD.

Three Misses and Next, What?

Danielle was a "fish storm". Fiona looks to be one too. Earl, well that could get dicey for some on the mainland and has already for some islanders. But it missed the Gulf.

Meet "Invest 98". That's weathergeek-speak for the next thing to watch in the tropics. This one looks like it could head into the Gulf, but it's still way to early to tell for sure. The National Weather Service currently only gives this a 20% chance of developing into a tropical storm, but that could change by the time you read this.

The Gulf doesn't need this for a host of reasons. Well, nobody does really. However, a tropical storm or hurricane in the Gulf will raise a bunch of new questions about all that missing oil. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, both in the real world and in the press. Hopefully there won't be too much to talk about.

UPDATE: This is now tropical depression Gaston. It's still too early to know what it's going to be or where it's going to go, but if I was in Belize, I'd be nervous. This will bear watching to see if it turns north or barrels into the Yucatan.

Earl will play out its dance up the North American east coast by early Saturday.

FINAL UPDATE: Overnight, TD Gaston dissipated to the point where it's no longer being tracked by the National Weather Service. They are, however, tracking two more tropical waves moving west from the African coast.

Heroes, Five Years After

Photo: NOAA

Five years ago, hurricane Katrina slammed the Mississippi shores and this week its residents are celebrating their recovery and resurgence. It's plain to see that they have come a long way but there is still much to do. That ongoing recovery has and is being done by real heroes.

They are heroes because they refuse to give up or give in. Where are these heroes? Walk down any street and they will be all around you. Sit down in any restaurant or go into any shop, they will be there. The work they did and continue to do is being done quietly, outside of the news spotlight but well within view of their friends and neighbors. Coastal Mississippi communities came together to recover and continue in their causes. Groups like the Moss Point Visionary Circle, The Lord is My Hope, Hope CDA and others were born from Katrina's devastation but they all continue to serve.

The celebration of the Mississippi recovery was called "Phenomenal People" and based upon my experiences here, they most certainly are. These are my heroes.

The Upper Pascagoula River

This really has nothing to do with the BP oil spill except that it's where some of the people effected live and play. Like the bayou tour video posted a couple of weeks ago, this is a guided tour. The difference is that the guide is my new friend, Mark Wood and the narration was a bit less formal.

When Mark offered to take me on a tour, I said yes because he said that it as different than the lower river and it was. Plus, I wanted to see more of what this area has to offer.

This video looks a little different than the last river tour for two reasons. First, I used my Canon XH-A1. I'd used my HV30 for the previous video because of space. Second, this was a lot earlier in the morning so the light was different and it looked different because of the shadows.

This was a lark. Enjoy it.

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Top Kill: The Art of the Spill

I should have posted this sooner, but I learned of Leslie and Don Wilson when I stopped for lunch at a coffee shop in Bay St. Louis last week. On the counter there was a small display holding a row of DVDs entitled "Mississippi Son". I lifted one from the display and read the case which told me this was all about Katrina and it was produced by someone who calls the Mississippi Gulf Coast home. I put down my fin and took it home to watch that night.

I was blown away by it on many levels, but I was disappointed when I realized that I would never be able to tell the story of the BP oil spill the way Leslie and Don captured Katrina. When, I found the Americana Media, Inc. web site, I saw that they were producing a documentary on the BP oil spill entitled "Top Kill: The Art of the Spill". If they brought the same talent and dedication to that as they did to "Mississippi Son", it would be something special. After exchanging an handful of emails, it was resolved that I would give them all my footage for their use in that project once I finish up my work down here. It just makes sense. They have a talent for and experience with making movies and telling stories. I'm just a pikey with a camera. Who's going to tell the story better?

They'll be in production for a couple of years, which is logical as it will take at least that long for the aftermath of the spill to play out. I don't know how much information on their progress they will publish on their web site, but follow them. Go see the movie when it's released to theaters and then for home video. If "Mississippi Son" is representative of their work, it will definitely be worth seeing.

Large Fish Kill in St. Bernard Parish

File image

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports of a large fish kill in the Gulf but suggests that it is probably not "directly" related to the BP oil spill. This may or may not be true but whether it is directly or indirectly related to the spill is really irrelevant. In the complex ecological environment of the Gulf nothing exists in isolation. An event as large as the BP oil spill will have secondary, tertiary and ongoing effects in the region. Can conclusions be drawn on this fish kill without factoring in those effects?

When reading this story, I thought back to the interview with Dr. Mark LaSalle of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center. In it, he talks about the seasonal dead zone in the Gulf caused by oxygen depletion. If I heard what he said correctly, we do not yet know if the oil spill or the dispersants are making the dead zone bigger or smaller. If he's right, it seems that there is no way to know right now what caused this fish kill. It seems that the answer, "we don't know" is unacceptable in a world of "instant news". May I suggest that it should be acceptable if all the data isn't in and that reasoned, scientific conclusions haven't been formulated yet.

As an unrelated aside, I stated when I started this blog that it was going to be apolitical and I intended to be a dispassionate conduit of information. After spending six weeks on the Gulf and talking people touched by the spill and people working at the community level who are trying to help them, I'm angry. I am angry that people aren't getting the fair restitution payments promised by BP and the federal government. I'm angry that the facts of the situation are being spun by a host of organizations for favorable press and political optics. I'm angry because the people who've lived through the aftermath of Katrina are seeing the same scenarios developing.

