Gulf Coast Communities Join People's Climate March

From our friends at Advocates For Environmental Human Rights:

Groups to Urge a Southern Initiative on Climate Change at People’s Climate March and Summit

From Texas to Maryland, a delegation of students and professors of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), environmental and social justice advocates, leaders of faith-based organizations, and survivors of Hurricane Katrina will join the People’s Climate March and Summit in New York, which precedes the United Nations Climate Summit.

“The painful experiences of Hurricane Katrina compel us to change our thinking that a climate treaty will save the day,” said Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University. She was displaced for two years from her home and predominantly Africa American neighborhood in New Orleans, which were under eight feet of water during Katrina. “We need a southern initiative on climate change that supports the people who are most vulnerable to hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, and tornadoes and most likely to suffer from racial, social, and economic inequities which set back our ability to be climate resilient,” she said.

Although some of the loudest voices denying climate change in the US Congress and Senate come from southern states, the delegation points to the critical role that the South has in climate change. Much of the fossil fuel energy produced in the United States come at the expense of communities in the South, where there is significant air and water pollution and coastal erosion. In both scale and magnitude, climate-related disasters in the South outnumber those in other regions of the country. In addition, the largest number of people who are less likely to rebound from a climate-related disaster as a result of social and economic disadvantages live in the South.

“A southern initiative is critical to the United States making and keeping a commitment on climate change,” said Dr. Robert Bullard, Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Policy at Texas Southern University in Houston. “The work of people, organizations, and institutions represented in this delegation is about climate action as part of the long fight for human rights and civil rights to bring about racial, gender, environmental, economic, and social justice in this country,” he said.

Members of the delegation have organized teach-ins at Empire State College on Saturday, September 20. The first teach-in focuses on how HBCUs can support communities in being climate resilient and effective advocates for transforming environmental and economic policies. This teach-in is followed by a workshop on the actions being taken by organizations in the south to sustain communities and ecosystems.  The delegation will be near the front of the People’s Climate March on Sunday, September 21, where organizers have reserved space for marchers who hail from communities on the frontlines of climate change.

“The People’s Climate March and Summit are about our human rights and how we want to live free from the control that the oil, gas, and coal industries currently have over our laws and economy,” said Monique Harden, who co-directs Advocates for Environmental Human Rights in New Orleans. “This is a critical time as our coastal cities in the South are projected to be under water if we don’t take control,” she said.

Newly Formed Observer Group to Monitor Today’s Oil Lease Auction

From our friends at Louisiana Bucket Brigade:

 Khaki Vests and Citizen Monitor Buttons Identify Oil Monitoring Group

Fifteen Citizen Monitors trained to engage oil industry and government representatives will be on hand at today’s oil lease auction. The goal of the newly formed Oil Monitoring Group is to remind those bidding that they have legal obligations to protect the Gulf of Mexico. “We are reminding them that the Gulf of Mexico belongs to all of us,” said Anne Rolfes, Founding Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. “We want to make sure that both the oil industry – which has a terrible accident problem – and the government responsible for protecting us know that they are being watched.”

Today is the official launch of the newly formed Oil Monitoring Group, a coalition of civil society organizations and citizens trained to engage with oil industry representatives and remind them both of their legal obligations and the fact that the resources they are using are public ones. “Our mission is to prevent oil industry accidents,” said Kristen Evans, who is spearheading the group. The group will continue to monitor oil industry events after today’s auction.

Trained Citizen Monitors will initiate conversations with those in attendance today’s. The event is auctioning off 38 million acres. While other sales have happened since the BP Disaster, this is the first in the Central Planning Area of the Gulf of Mexico, which is off the coast of Louisiana. The Bureau of Ocean, Energy and Management is coordinating the auction.

Election observers, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are among the groups serving as a model for the newly formed group. “We realize that all too often civil society is not in the room when industry and government make decisions,” said Anne Rolfes, Founding Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and participant in the group.

The monitors will wear khaki vests labeled Oil Monitoring Group on the back, with buttons on the front that say Citizen Monitor. They will provide brochures to those in attendance to remind them of the laws and that people are watching.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is an environmental health and justice organization supporting neighborhoods’ use of grassroots action to create informed, sustainable communities free from industrial pollution.
 

Statement in Response to the First Criminal Indictment from the BP Drilling Disaster

From a statement by our friends at the Louisiana Bucket Brigade:
Today a former BP employee has been indicted. We believe that there are more criminal indictments of oil companies possible, if only the Department of Justice would look. The Department should look into ongoing actions by managers at the ExxonMobil, Citgo, Chalmette Refining, Calumet and Motiva refineries here in Louisiana.

Why do we think there is criminal behavior? Because the oil industry tells us so. Their own reports to the state and federal government about their accidents detail a harrowing story of explosions and spills. Refinery neighbors and industry employees tell us something is drastically wrong. But the managers ignore the concerns and keep the refineries and the rigs running full steam ahead.

BP engineer Kurt Mix has been indicted for destroying evidence. This was wrong. What was also wrong were BP’s consistent efforts to hide the facts about the flow rate from the public. We now know that BP told the public that 5,000 barrels of oil were flowing per day, even as their own engineers estimated the amount to be 15,000 barrels. In fact, 50,000 barrels of oil were gushing into the Gulf of Mexico every day. Where is the prosecution for misleading the public?

Oil companies – including BP - should be investigated for knowingly making false statements to the public. “There is no danger,” we are told after every refinery accident or oil spill. “There is no off site impact.” Such false statements happened during the BP Disaster and happen on a regular basis from oil industry spokesmen around the state.

There is a danger that Kurt Mix as an individual will be demonized. What he did was wrong, but the renegade culture of the Louisiana oil industry spawned his behavior. Kurt Mix’s moral measuring stick reflects the oil industry, coming up short long before he deleted those text messages.

The Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency wrote in December of 2011 that Louisiana has a culture of protecting the oil industry rather than regulating it. It is this culture that allowed the BP Disaster to happen, and this culture (and more disasters) that will continue unless criminal prosecutions of oil industry executives commence.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is an environmental health and justice organization supporting neighborhoods’ use of grassroots action to create informed, sustainable communities free from industrial pollution.

Two years on, anger and frustration on the Gulf Coast

A shorter version of this article appeared today in newspapers around the world through Agence France Presse, the newswire service.
Two years after the worst maritime oil spill in history, fishermen, scientists, and environmentalists up and down the US Gulf Coast warn that the disaster may be far from over. Dead dolphins keep washing up on shore in unprecedented numbers. Oil-coated corals reefs are dying in the deepwater. Eyeless shrimp are showing up in relatively empty fishing nets. Killifish, a minnow-like fish that is at the base of the food chain here, show signs of chemical poisoning.

