A Sea in Flames - Carl Safina [96]
But no one makes booms capable of effectively corralling oil in open water. Incredible sophistication—and abject stupidity.
And a whiff of an end: the Coast Guard is talking of a new cap in the works. We also hear that the relief well is ahead of its early-August schedule. Don’t hold your breath. The Thadmiral says, “I am reluctant to tell you it will be done before the middle of August because I think everything associated with this spill and response recovery suggests that we should underpromise and overdeliver.”
Overdeliver? The only thing they’ve overdelivered is oil and polluted water. That’s the part that has vastly exceeded all expectations. (There will not be a relief well in early August. Or mid-August. Or late August. Or early September. Nor by the ides of September.)
In July’s first week, BP reports that nearly 95,000 claims have been submitted and the company has made more than 47,000 payments, totaling almost $147 million. So far, total, it has paid out about $3.12 billion.
Meanwhile, the federal government extends fishing closures to cover more than 80,000 square miles, a third of the Gulf’s federal waters.
Says a fisherman, “Everything we’ve ever known is different now. Anything I ever built, it’s gone: the business, my client base, my website—.” Another says, “In bed, I feel safe. It feels like everything is okay and I’m away from all this. When I get up in the morning, it is just very depressing.”
July 2. Headed to Alabama. Downpours overcome by blue sky. Big lofting clouds.
Lots of churches. And their creepy billboards: “Oil Now, Blood Later.—Revelation 8:8.” “The second angel sounded and the third part of the sea became blood.” What were they smoking? I like my Bible’s translation better: “The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea.” That does sound a bit like the Deepwater Horizon, doesn’t it?
Car radio: “… If it were up to me, I’d let them try it, because, let’s face it, nothing BP and the Coast Guard are doing is doing much good out there.”
“BP has received so many suggestions, it’s created a hotline.”
A hotline. Imagine.
A BP hotline operator in Houston asserts that the spill hotline is just “a diversion to stop callers from getting through.” She adds, “Other operators do nothing with the calls. They just type, ‘blah blah blah,’ no information, just ‘blah blah blah.’ ”
BP denies this, saying, in effect, blah blah blah.
Hand-painted signs on utility poles advertise “Snapper,” “Grouper,” “Flounder,” “Shrimp.” Bait and tackle every little while. That’s all archival now.
Local news: “Mississippi officials have closed the last portion of the state’s marine waters. Any fish caught must now be returned to the waters immediately. Officials say tar balls, patties, mousse, and oil residue [such ugly terms] will continue to wash ashore for two months after the oil stops gushing.” As Eskimos are said to have many words for differing kinds of snow and ice, the Gulf now has a vocabulary of oil.
The local news also says, “Oil is now building on Mississippi’s shoreline, but officials say the major batch of oil is still twenty miles south.”
Officials say. Officials say do this; officials say do this; officials say do this; officials say do this; do this. Out. Out. “Officials say … Unified Command says …”
I say, Unified Command my ass.
“… all commercial and recreational fishing has been shut down in Mississippi Sound.