The facts are critical to telling this story accurately, but at the top level they seem to be as scarce as shark feathers. But it can be found in the gulf-side harbors and towns in the stories of those who live and work there. I've put a few of those stories into my videos and I've had dozens more off-camera conversations, some of which I've covered in previous posts. Through all of this I've come to two conclusions. First, these are good, tough, hard working people who care passionately about their home. Second, there are a host of people and organizations trying to game the system and the situation to their own advantage, financially, politically and ways I don't yet understand. In the end, unless something changes, the Gulf residents and potentially the wildlife will suffer for a long time to come.

That's why I'm angry.

A New Claims Process Begins Tomorrow

Most everyone in the Gulf know that starting August 23, BP will stop accepting claims from businesses and individuals suffering in the aftermath of the BP oil spill. That job now falls to the federal government group headed by Kenneth Feinberg. If you don't know Brockton, Massachusetts' favorite son, Feinberg was in charge of paying claims from the September 11th terror attacks. Consensus is that he did a good and fair job on that, so he was a natural choice for this new roll. However, all is not beer and skittles with the new BP claim process. This AP story from the WLOX TV web site describes the latest.

Clearly this will take time to play out to completion, and many things can change. But if past is prologue, one might look at the five years since Katrina to see how many people were not given a fair shake by insurance companies, FEMA and others entities.

I do not have first hand information on any claims made against BP except one. The one from Kenny DiNero, owner of a bait/tackle shop in Ocean Springs. He also runs a couple of boats to catch shrimp. He was my first interview back in July who had filed a claim with BP for lost business with his boats in early July.

I stopped down to his place this past Friday. After buying me a beer, he extracted from an envelope a small stack of papers, one of which contained the heading "Forensic Accounting". The net result was that BP was going to pay Kenny a little more than $4,200 for his losses in April, May, June and part of July. I did not study the documents in detail, nor would it have done much good if I had. I'm lousy with numbers. However, does it seem that about $1,200 per month is the right amount of compensation for bringing his business to a halt?

I will add that I've talked with community leaders, including two at the Tears to Cheers Music Festival on the Beach yesterday in Biloxi who said that large numbers of people are getting only fractions of what would be fair restitution for their hardship. I am hoping to get an interview with one of those leaders this week.

If a florist in Florida or a restauranteur in Idaho get paid off but local Gulf people and business get shortchanged then there is much wrong with the situation down here. 

Who's Covering The Spill?

It should come as no surprise that news coverage of the spill has largely dried up at the national level. Without oiled wildlife or big tar balls on the beach, there are no compelling images for the press to show so they've gone where the images and storylines are more dramatic. That leaves the local media to cover stories in their neighborhoods and the Associated Press (AP).

The AP is a wire service. Their job is to write stories and feed them to all manner of outlets around the world. They provide a valuable service for smaller news outlets with limited staff, furnishing regional, state-wide and national stories to fill out broadcast newscasts and a newspaper's blank column inches. Working weekends in small market radio stations I would go to the clanking black machine in the news room to pull copy for hourly newscasts. It was called, "Rip and read". That concept appears alive and well today as newspapers, blogs and other media rely on the AP, Reuters and other smaller news services pump out the news each day.

How pervasive is the use of AP stories? Google "New guidelines could rule out many oil claims"
or click this link and see how many times the AP story with this title shows up. The first three pages of Google results I saw showed the story on web sites from ABC, CBS, Newsmax, Breitbart, Yahoo, SFGate, USA Today and many of the other usual suspects. It also appears on web sites of local stations from coastal Mississippi's WLOX-TV to stations in Washington, DC, Las Vegas, Boise and Santa Barbara.

So what's the problem? The word is getting out across the country to media outlets large and small. No, that's not the problem. The fact that they are all re-transmitting stories from a single source is. There is no equivalent, competitive news source that might have access to different facts and views from different sources. Think of it like only being able to get your news from MSNBC, Fox News or CNN. No matter how fair or balanced they claim to be, you're only going to hear from their sources through their reporters. Not a good environment for differing perspectives to get out. Not differing opinions, but different perspectives.

I don't know what the solution to this problem might be. News gathering, especially investigative reporting is a costly business. Even more so when the subject is so technically complex as the BP oil spill. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) recently laid off staff from their news organization, big city newspapers are bankrupt and Newsweek magazine was recently sold for just a dollar. When there's no reasonable revenue stream in these efforts, it's impossible to justify the spend.

Please do not satisfy yourself by saying there are leagues of "citizen journalists" or bloggers (Iike me) who will step in to fill the gap. They cannot. Not in the way an honest journalist can. They don't adhere to the same standards of fact-checking and source corroboration that legitimate reporters are trained to do. Also, many of these bloggers exist to promote some political agenda. Left, right. Government or business. They often report based upon their talking points which isn't reporting at all. It's editorializing. Not much help if you are looking for the truth.

What's left is getting the story for yourself. Hard to do if you're in Presque Isle, Maine or Tierra del Fuego. But those closer to the Gulf can talk and listen. Go to public meetings on the spill or government town hall meetings. Have a beer at a local pub or tavern and sit at the bar. Talk to those on your left and right and find out what they know, or have only just heard. Go to the marinas and talk with the fishermen. Go to the restaurants and talk to the owners. Listen to whoever will talk with you. Sure, you will get a lot of opinions and second-hand information but some facts will surface as well. Then it's up to you to form your own opinions. Share it all with people you know and listen to what they have to say. After all that, if you don't like what's happening, go out and do something about it.

Like legendary San Francisco radio commentator Wes "Scoop" Nisker says, "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own."

We're Waitin' On Ya'

I have been down in southern Mississippi for about six weeks now and I've shot a lot of footage of pretty things but I probably haven't even scratched the surface of what's around. This is my love letter, of sorts, to everything that's here. Sit back and watch for about ten minutes and when it's done, get your butt down here.