Critics say offshore drilling safety and oversight remains woefully lacking. "Politics continues to triumph over common sense. It's outrageous that so little progress has been made to make offshore drilling safer," said Jacqueline Savitz, senior campaign director at the environmental group Oceana. "It's not a matter of whether there will be another oil spill, but when."

The April 20, 2010 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers, blackened beaches in five US states and devastated the Gulf Coast's tourism and fishing industries. It took 87 days to cap BP's runaway well 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface which spewed some 4.9 million barrels (206 million gallons) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

In the aftermath of the spill, BP flooded the Gulf with nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersants. While BP says these chemicals broke up the oil, some scientists have said this just made it less visible, and sent the poisons deeper into the food chain.

Everyone here agrees that environmental problems on the coast date back to long before the well blew open. Decades of oil exploration had already sullied Gulf waters and shipping channels cut through wetlands hastened coastal erosion. Meanwhile, pollution from treatment plants has poisoned communities across the coast - especially in "cancer alley," the corridor of industrial facilities along the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge. “BP is legally obligated to fix what they screwed up,” says Aaron Viles, deputy director of Gulf Restoration Network, a leading environmental organization active in the region. “But if you’re only obligated to put the ecosystem back to where it was April 19, 2010, why would we?”

“The Gulf is a robust ecosystem and it's been dying the death of a thousand cuts for a long time,” adds Viles. While it's too early to assess the long-term environmental impact, a host of recent studies published by the National Academy of Sciences and other respected institutions have shown troubling results, Viles said. "If you add them all up, it’s clear the oil is still in the ecosystem, it’s still having an effect.”

Wilma Subra, a chemist and Macarthur fellow who travels widely across the Gulf meeting with fishers and testing seafood and sediment samples for contamination, told AFP that we may be just at the beginning of this disaster. Subra says that in every community she visits, fishers show her shrimp born without eyes, fish with lesions, and crabs with holes in their shells. She says tarballs are still washing up on beaches across the region. “The oil is still subsurface in the gulf,” Subra says. “The oil is still present in the wetlands and estuaries and on the beaches. People are continuing to get exposed.”

Subra says that the reality she is seeing on the ground contrasts sharply with the image painted by BP. “There are potential new impacts that we haven’t even seen yet, but just based on the impacts we have seen it’s going to be a long time before recovery sets in,” says Subra, adding that the effects of the spill could continue for “generations.”

Theresa Dardar is among those who lives have been changed by the drilling disaster. She lives in Bayou Pointe-au-Chien, a Native American fishing community on Louisiana's Gulf Coast where her family has lived for 300 years. Dardar and her neighbors have seen their land disappear from under their feet within their lifetimes due to canals built by the oil companies to access wells. The canals brought salt water into freshwater marshes, helping cause the coastal erosion that sees Louisiana lose a football field of land every 45 minutes. The main street that runs through the community now disappears into the swamps, with telephone poles sticking out of the water.

Now, in addition to worries about disappearing land and increasing risk of hurricanes, she fears that her family’s livelihood is gone for good. Her husband used to pull in about $30,000 a year fishing the rich Gulf waters. Last year he only earned $5,000, Theresa said. She's afraid this year will be worse. “The first day of shrimp season, usually you catch a thousand pounds or more,” Dardar explained. “But he caught just 20 pounds. Usually you do really good the first day. We’ve never had a season like this.”

Statistics from the state of Louisiana indicated that white shrimp season, which started in August, was much lower than usual, although scientists say this could also be partially blamed on Mississippi flooding that happened last year. Oysters saw an even steeper dropoff, reporting the lowest harvest in at least 40 years. “I was angry, but now I just want things to get back to the way it was,” says Dardar. “But I know it’s not going to be over for years.”

BP has vowed to make residents of the Gulf "whole" and reimburse them for any "legitimate" economic damages. On Wednesday, it finalized a $7.8 billion settlement deal to settle thousands of claims from fishermen and others and has already paid out $6.3 billion to people and businesses who chose to sidestep the court process. It has also pledged $1 billion to early restoration projects and will likely be required to spend more once a lengthy environmental impact study is concluded.

"From the beginning, BP stepped up to meet our obligations to the communities in the Gulf Coast region, and we've worked hard to deliver on that commitment for nearly two years,” BP chief Bob Dudley said in a statement. "The proposed settlement represents significant progress toward resolving issues from the Deepwater Horizon accident and contributing further to economic and environmental restoration efforts along the Gulf Coast."

Dardar says money can't cure the deep emotional and social scars of potentially losing a beloved way of life. “How are you going to make us whole if we lose our fishing industry?" she told AFP. "I don’t think they can answer me."

That complaint is echoed in coastal communities across the five states affected by the BP spill. “We were the first to get hit, and we’re the worst to get hit,” said George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fisherman’s Association, a group that supports Gulf Coast fishers.

Fishing is a huge part of the economy for the Gulf Coast. Around 40% of the seafood caught in the continental US comes from here. Many area fishermen were still recovering from Hurricane Katrina when the spill closed a third of Gulf waters to fishing for months.

Despite billions of dollars paid out by BP already, Barisich said that many fishers he knew had received only small payments of a few thousand dollars, and were now in danger of losing their homes. He said that production is down, and that also fears of contamination had reduced demand for Gulf Coast seafood, which had in turn brought down prices. “Production is down at least 70 percent,” compared to the year before the spill, he says. “And prices are still depressed thirty, forty, sixty percent.”

A third generation fisherman from St Bernard Parish south of New Orleans, Barisich employed eight people and pulled in annual profits of up to $100,000 in the years leading up to the spill. Last year he had two employees, and he lost $40,000. “You promised to make it right,” he says, referring to BP. “It was your mistake. And we’re suffering.”

Photo above: Cleanup workers attempt to scrub oil off of bird during June 2010 cleanup efforts.

Why I Was Willing to be Arrested on the Gulf Coast, By Cherri Foytlin

The day before yesterday, on August 4, 2011, one year after the President of our United States stood on national television and said that 75% of the oil that had spewed into our Gulf was gone, I was booked into the New Orleans Parish Police lock-up with the charge of criminal trespassing.

The day before, I had been called by the Louisiana State Police Department to come to a meeting with them to discuss the Non-violent Direct Action Protest that myself and a united group consisting of environmentalists, community organizers, fishermen and clean-up workers, had organized in front of the British Petroleum offices, which are on the 13th and 14th floor of 1250 Poydras in NOLA.

At that meeting, I was told that we were allowed on the sidewalk only. That there would be plain clothed officers among us, and that if we crossed a certain line, which runs from the building to the parking lot, we would be arrested. The detectives, very nicely, drew us a map to explain the exact whereabouts of that line.

When we got to the event, which at the beginning had nearly 100 in attendance, I made the announcement that I was going to cross that line. And that I was doing this in protest of the so many lines that BP has crossed, in my mind, concerning the cleaning up of their mess, the spraying of toxic chemicals in our water, the murder of 11 of our energy providers, the disrespect and economical damage to our fishermen and residents, and the denial of and lack of response to health issues and claims since April 20 of last year.

