By Rocky Kistner, Bridge the Gulf
When my colleagues released NRDC's annual Testing the Waters report documenting pollution problems across the nation's coastlines, the last thing they expected was this jaw-dropping Orwellian tweet to pop up on their computer screens:
Yes that's right. BP tweeted NRDC's report and said it shows improvements in Gulf coastal areas after being tainted with globs of 170 million gallons of crude spewed from BP's well last year.
Problem is, that's not what NRDC's report stated. Here's what it really said:
More than a year later, the impacts of the BP oil disaster -- the worst in U.S. history -- still linger in the Gulf of Mexico. Over the course of two months, approximately 170 million gallons of oil gushed into Gulf waters, washing up on approximately 1,000 miles of shoreline. As of the end of January, 83 miles of shoreline remained heavily or moderately oiled, while tar balls and weathered oil continue to wash ashore.
As a result, many beaches in the region have issued oil spill advisories, closures, and notices since the disaster began more than a year ago. As of June 15, 2011, there had been a total of 9,474 days of oil-related closings, advisories and notices at Gulf coast beaches. Clean-up crews are still at work as oil continues to wash ashore in Alabama, Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi. And four beaches in Louisiana are still closed and three in Florida have remained under notice since the disaster started. A state-by-state look at oil spill notices, advisories, and closures at Gulf Coast beaches from the beginning of the spill through June 15, 2011 can be found online here: http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/gulf.pdf.
Here's how the CBS News Early Show reported on NRDC's report:
"One hundred and seventy million gallons of oil flowed into the Gulf as a result of the BP oil spill," Jarvis said on 'The Early Show.' "It affected 1,000 plus miles of shoreline, and in particular, it really hit Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida -- those were the worst impacted but Louisiana was number one."
Louisiana alone, Jarvis said, estimates losses could exceed $295 million by 2013, according to the state's Department of Tourism.
"That is a huge number," Jarvis remarked. "Alabama has seen its beach traffic go down 41 percent. Mississippi has seen traffic go down, and in particular Mississippi, for example, they rely on revenue from the gambling industry, and they've lost more than $100 million, they expect from all of this."
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that BP would try to put such an absurdly positive spin on the beach report. After all, this is the same company that made some of the more memorable corporate PR blunders in history. At the forefront are former CEO Tony Hayward's mind-boggling comments about environmental impacts being "very very modest" and his ponderings about getting "my life back." See NRDC's excellent slideshow presentation Yours Truly, BP.
But BP's beach tweet is at odds with what some local residents say they see almost daily. The beaches near Grand Isle, Louisiana are still impacted by tar balls and globs of oil that are buried on the bottom offshore. It's unclear when the beach ever will get back to normal, as I discovered last spring.
Along the coastline of Mississippi, residents walking the beaches near Gulfport still spot dead dolphins and sea turtles washing up on the beach, something they say was highly unusual before the BP oil well blow out.
Gulfport resident Laurel Lockamy has photographed lots of dead sea life strewn across the beaches in recent months. Recently she discovered a foul smelling patch of ocean water linked to wastewater discharge near Gulfport beach. She also found out the Mississippi DEQ still has an oil impact statement on its website that advises people not swim in the area 24 hours after a significant rainfall event, something Laurel and many others were unaware of. Locals say there are no signs posted directly on beaches where swimmers would be informed about those health threats.
Swimmers aren't the only ones still at risk. G