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This one you'll want to go to ExposureRoom and watch it in HD.

Where's the Oil... Really

Widely circulated reports in the media that nearly three quarters of the spilled oil in the Gulf has been collected are now being challenged by researchers from the University of Georgia. A new story, released on Monday, August 17th in the Wall Street Journal claims the reverse is true, that three quarters of the oil is still in the Gulf. Now it's important to know two things about these conflicting estimates. First, the UGA study has not been peer reviewed yet so it should be considered "preliminary". Second, the federal researchers seem to be walking back their estimates somewhat, saying that their findings will be "refined" as more data becomes available.

With these two estimates of the remaining oil being so vastly different, it would be logical to conclude that even the experts don't know what they don't know yet. Without a way to effectively survey every cubic foot of water in the Gulf and every hectare of the Gulf floor, it is impossible to get an accurate accounting of how much is still out there and where it might be hiding. Without some amazingly advanced surveying technology, the experts will have to rely upon the extrapolation of known data points to estimate a number. That's a fine methodology when counting the stars in the universe because science understands much of the behavior of the celestial bodies in the vast void of space. However, no one seems to understand the behavior of the spilled oil any theories come with significant question marks attached.

As more data is gathered things should become clearer. Meanwhile, 450 pounds of newly arrived tar was collected off the beach in Waveland, Mississippi yesterday.

White Shrimp Season Opens
Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Monday that extensive testing of the shrimp and other seafood would be ongoing to make sure that current and future catches will be safe to eat. According to an AP story published here, here, here and elsewhere, they asked if tests for the dispersants were being done. The response was no because they have yet to develop a good test for it. That might be the biggest thing preventing a run on shrimp po-boys and plants another large question mark on the dispersants' impacts. Again, more data is required and, again, that will take more time. Meanwhile, the fishermen, seafood distributors, restaurateurs and consuming public will have to wait.

UPDATE: A report from Mother Jones covers a commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association published August 16, 2010 that describes long term concerns over contaminated fish in the Gulf.  The news is not good.

Weekend News Roundup - Updated 8/16

As expected, now that the oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf, the news organizations are pointing their cameras and pens elsewhere. President Obama brought his family for a fleeting frolic off the Florida coast, but the attention to the problem will not last.

It doesn't take a lot of digging to find stories in the press and they tend to fall into a few categories.

1. The final capping of the well
2. The drilling moratorium
3. Suing BP
4. Some fishing bans lifted

Capping the Well
Sealing the well is a fairly straightforward deal, assuming everything goes right and should be completed this coming week, but there is a wild card in the mix. That tropical depression that fell apart late last week after is crossed the Florida peninsula is making moves like it wants to strengthen. At this writing, it's reversed course back over the Gulf and could be fortified by the warm water there. It's too early to tell what will happen, but if it does get some of its mojo back, they could shut down activity at the spill sight again. Everyone will have to wait and see over the next few days.

The Drilling Moratorium
Several sources within the Obama administration are now wondering if the current six-month drilling ban is the right move. According to an Associated Press story covered on both Fox News and MSNBC, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar does not want to permit deep water drilling until companies demonstrate that they can respond much more effectively to spills at depth than BP did. Major questions exist around what that might mean, so for now it would seem that the ban will remain through November barring legal challenges to it. It's noteworthy that William K. Reilly, a former EPA administrator who co-chairs Obama's commission on the spill is wondering to the press why those rigs that have passed inspections cannot go back to work. It seems that few understand why six months is the "right" number of months to wait before drilling resumes.

Suing BP
It's clear that the big winners in this oil spill are going to be the lawyers. While some argue both sides of the drilling moratorium and others litigate claims against BP (for big chunks of any awards they win), the single biggest suit was lodged by the state of Alabama against BP and other companies associated with the failed rig because they did not act responsibly.

If history serves as a guide, it's likely that there will be an ever growing queue of legal action that will largely go unnoticed in the press. An MSNBC story says that it could be five years before any trials begin and it could be as long as 2028 before they are all resolved. The report states that there are at least 300 suits pending now and before it is all done the awards could outstrip the $20 billion set aside by BP. I have not seen any reports limiting the percentage of awards that lawyers can take. So assuming the lawyers take their customary 40% contingency fee, that means that they could extract up to $8 billion out of the BP fund leaving $12 billion for those actually harmed by the spill.

The MSNBC story states:

"The plaintiffs in the myriad of civl lawsuits make up the entire mosaic of the Gulf Coast: shrimpers and oystermen, charter boat captains, beach resort and condo owners, restaurants and bars, seafood suppliers, bait and tackle shops, even tourist attractions like Key West's Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.

Most of the parties claim severe economic losses from the oil spill, ranging from the fish they can no longer catch to tourists who never arrived to rent rooms."

What has not surfaced in the press is that the entity accepting claim applications (and I'm not clear on who that is exactly) has been, on occasion, reticent to take any for anyone other than the fishermen. The Kenny DiNero story confirms that they did not want to do anything about the damage to his bait and tackle shop or his fuel business. I have heard similar, unconfirmed, anecdotes from others. Those Gulf residents who went through the claims process after Katrina have seen this before, and few are surprised about what is going on now.