So, I intentionally crossed that invisible line and took their tar balls back to them - a box full that had been picked up our beaches that day, (with no clean-up workers in sight, I might add). At least 15 other people chose to go with me, to complete this task.

As we approached the front door, we were met immediately by a representative of the company, the building and a security guard. Together they refused us any access to the building, citing that all BP workers had been dismissed for the day - a fact I knew to be untrue, because the state police had told me at our previous meeting that although most would be sent home at 4:30 that day, some would be available until 5:30, (at the time that they had told us this, they were trying to facilitate a meeting between us and BP - to which we had said was only an option it Feinberg and Zimmer was in attendance, and to which BP had refused to consider).

Being unable to enter the building, we dropped the tar balls on the sidewalk (in plastic), and sat down directly in front of the doors, where others came to join us.

And that was where we stayed.

In the mean time, kind people from within our group brought us waters and other refreshments in order to make our stay more comfortable. So, naturally, it was not very long before I personally had to urinate.

A very respectful gentleman from the state police had come forward to negotiate, just as he had the day before at the meeting in the SBI offices. I asked him, jokingly, if he thought they would just let me in to pee. He said no and that “They were freaking out in there.”, but pointed out that there were portable toilets just beyond the fence in a nearby hotel construction site.

After a few minutes, I felt it calm enough at that moment - since all BP representatives, building security and police personnel were discussing the issue inside, (excluding the one member of the state police that, at that time, was sitting with us), I could go use the restroom quickly, and come back.

So, I did. I jumped the fence and used the facilities. Upon my return jump, I realized that the BP reps in the building had seen me go and went running to find me, perhaps thinking I had looked for an alternative route into the building.

And that they had taped me jumping the fence and notified the nearby construction site mangers of my trespassing. We believe that they had hoped that the other owners would have had me arrested for trespassing and kept the BP name out of the incident. You see, arresting and charging people for bringing to light their negligence and lack of response sort of blows that whole “making it right” image.

But, the people next door had no interest in arresting me, or anyone else. We have more allies than they, or even we, know - you see?

I then joined the others in sitting, which we continued for over all around 3 hours until a little after 8:00 pm, which is when - after negotiating tirelessly, and being very respectful with us all day, the New Orleans Police Department and the Louisiana State Police gave us one more chance to end the protest and go home before arrests were made.

At that final refusal, NOLA PD, quietly came forth and arrested the 3 of us, who had remained seated.

Truth is, I knew that I personally was going to get arrested if I stayed sitting there, I knew that. And this was a decision that had not been made lightly on my part.

Over the last year and nearly a half I have studied past movements that have worked on different levels. And thanks to those who have come before us, we have a general formula for affecting change.

According to Dr. King, mainly from his letters while he, himself, was sitting in an Alabama jail, he said that the progression includes the following:

- To find out if an injustice exists - without doubt we, the people of the Gulf, have been dealt with very unjustly with regards to this corporation and our governments handling of this event, as well as others across the Gulf.

- To negotiate - we, the residents, fishermen, clean-up workers, tourism industry workers, oil workers, community organizers, ect, have negotiated on the local, state and federal levels with the HHS, the CDC, the NOAA, the EPA, the GCERT, the CEQ, the DEQ, the Oil Spill Commission, the Administration, and BP itself for nearly 16 months - to little or no avail.

- Dr. King’s next step was to “self-purify” - each person must take this step alone. Personally, I had first interpreted this step as the ending of bad habits, such as social drinking. But on the walk I realized that he was talking about preparing your mind against egotistical illusions, self-doubt and self-pity.

- The last step is action. And in the successful civil rights movement, as well as the Eastern Indian movement for independence, that meant non-violent action and civil disobedience taken against the oppressors in order to advance the cause of, and bring to light the call for, justice and liberty.

Our being arrested, was just the first step of that last phase.

Now, while I was sitting there I had a good friend of mine, who is very sick from the toxins still in his system and our environment, say to me, “Cherri, it is not worth getting arrested.”. He was begging me not to take that final step. He did that, because he love me, and he did not wish to see me suffer, I understand that - and it warms my heart. But my response to him was, “My friend, you are so worth getting arrested for”.

You see that is what we all must understand. You, my friend, are worth it. Our ecosystem is worth it, our kids are worth it, our future is worth it.. We must understand the value of what we have and be determined in protection of that. We must take up responsibility to, and for, each other now, in these times. Because, we are all worth it.

As we sat there, we repeatedly looked across the crowd and saw testament to that notion; such as, the poster my 9-year-old had made of her depiction of Earth with pollution dotting it, and the eyes of the people who were sick from chemical poisoning and yet had still come out to take a stand, calloused hands of a fishermen, community organizers who we have all seen at events from Texas, to Florida, to D.C. - demanding, begging sometimes, to be heard on behalf of the communities and ecosystem that they love. And we saw grandmothers and grandfathers, daddies and mommies, and sisters and brothers, all united in the simple humanitarian right of clean air and water.

One person in particular, Kimberly Wolf, a warrior woman who I have had the honor of getting to know early on in this fight, and who also has terminal cancer, yet got out of her bed and joined us for as long as she could - strengthened our souls. She is the picture of strength and love in all of this - and in seeing her, I have never been so moved by an example of commitment and perseverance.

That is the epitome of what this event, and our arrest, was about. That there is hope, we have allegiance to each other, that the loss of one does not and will not end the journey of the whole for truth, justice and recompense of the human rights violations that are taking place in our homeland.

There are so many to thank for the success of the day. I would especially like to recognize Kyle Nugent and Noah Learned, who I had not met prior and yet went all the way on behalf of our people and coast. The people who helped in organizational duties, too many to name here - but in particular Karen S, Ada, Devin, Josh, Mary-Margaret, Anne, Elizabeth, Robert - there are so many. And including the people who were at the event(s) of last week, and/or are still working on this issue, or others like it.. you are all my heroes.

I would also like to make clear, that the New Orleans Police Department and the Louisiana State Police Department were very kind in their treatment of us before, during and after our arrest. The first thing I was told after getting in the car was, “Why didn’t you just go home, Miss Cherri? None of us wanted to arrest you.”

They also took the handcuffs off as soon as we arrived at the station, and made sure we were as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.

So, there you have it.

I want you all to know, that we will not stop. We will not stop until our fishermen, our workers, our families, our wildlife, our waters, our region - are made whole again. Because when you love something, when you really do, you will never be silenced in protecting and fighting for it.

There will be further opportunities for those caring souls across the nation to stand with us for justice. Be ready.

You see, THAT is the greatest weapon in our tool box, that is what will win this and so many other battles we have been called to participate in, it’s our LOVE that will carry the day.

On August 4 we took our first stand. Courage, my friends, this is just a beginning.

