It's not just the beach getting oiled (BP sending TX lots of oil crap)

[sonias]

Houston Chronicle 7/5/10
It's not just the beach getting oiled
Murky waste heads to state for disposal, but details skimpy

(snip)
Some of BP's spilled oil and other waste is making its way to the state for permanent disposal in underground salt domes and injection wells. Texas, home to large numbers of environmental services companies, refineries and oil salvage operators, is among the states recycling or disposing of oily refuse collected during cleanup efforts, according to state officials and BP documents.

But what kind of waste is coming in, how it is being processed and the details of its disposal are something of a mystery. BP and most of its contractors are unwilling or unable to disclose details, and government agencies offer competing or incomplete accounts of what's going where.

Tracking the tons of waste generated by one of the biggest environmental messes the country's ever dealt with isn't easy, but how it's being handled could be important in assessing potential effects on the health and safety of nearby communities.

(snip)
BP, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Unified Command leading the response were unable to say how much oil has been recycled or separated.

Through last week, skimming vessels had collected about 671,000 barrels of oily water mixture — 28 million gallons — since shortly after BP's Macondo well blew out April 20, destroying the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and killing 11 workers.

Holy crap - this is a freaking nightmare! This article gives you a clue that Texas has become the dumping ground for the Deepwater oil. All of the toxic waste being cleaned up in the gulf may end up buried in Texas. A lot of it in Texas City on BP property. :mad::mad:

And by firms that really don't answer to anybody. They won't talk about any of it. Lord knows our TCEQ is worthless at protecting our air and water, they could give a rat's ass if BP buries it here in Texas. :mad:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

1. Just what Texas needs, more toxic waste.

What are they trying to do, kill us all off? Or is the possibility of our demise just an "unfortunate" side effect of corporate profits?

[sonias]

2. Rick Perry can't sell off the state's assets fast enough

He already sells pollution permits essentially through the TCEQ. He just formed a sham of a commission to "study" oil spill prevention which of course will be "funded" by the oil companies. Yeah, that will work marvelously. They've done such a great job at updating spill prevention techniques in the past 40 years, I'm sure it's going to be a huge success. :sarcasm:

Houston Chronicle 7/6/10
DISASTER IN THE GULF
Perry forms team to fight oil spills
Governor says NASA part of expert coalition that will focus on preventing tragedies

NASA, the University of Houston and Rice University will be part of a coalition of scientists, policy experts, oil and gas engineers and state officials focused on preventing future oil spill disasters, Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday in Houston.

Standing beneath the Saturn V moon rocket on display at Johnson Space Center, Perry announced the formation of the Gulf Project, which he described as "a Texas version of that legendary race to the moon."

(snip)
No price tag

Perry didn't put a price tag on the project but said he expects the oil and gas industry to help pick up the tab.

[Avalux]

3. As long as Chicken Rick gets kickbacks, he'll let BP do whatever they want in Texas.

Bury the waste on private land, no questions asked. Wonderful! x(

[syberlion]

4. of Course the oil companies are going to pay for the panel...

They have to have some PR project to tout on their "green-washing" ads on TV selling the "fact" that their product isn't killing millions of people... It's the same song tobacco sang for decades and we're still buying it, all of it. This is their economy and until will pull the gas pump out of our collective arses, we will be maintaining "their" economy.

We've gotten too soft with our big SUV's and on-demand television, heck as long as we're sitting on the couch watching the World Cup, what do we care if an entire eco-system is being systematically destroyed? No one is talking about the soft-peddling of the media coverage of this catastrophic disaster. Compare the coverage of that volcano that was blocking European flights and all the doom and gloom economic forecasting that poured out of our televisions, right down to the local stories of vacationers stuck in your local town because of the volcano. We are talking about blocking thousands of fisherman from being able to go into the gulf to earn their living which will affect the thousands of restaurants needing the food from the gulf to keep their businesses open, or convince people the seafood they do have is safe to eat... This is an economic disaster that makes the volcano in Iceland pale in comparison.

One of my favorite talk show hosts has said for many years, "The news is dead," and it gets proven to me every single day. Corporate media is only showing us what they want us to see. The only reason we get to see the small snippets of gulf coast clean up crews, or those cleaning the oil-covered birds is because the word-of-mouth information. People know what's going on and if they don't see it on TV, the general public will begin to wonder about what they are seeing on the boob-tube and that would be the beginning of the end for corporate-run media. A controlled public is a consumer-driven public and that's the way they want it and currently have it in this country.

[sonias]

5. You are absolutely right about the economic disaster

..economic disaster that makes the volcano in Iceland pale in comparison

:thumbsup:

And our corporate media coverage has pretty much moved on - short attention span. The local newspapers around the coast, blogs and independent YouTube video are the only in depth reporting. :(

[TEXASYANKEE]

6. Absolutely true.

The US "news" media is treating us like little children. I watch it and think "Oh, the gulf is going to be okay. It'll take a little while, but it will recover." And then I come on the internet and watch coverage of people flying over the gulf and the enormity of the spill and suddenly realize ... the gulf is screwed. And what happens to the people, the economy, the environment, etc etc. The "news" media doesn't cover it because they don't want us to panic. Just keep us ignorant and addicted to American Idol. It's all very sad.