Fishing Bans Eased
Reports surfaced last week, like this one from CNN, that fishing bans are ending across the Gulf. Anyone who thinks that lifting the bans will solve the fishing communities' problems lives in a world where the sky is a color other than blue. Is anyone willing to eat any Gulf fish when the scientific community cannot quantify what the oil and dispersants have done to the aquaculture? Those working the boats know the answer and they cannot justify running their boats when they know the markets for their fish have disappeared. Sure, the government claims to have tested Gulf fish and that no oil was present but there is no way to know if their tested samples are representative of the all the fish in the Gulf. Then there's the dispersants. If there are any reports of fish being tested for them, I have not seen them. As Dr. Mark LaSalle of the Pascagoula Audubon Center indicated, it will take some time before the full effects of this spill are known. Until then, those who fish for their livelihoods will continue to suffer. They are not the only ones.

CNN, as part of their larger BP spill coverage, posted a story to their Web site on August 9th that beats the same drum that's been thumped on for months. Those "in charge" keep saying progress is being made and that things are slowly returning to normal. The story reported that White House environmental adviser Carol Browner said, "she said scientists are examining marine life in the Gulf, 'and right now nobody is seeing anything of concern'."

It's what cannot be seen that keeps Gulf residents worried.

UPDATE: The Associated Press published a story, carried by Fox News and MSNBC on the increased testing regimen being used on fish in the Gulf. It doesn't answer all the questions people have down here, but it does make some progress.

Crab Processor Takes Hit

Although this video was recorded in late June, I've added it here because it has many of the same sentiments that Kenny DiNero expressed in his interview. Here's the description of the clip from the producer.

Dennis Landry, owner of a prosperous (until this massive toxic dump by British Petroleum) wholesale crab processing operation in Larose, La., is potentially facing financial ruin because of the British Petroleum oil dump into the Gulf of Mexico. Like all the residents of South Louisiana, Dennis is NOT AGAINST OIL AND GAS, he and his neighbors just want it done right, with proper and effective safeguards and regulation, so that the fertile fisheries upon which about half the population depends for their livelihoods and family sustenance, can continue to survive and provide their generous bounty to the hard working people of South Louisiana.

Maybe it's just me, but I sense a similar frustration in this video as I did with Kenny and others that I've talked with off camera. There is still a real danger that operations like Dennis' and Kenny's will go out of business until the world believes that the seafood in the Gulf is safe to eat, and no one knows how long that is going to take.

The Debate on Dispersants

Arguably, the question asked most often by Gulf residents on the BP oil spill is, “what about the dispersant?” Is it still out there in the water? What did it do to the oil? Is it in the fish? If so, what will it do to them? What will happen if I eat those fish? Is anyone going to buy our fish? Those are  just a few of the ones I’ve heard. There are more.

It was also much on the mind of those attending the Steps Coalition quarterly meeting when the Environmental Protection Agency made a presentation and took questions. I was there to record the exchanges and while it got a little “motivated” for a bit, what’s interesting about the dozen or so minutes of video here is that very little new information on Corexit 9500 was provided.

As covered in the interview with Dr. Mark LaSalle, Corexit contains a proprietary component that the company will not publically divulge. That’s their right under the laws but it is the big wild card in trying to figure out what it is doing in the Gulf. It’s like trying to figure out what water is without knowing anything about hydrogen. Well, that’s over simplifying but you get the idea. It leaves the people, wildlife and environment in the Gulf more than a bit in the lurch. I’m not going to posit what might be right or wrong with this because that’s not up to me. It’s up to those directly involved; BP, the government's Unified Command, Corexit’s manufacturer and the people who live and work here. It’s liable to be settled by lawyers.

Back at the Steps Coalition meeting, this segment was only about one eighth of the overall discussion. All of it was important to those who had their say. Other topics covered were a more nuanced or yielded fewer facts on the spill’s current and near term status. To be honest, some of it might have gone over my head because I’m not local and as such not dialed in to other local issues. This section was selected for this piece because it is the most topical, nearest the lead on TV news and probably of the most interest to the audience beyond this region.

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I was hoping to come away from this meeting with more answers and I doubt I was alone with that desire. There appear to be no real answers to the long term questions yet. Just isolated date points. The cynic in me wants to paraphrase Mark Twain on the subject of facts, or in this case, data.

“There are three kinds… lies, damn lies and statistics.”

I guess I've been down here long enough that the frustration is starting to rub off on me.

Tuesday's Open Thread

While the media wraps up its coverage of the "Crisis in the Gulf", real work continues to find the oil that apparently has gone missing. Beach and marsh cleaning continues, and repercussions still ripple through the region.

Here's your chance to chime in with your thoughts and comments. Anything you'd like. If you have something you want me to cover, let me know. Please remember this blog is family friendly so don't post anything you wouldn't want your mother to read.

The Bayou: Nature's Nursery

As I spend more time in the Gulf and talk to more people who know this region I realize that it is an amazingly diverse and wondrous place. Unlike the shores of New England where I grew up that are famous for craggy bluffs and rocky shorelines, the Gulf coast is an alluvial creation of so many different rivers that drain from America's heartland. Inshore, these rivers create habitats comprised of marshes and swamps known as bayous. Bayous are homes for an amazingly diverse spectrum of wildlife. They are the breeding ground for countless creatures, provide protection from the elements and even other predators and they are an evolving and fragile ecosystem upon which the regions animal kingdom and humans so fully depend.

That is why so much work has gone into protecting these wetlands from the incursion of oil from the BP spill. In some areas this work has been effective, but in others closer to the source of the oil, things have not gone as well. Bayous and salt marshes on the Louisiana mainland and coastal islands have been the most at risk, and they remain exposed to the oil not recovered from the Gulf.