Yours truly,

Cherri Foytlin

Photo above by Nicola Krebill from New Orleans Indymedia.

Three Arrested in BP Protest in Downtown New Orleans

Yesterday, more than 75 people protested BP's continued negligence in the Gulf. Chanting, "The oil's still here, and so are we!" the group was protesting a lack of clean-up and recovery.
Activist Cherri Foytlin informed the group that state police had said they could not approach the entrance to BP offices at 1250 Poydras Street. Foytlin and a few dozen others then marched to the building, where BP employees blocked the door. After sitting in front of the entrance and refusing to move, Foytlin and two others were eventually arrested.

Photos by Nicola Krebill from New Orleans Indymedia.

ColorLines: Here’s Where BP is Dumping Its Oil Spill Waste

Some illuminating graphs (and explanatory notes) from our friends at ColorLines Magazine:

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved nine landfills in the Gulf Coast to receive the waste products from the country’s largest oil spill. Five of those nine landfills are located in communities where a majority of residents are people of color.

The sites are in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi and are regular municipal landfills, not designed for hazardous waste, according to the Miami Herald. That’s because waste management officials claim the debris is not hazardous. So far, the landfills have received 40,000 tons of “oily solids” and waste from the clean up of the disaster, including soiled gloves.

The analysis of the landfill sites and racial data was done by Robert D. Bullard, a prominent figure in the environmental justice movement and director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center. Calls to the EPA were not returned.

The only place that has successfully halted dumping at their landfill is Harrison County, Mississippi, where 71 percent of residents are white.

In Florida, white residents were incredulous that their town of Spring Hill was picked for dumping oil waste —- until they realized the EPA had printed a typo. The federal agency didn’t mean Spring Hill, where whites make up 94 percent of the town’s residents. They meant the Springhill Regional Landfill in Campbellton, a town of just 221 people, where 60 percent of residents are African American.

The waste is being hauled around the Gulf Coast by three giants in the business of waste management: Heritage Environmental Services in Louisiana; Waste Management Inc. on the Louisiana-Mississippi border and in Florida; and Republic Services in Florida.

As Bullard pointed out in his analysis, the decision about where to dump BP oil waste is no surprise. Black and Latino communities in the South have long been “sacrifice zones.”

An investigation by the Associated Press in June found that “the handling and disposal of oily materials was haphazard at best.” Reporters found a truck leaking tar balls, sand and water on a main beach road and also oily sand sitting in an uncovered waste container in a state park.

Katrina Pain Index 2010 New Orleans - Five Years Later

By Bill Quigley, Davida Finger and Lance Hill
It will be five years since Katrina on August 29. The impact of Katrina is quite painful for regular people in the area. This article looks at what has happened since Katrina not from the perspective of the higher ups looking down from their offices but from the street level view of the people – a view which looks at the impact on the elderly, the renter, people of color, the disabled, the working and non-working poor. So, while one commentator may happily say that the median income in New Orleans has risen since Katrina, a street level perspective recognizes that is because large numbers of the poorest people have not been able to return.

Five years after Katrina, tens of thousands of homes in New Orleans remain vacant or blighted. Tens of thousands of African American children who were in the public schools have not made it back, nor have their parents. New Orleans has lost at least 100,000 people. Thousands of elderly and disabled people have not made it back. Affordable housing is not readily available so tens of thousands pay rents that are out of proportion to their wages. Race and gender remain excellent indicators of who is underpaid, who is a renter, who is in public school and who is low income.

In short, the challenges facing New Orleans after Katrina are the same ones facing millions of people of color, women, the elderly and disabled and their children across the US. Katrina just made these challenges clearer in New Orleans than in many other places. Here is where we are five years later.

Overall population

Five years after Katrina, the most liberal estimates are that 141,000 fewer people live in the metro New Orleans area. The actual population changes will not be clear until official Census Bureau findings are released in November, but it is safe to say that over 100,000 fewer live in the City of New Orleans.

The New Orleans metro area is made up of several parishes, primarily Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany. Orleans had 455,000 people before Katrina, now they have 354,000. Jefferson had 451,000 before Katrina, now they have 443,000. Plaquemines had 28,000 before Katrina, now they have 20,000. St. Bernard had 64,000 before Katrina, now they have 40,000. Source: Census Bureau.

Displaced People

Louisiana residents are located in more than 5,500 cities across the nation, the largest concentrations in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and San Antonio. A majority of displaced residents are women – 59% compared to 41% men. A third earn less than $20,000 a year. Source: Dana Alfred, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Corps (2007).

Lost housing

More than 1 in 4 residential addresses in New Orleans is vacant or blighted – by far the highest rate in the US. Though the numbers have been reduced somewhat in the last three years, 50,100 residential properties in New Orleans remain blighted or have no structure on them. Source: Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (hereafter GNOCDC), Benchmarks for Blight (May 7, 2010). See also, Michelle Krupa, Blighted Houses in New Orleans Dropping Steadily, Times Picayune.

About 58 percent of city renters and 45 percent of suburban renters pays more than 35 percent of their pre-tax household income for housing. Households should spend less than 30 percent of income on housing. Anything over 30 percent means that housing is not really affordable for that family and they are likely to cut back on other necessities. Source: GNOCDC, Housing in the New Orleans Metro, October 13, 2009.

Over 5000 families are on the waiting list for traditional public housing and another 28,960 families are on the waiting list for housing vouchers – more than double what it was before Katrina and the government destruction of thousands of public housing apartments. Since the post-Katrina bulldozing of several major public housing developments, there has been more than a 75% reduction in the number of public housing apartments available. Source: Housing Authority of New Orleans.

Rebuilding

Under Louisiana’s “Road Home” program to rebuild storm-damaged housing, rebuilding grants for homeowners on average fell about $35,000 short of the money needed to rebuild. The shortfall hit highly flooded, historically African-American communities particularly hard. The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center filed suit in 2008 against state and federal agencies charging that the grant policy was racially discriminatory and that black homeowners received far smaller grants than white homeowners. The judge in that case has opined that “on average, African-American homeowners received awards that fell farther short of the cost of repairing their homes than did white recipients” and while noting the parties’ commitment to rebuilding New Orleans, found it “regrettable that this effort to do so appears to have proceeded in a manner that disadvantaged African-American homeowners who wish to repair their homes.” Source: PolicyLink, A Long Way Home (2008) & Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center.

At least 19,746 applications for rebuilding homes that are eligible for funding have not received any money from the Road Home Program grant program. Source: The Road Home Program.

Economic Health

The metro area has 95,000 fewer jobs than before Katrina, down about 16 percent. Source: GNOCDC & Brookings, The New Orleans Index at 5, August 2010. Black and Latino households earn incomes that are $26,000 (44 percent) and $15,000 (25 percent) lower than whites. White household income is $56,000, Latino household income is $41,000 and African American household income is $35,000 in the metro New Orleans area. Source: Jesuit Social Research Institute, JustSouth Quarterly, Summer 2010.

