Gulf Oil Spill Response Leader: 'How Clean Is Clean?'

McClatchy:

After more than three months, BP appears finally to have gotten a firm grasp on its runaway Deepwater Horizon well. Now the big question in the Gulf of Mexico is how, and if, an environmental mess of unprecedented scope can be cleaned up.

Only last week did federal spill managers begin discussing with state and parish leaders in Louisiana, the hardest hit state, how to set the standards for declaring the nation's largest offshore oil spill officially mopped up.

"How do we get to the inevitable question of how clean is clean?" said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the spill.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[BrianJDonovan]

06:20 AM on 08/03/2010

How clean is clean?

How stupid is stupid?

[ChicagoBob]

01:49 AM on 08/03/2010

How clean is clean?

When every molecule of BP's oil is gone, then it's clean.

If BP has to pay for 100 years so be it.

[Ken Merry]

03:49 AM on 08/03/2010

It's a pity you guys over the pond don't think a bit more about all the CO2 you belch out for the rest of the world to swallow

[2garen]

09:40 PM on 08/02/2010

Admiral Allen has been working for BP not America. I am really PZZed off that my tax paying dollar is supporting this sl-eez.

[notillegal2]

06:53 PM on 08/02/2010

KInd of like it all depends on what the definition of is is.

[SRAC]

01:05 PM on 08/02/2010

Remember that Admiral Allen has been taking his orders from BP. He is not serving his country in an honorable way.

[BrianJDonovan]

11:41 AM on 08/02/2010

"Spill, what spill? Dispersants, what dispersants? Missing oil, what missing oil? Wildlife fund, what wildlife fund? Compensation fund, what compensation fund?" Now, Thad Allen asks, "How clean is clean?"

This is merely part of BP's continued strategy to limit liability.

Sylvia Earle, the National Geographic’s explorer-in-residence and former chief scientist at NOAA, stated that “the instructions for humans using Corexit warn that it is an eye and skin irritant, is harmful by inhalation, in contact with skin and if swallowed, and may cause injury to red blood cells, kidney or the liver.” “People are warned not to take Corexit internally,” she said, “but the fish, turtles, copepods and jellies have no choice. They are awash in a lethal brew of oil and butoxyethanol.”

One problem with breaking down the oil is that it makes it easier for the many tiny underwater organisms to ingest this toxic soup.

Earle has called for a halt on the subsurface use of dispersants, while limiting surface use to strategic sites where other methods cannot safeguard critically important coastal habitats.

For a better understanding of why toxic dispersants are being used by BP in such an excessive and unprecedented manner, visit:

http://renergie.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/bps-strategy-to-limit-liability-in-regard-to-its-gulf-oil-gusher/

and

http://donovanlawgroup.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/is-the-bp-oil-spill-victim-compensation-fund-legitimate/

[ginxy]

11:17 AM on 08/02/2010

It's sad to see HP linking to an article that is clearly a fluff piece for BP.

"Conditions have clearly — and dramatically — improved in the Gulf in the two weeks since BP capped its well. A massive slick once the size of Florida has shrunk faster than anyone expected. The Coast Guard reported blue water over the Deepwater Horizon site last week and so little floating oil that skimming vessels were burning more fuel motoring around the Gulf than they were finding."

Are you freaking kidding me? The most recent satellite images show a gulf still full of oil and enormous areas of dark water where the oil is clearly massing under the surface.

HP. It's truly sad and shameful to see that you are participating in the cover-up.

[sven1olaf]

02:51 PM on 08/02/2010

/agreed

[lisakaz2]

11:12 AM on 08/02/2010

How about testing the water? When sea life stops dying in the polluted regions, and it stops exploding, you're on your way.

[BillyPilgrim59]

10:32 AM on 08/02/2010

This guy has gone to far in catering to BP.
I would not mind seeing someone else.

[lisakaz2]

11:13 AM on 08/02/2010

Seriously. Does he work for them?

[Mikeeee]

10:03 AM on 08/02/2010

"How do we get to the inevitable question of how clean is clean?" said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the spill.

Well you dementedoldfool, can you remember what it looked like before you allowed bp to dump millions of gallons of toxins into the water. Can you remember waaaay back to January01/10? Try that as your minimum and try your hardest to surpass it.

[lisakaz2]

11:15 AM on 08/02/2010

Don't forget their toxic masking agent Corexit, which I'm sure we'll discover someday is about as eco-friendly as DDT.

[timremple]

10:22 PM on 08/02/2010

Given the weird incidents of toxic rain that have happened recently as far away as Iowa, I wold not be surprised to see the cancer rates in the Gulf, and a large swath of the US spike in a few years, perhaps not many, given how deadly Corexit.

What REALLY steam me is the thought the thousands, if not millions, of kids will, in the future, develop cancer and die from it, all so Allen can stand up and repeat BP's lies.

For the key folks involved in bringing this horror to the Earth, and its environment, and all that environment's inhabitants, be "richly" punished in this life, and even more so beyond that!!