This piece is a tour of the bayous on the Pascagoula river. Captain Benny McCoy of McCoy River Tours takes us though the many swamps and marshes, and teaches us about the many cycles of life that go on there. If one wants to see nature's creatures, this is an excellent way to do that.

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There was so much more that wasn't captured on camera that filled Benny's two hour tour. It was so very entertaining, fun and enlightening. He taught us about gators and egrets, flowers and marshmallows and the history of this place that most that don't live here probably never knew. For instance, did you know that parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana were once a country independent from the United States? Neither did I.

Special thanks to Captain Benny McCoy for his hospitality and expert commentary. I learned a lot of things I'd never known and saw a lot of things I never imagines. Also thanks to Mark LaSalle of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center for setting me up with this wonderful opportunity.

Mark LaSalle, Ph.D.

Although the spill has stopped, questions remain. How are the fish and the shrimp? What about the birds? Where did the oil that BP and the government can’t account for go? Did the dispersants hurt or help? I have at least a dozen more. As you’ve thought about the spill, you’ve probably come up with your own. Since we can’t ask the fish, birds or the oil for answers we ask those with the expertise to glean them. The scientists.

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I turned to the one scientist I’d met covering the children’s symposium put on by the Moss Point Visionary Circle, Dr. Mark LaSalle. He is the director of the Pascagoula River Audubon center and has been on the ground there for six years, working with the bird enthusiasts, other environmental groups, government agencies and more. He agreed to talk with me and we met at the center on the river last Tuesday.

Mark is a very likable guy. To my untrained mind (I learned all the science I know back in high school), his approach to the spill contains no agenda, is based upon his experience and the data that is just now starting to surface on the aftermath. In a word, scientific. He also has the enthusiasm of Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, and their ability to translate arcane data into words normal folks like me can understand. It’s people like Mark we’ll need over the coming months and even years to explain what’s happening in the Gulf after the BP oil spill.

The Unexpected Victims

The stories in this blog and in the videos come primarily from two sources. The first is when someone tells me that there’s someone I need to talk with and then I follow the trail. For example, there was a woman inspecting a beach in Gatier who told me about the work the Audubon Society was doing at their response center in Moss Point. Audubon’s Finley Hewes pointed me to the children’s symposium put on by the Moss Point Visionary Circle and that’s where I met Darlene Carter. It works like that sometimes.

The other times I stumble upon them, like this one. I was trying to turn around on the narrow streets of Ocean Springs and saw a soup kitchen called “The Lord Is My Help”. That got me wondering if the spill had effected them. It has. They have been squeezed from both ends because the number of people needing their help is up and the donations are down.

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Their situation could possibly get worse as the Vessels of Opportunity (VOO) program is ended (which is happening now) and fewer tar balls float ashore lessening the need for cleanup workers. There are a lot of people who came into the area to take up this work. Some will stay and look for other work, but the economy is not kind to the unemployed these days. Some number of them will need the help of places like the “Lord Is My Help”. And now, they need yours.

Wings on the Ground

"What can I do to help out?"

That's probably the hardest question out there for most people when faced with the BP oil spill. There are no intuitive answers. You cannot just run out, find an oiled bird and clean it. You cannot walk down the beach picking up tar balls. You cannot buy a boat, install a giant vacuum and suck the oil out of the Gulf. But people still want to help.

The good news is that there are people and organizations whose jobs are to contribute to the recovery effort, like the National Audubon Society. They know birds and their habitats, and they have thrown their full weight behind this recovery effort.

With their unique expertise in the avian world, they have developed a variety of ways people can help... and you don't have to be in the Gulf region to do it. Sure, you can always donate money, but the Audubon Society can channel your efforts into something that can make a difference.

In this segment, I spoke with Finley Hewes and Dustin Renaud who spend each day marshaling the resources of the Audubon Society to action. Please watch this segment and pay attention to their answers to the question, "what can people do to help", in the second half of the video. They have a creative plan that I would never have thought of, and you do not have to be in the Gulf to do it.

View on ExposureRoom

Yesterday, I interviewed Dr. Mark LaSalle, also of the Audubon Society for a more scientific perspective on the oil spill. That interview is currently in post production and will be posted in the next day or two.

Thanks to Finley and Dustin for their time and hard work.

Some Images From a Day of Rest... Sort of

A heat index of 115 kept most sane people indoors today, but I wanted to get out to shoot some b-roll late afternoon and early evening. Here are a couple of frame grabs shot on the beach in Biloxi.

No wonder why people fight back from disasters to live here.

More Fishermen Feeling Pain

I have tried to keep politics out of this blog because I have no agenda beyond telling the stories of people living with the BP oil spill. Yes, the spill has a host of political implications but they are outside the scope of the Little Red Tar Balls project. As such, when I received a link to a video produced by the Coffee Party, I watched with an eye out for some political agenda or point of view. I didn't see one save the full screen at the end. But they want to build their movement and that is completely reasonable. (I would have viewed a link from someone in the Tea Party or any other political group with the same circumspection.)

That aside, this video, produced in mid-July,  tells the story of some in the Gulf Coast Vietnamese fishing community in their own words with additional comments from Kaitlin Truong, the Chair for the group "Asian Americans for Change". The piece is well done and helps tell the broader story of what life is like in this region, right now.



Thanks to Kaitlin Truong for the video and Krystal Allan of WLOX TV for the connection and the ongoing moral support.

Explore the Salt Marsh Ecosystem

This video from YouTube explains what makes up the salt marsh ecosystem along the Gulf coast and shows the myriad of life forms that depend on them. It's well done and easy to understand.

For those of you not from the Gulf, it will help you understand what is at risk if the oil contaminates these magical places.