New Orleans has a poverty rate of 23 percent more than double the national average of 11%. But because of the loss of people in New Orleans there are now more poor people living in the surrounding suburban parishes than in the city. Source: 2008 US Census Bureau, ACS; GNOCDC, Who Lives in New Orleans Now? October, 2009.

Within New Orleans the majority of households are lower-income.

Public and Private Education

The number of students in public schools in New Orleans, which are over 90 percent African American, has declined by 43% since Katrina. Source: Southern Education Foundation. New Orleans Schools Four Years After Katrina. (hereafter SEF).

But an average increase of 5% a year in enrollment for the last two years (35,976 to 38,051 from 2008-2009 alone) indicates that people whose children attend public schools continue to return as housing and employment opportunities allow. Source: Louisiana Recovery School District.

In 2008, 85% of white students in New Orleans attended private schools, one of the highest percentages in a major city in the US. Source: SEF.

New Orleans now has more charter schools than any other public school system in the country. Of the 89 public schools in New Orleans, 48, more than half, are charter schools. Sixty percent of students now attend privately managed but publicly funded schools. Source: Louisiana Recovery School District.

Metro area has recovered 79 percent of public and private school enrollment. Source: GNOCDC & Brookings , The New Orleans Index at 5, August 2010.

People Receiving Public Assistance

Over one-third of Social Security recipients who lived in New Orleans have not returned. There were 74,535 in 2004 and 47,000 in December 2009. Source: Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.

Medicaid recipients have declined by 31%: pre-Katrina enrollment in Medicaid in New Orleans was 134,249. December 2009 enrollment was 93,310. Source: Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Supplemental Security Income recipients are down from pre-Katrina 26,654 to 16,514 – a 38% decline. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.

Public Transportation

Total ridership declined down 65.7%. From over 33 million in 2004 to about 13 million projected for 2010. Source: Regional Transit Authority

Crime

“Violent crimes and property crimes have risen in New Orleans since Katrina and remain well above national rates.” Source: GNOCDC & Brookings, The New Orleans Index at Five, August 2010.

Oil Damage

Speaking of crime, there have been at least 348 intentional fires set in the Gulf of Mexico, controlled burns they call them, since spill. Source: Deepwater Horizon Response, July 14, 2010.

About 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant have been dumped into the Gulf, over a million on the surface and about 750,000 gallons sub-sea. Source: Marianna Nash, CNN, Scientists Dispersant Concerns Remain.

About 210 million gallons of oil (5 million barrels) were released by the BP spill. About 800,000 barrels were captured by BP – making it by far the largest oil spill into marine waters in world history. Source: Campbell Robertson, U.S. Puts Oil Spill at Nearly 5 million Barrels.

Wetland destruction

“Since 1956, when measurements began, 23 percent of the coastal wetlands have converted to open water.” Source: GNOCDC & Brookings, The New Orleans Index at Five, August 2010.

The challenges of post-Katrina New Orleans reflect the problems of many urban and suburban areas of the US – insufficient affordable rents, racially segregated schools with falling populations, great disparities in income by color of households, serious pollution from remote uncaring corporations, and reductions in the public services like transportation. Katrina made these more visible five years ago and continues to make a great illustration of the US failures to treat all citizens with dignity and our failure to achieve our promise of liberty and justice for all.

Bill is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Bill and Davida are law professors at Loyola University New Orleans. Lance is Executive Director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University. You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com, Davida at dfinger@loyno.edu, and Lance at lhill@tulane.edu.

Special thanks to Allison Plyer of the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center and Amy Liu of Brookings for their great August 2010 report, The New Orleans Index at Five.

New Report on Employment in Louisiana's Coastal Communities

Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC), always a crucial resource for information about our region, has released an important new report on the state of jobs on Louisiana's southern coast before BP's Drilling Disaster. According to the folks at GNOCDC:

"Measure. Measure. Measure.” That’s what our new friends from Prince William Sound have counseled their Gulf Coast colleagues. And we take their experience-based counsel quite seriously.

Today we’re releasing a brief on the number of jobs and workers living in coastal parishes prior to the oil disaster. This data is meant to serve as a baseline against which the impact of the oil spill can eventually be measured.

In addition, it provides much needed information on residential patterns along the coast, many months before the Census 2010 headcounts are to be released. This data can be useful for nonprofits and state agencies planning services for coastal populations.

The GNOCDC report provides the following background:

Millions of barrels of oil have idled commercial and sport fishing operations throughout southeastern Louisiana coastal waters since the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster of April 20, 2010. Businesses that serve the fishing industry, or buy their harvests, have similarly been affected. Among them are tackle shops, net makers, gas stations, restaurants, truckers, and seafood processors and distributors. Such is also the case for the travel and tourism sector, particularly in places such as Grand Isle which depends on summertime recreationists, although clean–up–related travel may partially offset such losses.

A moratorium on deepwater oil drilling will likely have an even greater economic impact throughout coastal Louisiana. Rig workers and oil–service operations will see fewer and smaller paychecks, and thus will inject less money into coastal economies. It is safe to say that nearly every business in coastal southeastern Louisiana will feel some effect of the oil disaster.

What impact will the oil disaster have on coastal Louisiana’s jobs? It is too soon to answer that question. We can, however, investigate the geography and nature of coastal employment prior to 2010 to create a baseline against which this unfurling situation and its eventual impacts on jobs may be compared.

This brief examines where jobs were located prior to the oil disaster in 2008 (the most recent available data) and what economic sectors they represented throughout the coastal region. While some maps cover from the Texas border all the way to Alabama, the brief primarily focuses on the coastal southeastern Louisiana parishes closest to the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil well.

Among the findings from the report:

*High concentrations of jobs appeared in many coastal areas prior to the oil disaster. In fact, the coastal periphery was second only to urban areas as employment nodes.
*Plaquemines Parish was home to 11,687 jobs but only 6,950 resident workers in 2008, indicating that people in neighboring parishes rely on this especially vulnerable parish for their livelihood. Oil-related impacts on the economy of Plaquemines parish, therefore, could reverberate region-wide.
*In Lafourche Parish, worker residences were more clustered in northern and central areas, while jobs tended to locate at the southern end—namely Port Fourchon, a key node in the regional petroleum and offshore economy.
*Among southeast Louisiana parishes, Terrebonne had the highest absolute number (6,089) and percent (11.5) of jobs in the oil and gas industry, far more than even the urbanized New Orleans metro parishes with much-larger populations. These jobs were particularly concentrated in two Houma zip codes that together are home to over 5,500 such jobs—more than double the number of oil and gas jobs in downtown New Orleans.

