BP: No volunteers for oil-response efforts (orders the Keys citizens to stay away)

[Robbien]

Source: Keynoter

If oil from the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico spill reaches the Florida Keys, BP doesn't want local volunteers at cleanup sites, company representatives say.

"We don't intend to use volunteers in contact with tar balls or other hydrocarbon" oil material, Ray Dempsey, a BP vice president, said on a Wednesday conference call with Florida Keys officials that was hosted by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Using a "paid force" ensures responders are trained for jobs that bring then in contact "with hazardous material," said Mark Stultz, a BP representative assigned to the Keys.

Their remarks came after Ros-Lehtinen praised the environmental spirit of Keys residents and urged spill-response coordinators to get citizens involved.

. . .

The discussion on the call arose after government representatives from the Keys asked if BP plans to fund any more hazardous-material training locally. BP paid for some Key West responders to attend a course through Florida Keys Community College but the oil company has funded no additional sessions. Dempsey said additional training would occur only if and when local residents are hired as part of the response workforce.



Read more: http://www.keysnet.com/2010/06/19/230697/bp-no-volunteers-for-oil-response.html

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As if BP's shoddy training is worth anything anyway.

[hedgehog]

1. A lot of people who volunteered at the World Trade Center site

are now dealing with permanent lung damage. This isn't to say that BP is supplying its people with the proper gear; maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I do think it's a good idea for people to stay away from the oil.

[Robbien]

5. Being the Keys, I would expect they would get the gear

to better protect their citizen volunteers while BP is still refusing to admit that breathing oil fumes causing health problems.

[mbperrin]

7. I believe they're afraid that volunteer labor will have to be declared as

income on their tax statements, while any and all expenses can be deducted from same.

I'm speaking from the land of 100,000 operating wells, where untold generations of roughnecks and roustabouts have worked to old age with blue work shirts and hardhats.

Watch 'em try to amortize the whole thing against the past 7 years of profits so that the US government owes THEM big fat refunds.

[rzemanfl]

2. We've been told here (Tampa Bay area) that we can volunteer

to "pre-clean" beaches but cannot be involved in cleaning up BP's shit.

[notesdev]

3. As if health concerns will wane...

... by leaving all the crap uncleaned on the beach.

This country really needs to get its priorities in order. First priority needs to be to clean up the oil, BP's liability can be sorted out later. The oil damage is in many cases irreversible, we won't have a second chance to act on this.

[TommyO]

4. It's all about control, if they pay them, they control them

It's what corporations do.

[Capitalocracy]

13. Exactly.

If they pay them, they make them sign things. All kinds of interesting things, as have been reported. It's not about safety, if it were, maybe they'd give them some respirators. No, it's about keeping anyone off the beach who doesn't have a gag order and hasn't been checked for cell phone cameras.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. and one of those things...

employees sign are non-disclosure agreements. Media can't tell us how bad it is, and now volunteers cannot. Everything BP has done has been aimed at not letting the public know just how bad this really is.

[femrap]

18. Very close to

enslavement...give up freedom of speech and the pursuit of happiness....and your health (mental and physical). And if someone at the corporation assaults you, you have already signed an 'arbitration agreement.'

I hate corporations.

[skip fox]

6. As crooked aone might expect from them.

[ShamelessHussy]

8. what a crook - train the volunteers

do they not get the scale of this catastrophe, or does PR trump EVERYTHING.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. comes down to non-disclosure agreements...

employees sign them and they carry weight, as there is the threat of losing a job. Wouldn't work on volunteers. They want to keep the extent of this disaster hidden.

[ShamelessHussy]

20. exactly, they can't have random folks talking about their mess now can they

this is another thing the feds should counterman, but i know they think just like the corporations, and see that as a valid concern to guard against.

:argh:

[theoldman]

9. If tar balls were toxic most Texans would be dead.

Our beaches have had tar balls for at least 50 years. They get replenished each year.

[sulphurdunn]

14. Texans talking about oil

is like mercenaries talking about war.

[kentauros]

19. Talk about a broad brush!

How many Texans do you know, again? ;)

[sulphurdunn]

23. Very broad indeed

I know several Texans and am very fond of about half of them. I'm related to the others.:loveya:

[kentauros]

26. Okay.

I still find it uncalled for, so fair warning in the future. Expect to be called out on it when other DU-Texans see it.

[sulphurdunn]

27. Hell,

I get called out for it all the time by Texans I know, but in their rare moments of lucidity they often agree with me. :pals:

[kentauros]

28. Okay, just telling you how it is around here.

Plus the mods don't allow "region bashing" when they become aware of it. Yours was borderline, so I'm not alerting... this time :P

[L0oniX]

10. Good luck telling the people in the Keys what they can or can't do.

They don't care what BP says. side point: The shrimpers have already left the Keys.

[POAS]

11. Lots of private docks and piers in the keys

what is BP going to tell private land owners about clean up? "Sorry about your luck pal"?

Or will they attempt to compel entry to private land of BP personnel?

Most will probably welcome BP onto their land just to get the clean up done but I'm sure some will not.

[obxhead]

12. If BP really cared about health issues they would be going beyond

standard safety equipment for everyone already working on this spill. In fact, they have yet to get to basic safety equipment such as respirators for these workers already on task.

This rings a a completely hollow excuse. Looks like more of the hide and distort response from BP and the complicit Obama admin on this spill.

[Gin]

17. I noticed the first responders picking up the animals are not

wearing protective face gear.

[PATRICK]

21. They are told they have to pay

for damages so they won't bring in multitudes in the world's largest health experiment if they don't sign "kill me for pay" releases that will at least slow down restitution and damages.

[lostnfound]

22. I can't imagine how they can keep people off Pinellas beaches or other residential spots

All the condos on the beach, are they going to stop people from stepping out their back porch? Son of a bitch. It's not bad enough that they ruin the quality, but they get the right to determine access, too??

[ronnie624]

24. Corporations like BP

corrupt our legislative process with 'campaign donations' and 'lobbying', while they establish our government's policies by heading federal agencies via the 'revolving door'. They 'own' and control practically everything. Nothing short of a global revolution will end this inequitable, greed perverted system of human organization and governance. I hope it can happen before they get us all killed.

[flamingdem]

25. Would like to see Ileana Ros-Lehtinen cleaning oil to balance the right wing toxins she outputs nt