Moss Point: The People Step Up

This is a remarkable story that's as American as it gets. A story about a city coming together to help their community. To help each other, down to each individual person when the need arises. How this came about was the vision of Darlene Carter, the President and CEO of the Moss Point Visionary Circle.

This story covers a recent symposium on the BP spill sponsored by MPVC and an interview with Darlene Carter. She describes why they put on and the back story behind their organization. Her complete interview is included in the video.

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After the camera stopped rolling, I asked Darlene to clarify what she said about working with outside alliances and consortia. She pointed back to the Katrina aftermath where those who waited for outside help took the longest time to recover. That was her "aha" moment. She saw the power, intelligence and spirit inside the people of Moss Point and set about organizing them into a formidable force to rebuild, restore and renew.

The MPVC's focus on the children makes sense. Any parent knows that it's the young ones who will ultimately take our places here. They need the best foundation that we can give them to build a better future. So they step in to help when parents' primary concerns are forced elsewhere, like how they are going to put food on the table. The sunlight of the world does not shine as brightly upon Moss Point as it does in more affluent communities so Darlene and the MPVC are making their own light.

This comes from a deep place in the American tradition. From the first days of the Colonies when Native Americans in Plymouth helped the Pilgrims bring in their first harvests, to the farms of the hills and plains where people pushed outward to build farms. Those communities came together to raise barns and lend a hand when times were tough.

It still goes on today, although it's not always visible for us to see. There are flashes that show up as "human interest" stories in print and electronic media but they are short shots that quickly fade. This story will stand in the sunlight that the people of Moss Point have made for themselves, adding their light to the sum of light.

How the Well Will Be Capped

CBS News created a succinct animation of how the blown BP well will be capped.


This was posted on July 25th and has now dated information about tropical depression Bonnie, but the portion on the capping procedure is still germain.

The BP Spill: Has the Damage Been Exaggerated?

This is the headline from the Time Magazine article which serves up interesting data points comparing Deepwater Horizon with the Exxon Valdez which suggest that there has been far less harm done to Gulf wildlife and the environment than what happened in Alaska.

It's an interesting article, backed up with data from reputable scientists and organizations that suggests that things might get back to normal quicker than most anyone thought. It also posits that there has been more harm done to humans than to animals because of the reaction to the spill from the press and environmental groups because of situational picture that they have painted for the world.

Although only two Internet pages long, there's a lot in there to consider. Some might say that this is a contrarian view, but it is very much worth reading and considering the points made. You can read the article here.

Thursday Open Thread

It's now been more than 100 days since the Deepwater Horizon exploded. This is an open forum for your comments. Anything goes, but please keep it family friendly. You shouldn't say anything that you would want your mom hearing you say.

Thanks.

Photo credit: US Navy.

The Broader Business Dilemma

View on ExposureRoom

This new video pulls back from the story of how the spill effects one person and takes a more macro view and tries to quantify some of the impact with statistics. Now Samuel Langhorne Clemens (you know him better as Mark Twain) said, "There are three kinds of facts. Lies, damn lies and statistics." The company that did the survey in this video segment didn't disclose their sample size or methodologies so I cannot vouch for the validity of the results, but they seem reasonable.

Before we get to the facts, we look at Orange Beach, AL on the day that Jimmy Buffett played his benefit on the beach. I spoke with one parrothead who came over from Louisiana for the show. He and his group took pity on me, offering sun screen and bottled water.

All the good things that you've heard about southern hospitality is absolutely true.

Please watch this and the other videos and tell your coworkers, friends and family about it. Talk with them about the Gulf and what you can do to help the region bounce back. It's up to all of us, and every little bit will help.

UPDATE: I heard a radio advert and saw a billboard for a benefit concert to be headlined by Jay Leno at the Beau Rivage casino in Biloxi on August 21. He will be the only one on the bill with tickets starting at $40. They are available now.

I've seen Jay in a theater where he tests out material for "The Tonight Show" and he was very funny. Since he was playing to the crowd and not TV cameras, he came across very differently. Since I was sitting right in front of the small stage, I realized how very tall he really is.

It will be interesting to see how well it does since Leno and casinos appeal to a different demographic than Buffett doing a beach show, but it will undoubtedly help. Who will be the next to step up for a benefit?

Note: A couple of things. Please follow this blog. As a follower you will be kept up to date on new postings, which happen about once a day. A whole bunch of followers might raise our visibility. Also, you can always view higher resolution versions by clicking the link "View on ExposureRoom" under the video window.

Quick Update

It was a busy day today. I spent the morning shooting a couple of wonderful interviews at the Audubon support center this morning and am arranging for a third that I think will round out that video segment quite nicely. So that was time very well spent. These people, both the staff and volunteers are really working hard to make a difference, and their succeeding.

What I learned from them that sticks out is that you don't have to be here or open your wallet to help. Go to their web site and poke around a bit. If you live on a migratory route that passes through the Gulf region, you can set up a "feeding station" (my words) in your back yard where birds can chow down during their travels. If for some reason those birds' normal Gulf feeding grounds can't provide the food they need, you can help fatten them up a bit in preparation. They say it better than I do, so go there and see if you might be able to help.

The afternoon was spent at a community center in Moss Point where a presentation about the spill for kids had presentations from BP, the Mississippi Dept. of Environmental Quality and a host of other groups to inform the local children what was going on and to answer their questions. One child wondered when they could go back to the beach and swim. In Mississippi, they can now. The beaches are open. Another wanted to go fish. He can now. It's catch and release only, but that's for now. Another child asked, "What about the turtles, are they OK?" That just broke my heart. But it did my heart good to know that they care about what happens in their community. More on Moss Point in another post. I'm working on a video segment about this and will be online this week. It's second in the queue.