This report "Is based on 2008 Census Bureau data from company payrolls. As such it does not capture the thousands of self-employed fishermen not included in company payroll data—indicating that coastal Louisiana is even more important to job creation than our numbers suggest."

See the full report at the GNOCDC website.

How Much Oil Has Leaked Into the Gulf of Mexico?

LJI INJUSTICE INDEX: BP Drilling Disaster Edition

QUICK FACTS – BY THE NUMBERS:

$3,500,000,000: Cost of cleanup of Exxon Valdez spill, with another $5 billion in lawsuits and settlements.

$2,400,000,000: Estimated annual economic impact of Louisiana seafood production.

37,691,000: Gallons spilled (day 51) based on high range of government estimates.

11,000,000: Number of gallons spilled by Exxon Valdez.

3,645,000: Gallons collected from Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill site as of June 9, 2010.

30,000: Number of claims made to BP (through contractor ECIS) by individuals and businesses for lost income or damages.

19,000: Number of claims paid by BP (through contractor ECIS) to individuals and businesses for lost income or damages.

19,000: Estimated barrels of oil per day (12,000 - 19,000) shooting out of 2 leaks the bent and broken pipes at the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill site.

18,000: Number of checks issued by BP as of June 7, 2010, totaling $49 million. Average $2,720 per check.

1,900: Number of people employed in Louisiana in the frozen fish and seafood industries. 2,300 people are employed in the seafood canning industry. This totals 25% of the food manufacturing industry in Louisiana (17,000 people).

1,500: Number of Coast Guard reservists mobilized and moved to positions in Louisiana and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast as part of President Barack Obama’s promise to triple the manpower fighting the Deepwater Horizon oil release.

700: Number of individuals hired by ECIS operating in 25 offices on the Gulf Coast by BP contractor, ECIS to handle individual and business lost income or damages claims.

400: Number of species that live in the Louisiana’s islands and marshlands, including gulls, pelicans, roseate spoonbills, egrets, terns, and blue herons.

322: Number of sea turtles pulled out of the Gulf since the oil spill began. 50 were alive; 272 were dead, and 3 have been released, according to the Unified Area Command compilation from various sources.

134: Number of years P&J Oyster Company has been in business. As of June 10, 2010, company has shut down shucking operations.

80%: Business volume decrease at Bridge Side Marina in Grad Isle, Louisiana, owned by Buggie Vegas.

67: Number of oil spill workers treated since May 31, according to West Jefferson Medical Center, which has a first aid tent at Grand Isle. 98% of the workers seeking aid are because of the heat. 105 -110 is the Heat Index reported by the National Weather Service in Grand Isle.

42: Number of gallons in one barrel of oil.

21: Total number of payment of more than $5,000 paid by BP to Louisiana individuals or businesses.

17: Number of the deepwater drilling rigs in Louisiana waters that have pulled up their drills in the first week of the moratorium.

11: Number of men who died in the explosion on April 20, 2010 at the BP.

5: Species of Gulf sea turtles that face grave danger due to oil spill. All of the gulf sea-turtle species are already endangered because the oil spill threatens their population at every state of life, according to Oceana, an international organization for ocean conservation.

3: Number of the 6,100 claims paid by BP in Louisiana larger than $5,000, according to Curt Eysink, executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

0: Number of the 6,100 claims paid by BP in Louisiana larger than 10,000, according to Curt Eysink, executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

Letter to Admiral Thad Allen from Advocates for Environmental Human Rights

June 9, 2010

Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander
2100 Second Street, SW
Washington DC 20593
Via Facsimile: 202.372.1710

Dear Admiral Allen:

As a public interest law firm, we are deeply concerned that our government is not protecting the interest of those affected by the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and subsequent storms, we have learned that inadequate support for recovery destabilizes communities and debilitates environmental conditions, all of which undermine basic human rights.

For this reason, we are deeply concerned that your June 8, 2010 letter to British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward requesting information regarding BP’s handling of claims related to its Gulf of Mexico oil disaster fails to address the fact that BP’s goal is to minimize the amount of money it pays to claimants. This goal is in direct contradiction to the recent BP advertisement in which Tony Hayward pledges to honor claims. The BP website refers claimants to ESIS, Inc. However, the “Recovery Services Fact Sheet” on the ESIS website, states that the goal of its services is “reducing our clients’ loss dollar pay-outs." BP has praised its 15-year contractual relationship with the ESIS Claims Team. In the May 27, 2010 Congressional testimony of Mr. Darryl Willis, BP America Vice President of Resources, ESIS is lauded for “providing the backbone of our claims process."

As the National Incident Commander, you have the responsibility to ensure that the people of the Gulf Region harmed by the BP oil disaster are fully compensated by BP for all of their losses. This responsibility entails investigating and preventing any efforts by BP and ESIS that provide or attempt to provide insufficient compensation to any claimant. This responsibility also requires ensuring that the compensation plan is designed and implemented to meet the unique needs of Gulf Coast fishers, seafood industry workers, and maritime communities, whose members have already developed a compensation plan in response to the BP oil disaster .

We look forward to hearing from you regarding this critical matter.

Very truly yours,
Monique Harden
Co-Director & Attorney

Nathalie Walker
Co-Director & Attorney
Advocates for Environmental Human Rights

STATEMENT OF GULF COAST FISHERMEN, SEAFOOD WORKERS, and MARITIME COMMUNITIES on the GULF OF MEXICO OIL DRILLING DISASTER

THE FACTS:
We Are a Unified Community. Gulf Coast fishermen, seafood workers, and maritime communities from Florida to Texas will not be divided by nefarious, unscrupulous corporate tactics.

This Disaster Has Been Devastating. As residents of the Gulf Coast, many of us have not fully recovered from Hurricane Katrina and subsequent storms. There are still unmet needs in housing, healthcare, economic development and community restoration, almost five years since Katrina’s landfall in this same area. Many of the fishing cooperatives that formed since Katrina have not received adequate support and funding; many families still have not received housing assistance to rebuild (in south Mobile County, Alabama for instance, more than 450 families that qualified for Federal housing rebuilding support, will not receive it because funds are insufficient); and many communities, community services and eroded shorelines across the Gulf Coast region have not been fully rebuilt or restored. See, www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/
default/files/Katrina_Aftermath_Joint_Report_USA.pdf.

Notwithstanding, we returned to rebuild. Now, our prime fishing areas are closed, at the very beginning of the commercial fishing season. Many fishermen and seafood industry workers are small business owners or seasonal workers who are not covered by unemployment compensation and other worker benefits. We have made significant investments in preparing our boats and equipment for the 2010 season, with the expectation of a good year – finally. That expectation has been shattered.

We Are Entitled to Accurate Information. Since the BP oil drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, people in the fishing and maritime communities across the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas have received misleading, factually inaccurate, and sometime deceptive information about the extent and impact of the disaster. We do not know when this disaster will end nor how its impacts on the ocean, estuaries, marshes, bays, bayous, beaches and communities that are our home and source of livelihood. We also do not know how the wide scale use of chemical dispersants will impact the long term health of our seafood resources and communities. At the very least, those responsible for this man-made disaster must be held accountable by the federal government, and fully transparent in their disclosure of information and documentation.

We Are the Gulf Coast Experts. Our lifelong experience and environmental knowledge have not been utilized to mitigate and solve the impacts of this catastrophic ecological, economic and social disaster. Still, most of us have not yet been employed as “first responders” to protect our fishing grounds, shore lines, wildlife, and our communities. This is nonsense.

OUR DEMANDS:
We as commercial fishermen, seafood workers and residents of maritime communities in the Gulf Coast are demanding:

1. Responsibility and Accountability: The President of the United States and the U.S. Congress must ensure British Petroleum (BP) and its subcontractors are held financially responsible for the full immediate, short-term, and long-term impact of this disaster. Further, BP, its subcontractors, and any other corporate entities deemed responsible parties for this disaster, must provide all appropriate assistance to fishermen, seafood workers and maritime communities dealing with the long term impacts of this disaster and its yet unforeseen impacts on the fishing, seafood, recreation, and culture in Gulf Coast communities;

2. Oversight: The President and the U.S. Congress must provide public oversight, information, and administration of support to assist fishermen, seafood workers and Gulf Coast communities in this disaster. The federal government must have complete oversight over the BP oil drilling claims process, and BP must relinquish this control immediately;

3. Compensation: The President and the U.S. Congress must ensure that immediate compensation is paid to fishermen, fishing crews, seafood processing workers, seafood industry related workers and others, to provide for income replacement and family living expenses. The lack of federal or state income returns must not preclude any fisherman, fishing crew member, seafood processing worker, and seafood industry related workers and others from receiving compensation. This claims compensation protocol must include:

a. A system for classification of claimants;
b. Immediate compensation for six (6) months of lost income that is equivalent to at least an annual income of $24,000. Fishermen, fishing crews, seafood processing workers, seafood industry related workers and others who can substantiate higher annual income from fishing will receive higher payments;
c. In 6 months (October 2010) a sum equal to one half of one year's lost earnings (and no less than $12,000 per worker) shall be paid to every fisherman, seafood processing workers, seafood industry related workers and others remaining out of work as a result of this disaster;
d. Within 12 months of the initial payment, the President of the United States must make a final assessment of full damages for lost earnings to be made to fishermen fishing crews, seafood processing workers, seafood industry related workers and others and seafood workers. This determination should include evaluation of other long term losses beyond loss of earnings such as damage to boats and equipment, damage to oyster beds and fishing grounds, and other longer term losses.
e. All other workers along the Gulf Coast, directly or indirectly connected to the seafood industry, must receive emergency unemployment compensation, retroactive to the beginning of this disaster, from the appropriate state agencies, reimbursed by BP and other responsible parties.

4. Forbearance of Loan Re-Payments: A consequence of the BP oil disaster is the indefinite interruption of income for people whose livelihood is based on the fishing and seafood industries. Therefore, the President must provide a mechanism whereby payment obligations for home and business related loans are placed in forbearance.

5. Prioritizing Local Communities: Priority in contracting and hiring must be given to local fishermen and firms along the Gulf Coast; and that firms that use workers receiving substandard pay be excluded from contracting.

6. Language Access: All information and documents related to providing information and instruction to fishermen and seafood workers must be translated, into Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Spanish, and other languages so that the residents of the multicultural maritime communities across the Gulf Coast will be able to read and understand the information provided.

7. Access to Funds: That there are significant unspent Federal funds for Katrina Hurricane relief and rebuilding that are unspent which must be re-programmed and utilized to meet these un-met needs so vulnerable Gulf Coast people and communities can better deal and respond to the current oil drilling catastrophe.

Teach In Tonight on Gulf Coast Oil Catastrophe

Tonight at 6:00pm, Holy Angels Chapel, 3500 St Claude Ave, will host a teach-in on the tragedy unfolding in the gulf. Speakers include Kerry St. Pé, a fisheries biologist, wetlands expert and director of the Barataria-Terrebone National Estuary Program; and Davey Thonn, a commercial fisherman from St. Bernard Parish.

The organizers hope that through knowledge about what is happening in the gulf we can make the best decisions and act more effectively.

Don't 'Sperse Me Bro!, by Tracie Washington

Is it me, or does it seem like every time the people of Louisiana are imperiled by a disaster, the Feds’ “fix” is dispersants? I think we have a dispersants problem.

Hear me out. Remember Katrina?

The Feds sprayed charter school dispersants on and dismantled our public schools system, and expected that would make failing schools and undereducated kids disappear.

The Feds sprayed affordable housing dispersants on and demolished our public housing, and expected that would make dilapidated housing and concentrated poverty disappear.

The Feds sprayed private care dispersants on and shuttered our pubic hospital, and expected that would make indigent healthcare disappear.

Now, the Feds have sprayed chemical dispersants on and further contaminated our gulf waters, and expect that will make the oil spill disappear.

Hmmm...let’s see: We still have failed schools and undereducated kids and, because of the charter-school dispersants, we now have a juvenile crime crisis. We still have dilapidated housing and concentrated poverty and, because of the affordable housing dispersants, we now have a homeless population crisis. We still have second-rate healthcare and, because of your healthcare dispersants, we’ve lost our regional public hospital.

We still have an oil problem in the gulf and, because of the chemical dispersants, we now have a looming public health crisis.

Hey, Feds – NEWS FLASH: There is no magical elixir for the man-made problems that ail us. No matter how much you spray, these problems don’t disappear, they simply resurface, with unintended consequences.

So don’t ‘sperse me, bro! Ask us folks directly affected by these problems how to solve them. Hell, we can’t do worse than DOE, HUD, DHH, or EPA/BP. Seriously.

Call for Unity in Defense of New Orleans Against Corporate Destruction, By Robert Desmarais Sullivan

After freely choosing to return to New Orleans in 2006 with expectation of helping reconstruct the City and after joyfully working with you all as we rebuilt, renewed, and recreated New Orleans, I'm saddened and shocked by two new man-made catastrophes:

Abandonment of the Historic Medical District and demolition of a Lower Mid-City neighborhood by the City Council, City Planning Commission, and Mayor,

AND contaminant pollution of the Gulf Coast, inland wetlands and possibly the City by an oil-rig leak, probably the result of budgetary skimping on the rig's construction, just as the Deluge of 2005 was the result of budgetary skimping on floodwall construction.

For my people, the Louisiana-French of the wetlands, who have lived there in what we have called "le paradis du monde" for two-hundred-fifty years, it may be the end of history as we know it. Loss of the wetlands was already advanced, and further losses due to the oil slick may not be sustainable.