Finally, props go out to WLOX 10 TV for seeking out stories on the spill. I first met Krystal Allan at Kenny's bait shop when she was chasing a story. We've kept in touch and she's trying to help me with contacts and moral support. Big thanks to her for that. Today, Patrice Clark was on scene in Moss Point covering the presentations. She pitched something to me that has me intrigued. More on that in another post.

I haven't seen any other reporters or news vehicles in my travels except for in Orange Beach, AL for the Buffet show. Even CBS was there. For the local media I have a question. Can there be a more important story to your viewers, listeners and readers than the spill? Surely it touches their lives in large or small ways every day. Is there any other story you're following that does?

I want to say, "shame on you" to the other assignment editors, but I won't. Not yet.

The Real Reason I'm Doing This

I need to do something to give back. It's not professional, it's not political. It's personal. This video describes how I got here. Think of it like a Foreword in a book. I don't write. I do video.

View on ExposureRoom

Note: This is a low resolution version. There is a mid res and HD version available. Click the link to go to ExposureRoom

Doing What Has To Be Done

Tropical storm Bonnie tripped over the Florida peninsula and was battered by some upper level winds unfriendly to storm development. It dropped to a tropical depression and broke up into a bunch of windy rain squalls. So the Gulf dodged a bullet. This one at least. It caused me to remember talking with a guy who was watching over his kids out on a pier about a week ago.

He is a battalion fire chief from a little town farther north in Mississippi. I asked him his thoughts on the Gulf oil spill from a visitor's perspective. He said things were obviously catastrophic for the tourism business. He said that you go to the casinos and you’ll see people sitting at the gaming tables or at the slots. There will be one person then six or seven empty chairs before there’s someone else. He said that when you see that, you know it’s bad.

I asked him if he thought there were any comparison between the BP spill and Katrina. About a week earlier, a few folks from Thibodaux, Louisiana told me that there were some in their view. and he said that there’s really no comparison. He wasn’t in Louisiana but up in his home town after Katrina and dealing as best as he could with the aftermath. His take was that after the BP rig blew they had a chance to prepare for this because it was almost two months before any oil arrived on the Mississippi shores. Katrina was different because the storm’s path was really all over the place, leaving those who actually ended up in its path only two days to prepare for it.

He told two stories about Katrina. There’s a 2000 acre storage fuel facility near his area. After the storm hit there, there was an order that went out from the President Bush that the top priority was to get that facility back as quickly as possible. The reason why was that facility supplied the lion’s share of fuel for the eastern half of the United States. That facility had to be put back on line as quickly as possible or the disaster in the Gulf was going to spread to a big part of the country in the form of fuel shortages. That facility held gasoline, diesel and natural gas.

The town the Chief calls home is in a rural area and a lot of its residents living out in the countryside. Now, a lot of those rural residents were shut ins who rely others to deliver the things they need. After Katrina, what they needed most was water and ice. The need for water is obvious, but ice was equally important because many of those folks relied on medication to stay alive and those medications, such as insulin, had to be refrigerated. He didn’t have enough vehicles in his department’s fleet or people on his staff to deliver those life sustaining supplies on a regular basis. But small town America does what it’s always done. The people volunteered their vehicles and time to make the needed runs.

Although he didn’t say it directly, I inferred from his description of events that the town’s commercial gas stations couldn’t pump fuel because they had no power. The fire department had its own supply of gasoline and diesel for its vehicles and a generator to run the pumps. So when the volunteers came in to make their life sustaining deliveries, he’d give them each ten gallons of gas. Being responsible, he kept a log of all the fuel given out and the people to whom he gave it. Once the clean up in the region got going and the main roads were open for travel, representatives from the federal government came in to “help”. I’d guess it was FEMA but he didn’t specify. When the feds saw what he was doing, they objected. They said that he was misappropriating government property by doling out that fuel. The Chief said, okay. Then he went out and got some paper and Magic Markers and made up a bunch of signs that said something like “Official Emergency Disaster Relief Vehicle” and affixed them to his volunteers’ cars and trucks with Duck Tape, because that was the only kind of tape he had.

That wasn’t enough to satisfy the feds so he went into his storage room and found a bunch of emergency vehicle lights and gave them to his volunteers to mount to their cars and trucks. He said he had no idea if any of the lights actually worked, but he thought it might convince the feds that the cars and trucks were about as officially part of the Fire Department’s relief effort as he could make them. The federal people still maintained that what he was doing was against the rules.

That tore it for him. He turned to the feds and said, “Fine. If you don’t like it put me in jail. When I’m in there you’re going to have to give me food and water and air conditioning because you have generators in the jails. If you want to do that, go ahead. Until you do, I’m going to keep on doing what I’m doing. I would much rather give these people some gas so they can deliver this ice and water that our people need to stay alive than send out a truck to take away dead bodies.”

I don’t know for certain because he never said, but I suspect that ended that complaint straight away.

The Chief also talked about a father and son who came down to Waveland to help out after the storm. The father was a Viet Nam veteran who’d apparently been in the thick of it over there. He never talked about it but it was understood that he had seen some rough stuff over there.

Once the pair was done working in Waveland and they were heading back, the father turned to his son and said, “That was the worst thing I have ever seen.”

One cannot wonder what these people who live down here are made of that they live through disaster after disaster but refuse to leave their home. They hunker down to stay safe during the storms, then they come together to help each other rebuild… to reclaim their home and their communities. I’d call it grit and what the fictional Senator Jefferson Smith said, “a little looking out for the other guy.”