I have concluded that the two political parties, Democrat and Republican, are not useful or helpful as they are. Republicans seem now to be neo-conservatives who say human beings live better with authoritarian government, and Democrats seem to be clueless. Both seem controlled by the financial and political rulers, intent on maximum profit instead of community well-being.

There are two sorts of politics: Morality politics and party politics. Law prohibits non-profits from participating in party politics, but it's beyond the scope of law to regulate morality politics.

Any non-profit that avoids morality politics is not worth the paper that created it. Any church that avoids morality politics may as well lock its doors. Any association that refuses morality politics is a waste of time.

In my sadness, fear and anger about the two catastrophes I mentioned -- destruction of the heart of New Orleans by poor urban planning designed to maximize profit for some public-private corporations AND destruction of the wetlands by poor oil-rig construction designed to maximize profit for British Petroleum -- I INVITE YOU TO A FORUM ON MORALITY POLITICS at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans, 5212 South Claiborne Avenue, on Tuesday evening, May 4, at 5:30.

Doors open at 5:00, and jambalaya and coffee will be served. Candida Shushan, a local leader of Move-On will be the introductory speaker. We will break into groups at some point to prioritize.

This is a community forum for all of us involved in morality politics, and we will insist the Forum retain this character. There will be a table for all groups that wish to bring literature: Move-On, C3, Progressive Democrats of America, Iraq Veterans Against War, and anyone else who wants space.

I propose we begin with the point of view that in our corporate economy -- which is not really free enterprise or capitalist -- the goal of maximizing profit at any cost has been devastating and dangerous to our common good. Hopefully we will pinpoint objectives we can work on together and determine courses of action to realize them, supporting one another and remaining in contact.

Robert Desmarais Sullivan is a Louisiana-French native of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Since the deluge he has become active in New Orleans' reconstruction.

Fire on the Bayou: Non-Stop River of Oil Heads to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, By Bill Quigley

The Coast Guard estimates 5000 barrels of crude oil a day, 210,000 gallons a day, are pouring out of a damaged British Petroleum (BP) well in the Gulf of Mexico since the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion. Eleven people died in the explosion. The oil rig burned and sank. The exploratory well, which is 50 miles away from the coast, continues to powerfully disgorge oil from the bottom of the 5000 feet deep surface of the Gulf.

Oil has now reached the Louisiana coast. The Associated Press (AP) reported there is an oil slick 130 miles long and 70 miles wide in the Gulf of Mexico. Birds covered in thick black oil have already been recovered. Efforts to stop the oil have not proven effective. The AP reports the oil is expected to reach Mississippi on Saturday, Alabama in two days and Florida in three.

Late Friday afternoon, the Mobile Press Register reported a confidential government report prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Emergency Ops concluded that if the pipe on the Gulf floor “deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought.” An uncontrolled release of oil “could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.”

Plans to set parts of the Gulf on fire have been pushed back by bad weather. The unprecedented idea was to burn up the oil spill before it reached land. “This is a great tool,” promised a BP representative.

In response, one long-time Louisiana resident said, “You know you’re in very serious trouble when the solution is for BP and the feds to set the Gulf on fire.”

Worst hit in Louisiana are the coastal areas of Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes – just now limping back from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

On Friday afternoon, federal and state officials held a joint press conference in Louisiana. Curiously, they held their conference with BP representatives. Officials characterized the situation as dangerous and unprecedented. Government representatives said they were pushing BP to increase its efforts to stop the oil because current efforts have not been effective. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano flatly acknowledged that the US is working closely with BP.

BP has caused a lot of trouble lately. The Pulitzer Prize winning news site Pro Publica reported BP “has found itself at the center of several of the nation’s worst oil and gas-related disasters in recent years.” BP recently plead guilty to federal felony charges related to a massive explosion in Texas where investigators found ignored safety rules and a disabled warning system. BP is also accused of responsibility for several recent spills in Alaska.

Why then would federal and state officials hold a joint press conference with BP, given the multinational corporation’s role in the unfolding disaster? Perhaps the reason was hinted at by a comment from the Secretary of the Interior in which he cautioned that the U.S. depends heavily on oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. Even though the White House protested that the oil spill is not President Obama’s Katrina, a public partnership between the perpetrator BP and the government certainly has the potential to become a “Katrina moment.”

Louisiana is trying to deploy 6000 members of the National Guard. Air Force planes have been called in to spray chemicals on the oil. National Guard soldiers in Louisiana are currently “engaged in the planning of the effort to evacuate and provide security and clean up for the coastal communities expected to be impacted by the spill.” They are also planning for the protection of medical facilities, fuel distribution, interstate highways, and power facilities.

Louisiana has already started setting up its shelter program for people with special needs who may have to be evacuated because of concerns about air quality.

Official states of emergency have already been declared along the coasts in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Along the Louisiana coast, people fear the loss of the fishing industry. In New Orleans people worry about air quality.

Thousands of pelicans, herons, egrets, ibis, frigate birds, and rarities like grebes and albatrosses are at risk from the river of oil. Dolphins are birthing at this time so their offspring are at risk. Shrimp and oyster fishing grounds are being closed.

Air quality for humans is another serious issue. The New Orleans area, home to hundreds of thousands, has already been blanketed by a chemical odor.

The head of the Louisiana State Health Department Jimmy Guidry said the smell is an irritant, affecting people with lung conditions and asthma. He said it is normal for the smell to arrive before air quality checks could detect anything harmful. Officials with the Louisiana Health and Hospitals and Environmental Quality said changes in air quality can cause nausea, vomiting or headaches for people who are sensitive. Air sampling was started by the Environmental Protection Agency Thursday and water sampling started Friday. No reports have been made public so far.

Governor Jindal has asked that the feds declare a commercial fisheries failure for Louisiana. The state supplies about one-third of the seafood harvested in the lower 48 states – about $2.85 billion worth a year. Louisiana has put price gouging laws into effect forbidding the raising of prices on gasoline, petroleum products, hotels, motels, and retailers.

Jindal told the press Thursday that he has asked several times for a detailed plan of how Coast Guard plans to handle the situation, but he has “not seen a quantifiable plan.”

In an ominous note, lawmakers, according to USA Today, say they have been told that not only is light crude headed towards the coast, but so too is heavy asphaltic oil.

“This isn’t a spill. This isn’t a storage tank or a ship with a finite amount of oil that has boundaries. This is much, much worse,” said Kerry St. Pe, the former head of the Louisiana oil spill response team. The Gulf spill is really a river of oil flowing out of the bottom of the Gulf according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

In 1975, the New Orleans group, The Meters, released their album Fire on the Bayou. The album cover featured an apocalyptic orange and yellow painting of a bayou ablaze. In 2010 the idea of a fire on the bayou may well be coming true.

Bill is Legal director of the center for Constitutional Rights and professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans. His email is quigley77@gmail.com.