I’m an generally an optimist so I’d like to think that’s what Americans do when their friends, families, communities or country is in need of help. To me, that’s more valuable than any check someone might write to a relief charity somewhere. It’s just one of the things that makes America an exceptional and remarkable country.

NOTE: I know the Chief's name and town, but I didn't want to use it in this story because I never asked his permission so the name and place are withheld to protect the innocent and the resourceful.


Update: Edited for formatting only on 9/24/10

Kenny DiNero's Interview is Online

It might take me a while to get this right because I'm running on the edge of my technical expertise. The video is at ExposureRoom. I did that because YouTube can only handle 10 minutes at a time and Vimeo will only accept 500MB per week and the source file ended up 506MB. Missed it by that much.
The video is now embedded. You can also watch it in different resolution options by clicking on the link below the video window labeled "View in ExposureRoom".

View on ExposureRoom

One of the nice things about ExposureRoom (and Vimeo for that matter) is that you can let people download the video. I'd respectfully request that you do that and share it with everyone you know. Not just for Kenny, but for all of those put on the back foot by the spill.

The Scariest Words In The World

“I’m from the government and I’m here to help”. Yea, it’s an old joke but it’s appropriate for this post.

Let me introduce you to Kenny DiNero. He owns a bait and fuel dock in Ocean Springs and runs a couple of shrimp boats. I sat down with him this morning to talk about where the oil spill has put him and his business and what he told me was not pretty. I expected that because his business is at the nexus of everything hurt by the spill. Shrimping was banned so his boats had nothing to do. The charter business tanked because fishing was banned. Fishing tournaments were cancelled, and they were big ones.

One sad fact tells the tale. Yesterday, July 21, the shop brought in $214. That’s it. It was apparent that wasn’t going to come close to making his monthly nut.

So, he goes to the government to apply for remuneration for the business he’s lost. As he tells it, the person he spoke with couldn’t do anything relative to lost sales for bait and fuel, but he could help him file a claim on the two boats. The government needed a bunch of financial records including tax returns from 2007, 2008 and 2009. He pulls together what they need, delivers that to them and waits. After a while he called to find out what was going on. Kenny was told that he needed to resubmit all the paperwork again because the first set was filed away in an archive somewhere. Not a problem because he had copies. He sent them in and waited some more. So the short story is that almost a month has gone by and he’s yet to see a dollar, but the government rep said he should get a check in August.

That’s only part of the story that he told me for just over a half hour this morning in front of my camera. As he talked, it became clear that his situation is effected by a bunch of situations set in motion when the well blew. What came quickly clear to me is that Kenny DiNero is one sharp, hard working cat with a sly sense of humor even though he didn’t smile much or laugh at all. His situation wasn’t even remotely humorous.

I can’t even start to retell his story because it’s incredibly complex, involves things that as an outsider I don’t understand and the outcome is still unknown. That present me with a problem I mulled over at lunch and during the short drive back to my hotel. After watching the interview as it was transferred from tape to my computer I realized that I had to use all of the interview. All 35 minutes of minutes. It’s a thought that might make some news field producers and documentarians look for tall buildings to jump off of. I can’t do it any other way. To leave out any part of it would be to ignore an important part of the jigsaw puzzle he’s living in. It would alter the context of what he’s going through. It wouldn’t be his story any more. It would be the story that I wanted to tell about him, and it wouldn’t be the truth, the whole truth.He also tells it very, very well.

So I’m going to violate every rule of video production and run all of it. From his answer to my first question to when a dog that adopted him after Katrina that he named “Pirate” jumped up on the bench next to him and the interview ended, you will hear everything that he said to me. I will cut video away to b-roll periodically to show some of the things he talks about but his audio will be complete and uncut. Since I asked questions off-mic, I’ll use full screen graphics for them.

The good news is that Kenny DiNero is very articulate and tells his story well. He sounds good too. I spent the afternoon and early evening adding graphics and b-roll to his story and I don’t think that if you care about what’s happening in the Gulf, you won’t be bored. But if you are, remember that I didn’t come down here to remake Caddyshack.

Coming up…

Dispersant, friend or foe.

UPDATE: Corrected the date when Kenny submitted his claim. The original article said that months had passed since he submitted his claim. In fact, he submitted it at the beginning of July. Also corrected his gross revenue number for the day described, which my weevil filled brain remembered incorrectly.

Public Meeting Tonight

This release came from the Jackson County Mississippi Public Information Office last Friday.

Jackson County Supervisor Mike Mangum is hosting an oil spill response public meeting on Thursday, July 22 from 6 – 8 p.m. at the Civic Center in Pascagoula. Eight different agencies responding to the oil spill will staff booths at this informal open house style meeting. Residents are invited “to come and go” during the hours of the meeting and visit with each group personally.

The following representatives are scheduled to attend to answer questions- BP claims, BP Vessels of Opportunity, clean-up volunteers, MS Dept. of Environmental Quality, MS Dept. of Marine Resources, MS WIN Job Center, Small Business Administration, and U.S. Coast Guard.

“I hear and receive legitimate oil spill questions from residents everyday. These questions are beyond just one person’s expertise. That’s the reason I decided to host a public meeting for citizens to get answers in a comfortable environment,” Mangum explained.

This is the second public meeting County Supervisors have hosted since the oil spill. For more details about the public forums please call the District 3 Office at 228-769-7641.

I only heard about the meeting this morning on a local radio news broadcast. It would make sense for locals to attend.