Reports from the ground in La.

[dixiegrrrrl]

Billy Nungesser of Plaquemines Parish in La. Belle Chase ( where all the oil is landing onshore) is on Cspan right now,
along with Patricia Clarkson the actress, and public officials of the area.
They are meeting in Nungesser's office, Cspan camera.
Here is what they are saying: ( remember I am typing what is being said)

BP contractors are capturing oiled pelicans ( remember these are endangered ) and putting them in pens,where they sit, covered in oil. The excuse is BP wants the birds to "calm down" for a week.

Thad Allen doesn't know what he is doing. ( that is a quote)
Local officials are being ignored.
Local clean up efforts are being resisted, but those are the only ones that are getting anything accomplished.
Nungesser has a background in boats, emergency services, and is being ignored by the Feds, BP, Coast Guard.
Nungesser says his only contact with the WH is they listen to him and then they say " We will take that under consideration".
The barges were stopped from cleaning up because "they needed to be checked for life preservers," but instead of having someone go TO the barge, board, look around to count the safety items, the barges were ordered to return to dock.

Essentially what is happening is the locals who know the area and have the boats, manpower, etc to protect the marshlands, are being prevented from doing so, while BP hires contractors who make money for doing nothing.
Here is link to the video:
http://cspan.org/Watch/Media/2010/06/20/HP/A/34464/Plaquemines+Parish+President+Billy+Nungesser+on+Gulf+Coast+Cleanup+Efforts.aspx
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The only thing that makes sense to me is if you want to avoid
environmental issues, destroying the environment solves that problem.

[BeFree]

1. Permit to destroy

BP bought a $20 billion permit to destroy.

They are off the hook, Tony has his life back, Obama looks good - the heat is off, no big oiled beaches, only one dead whale, Cheney is lurking in the shadows, the GOP is squared away with BP, drilling will continue, profits will be maintained, and in a year, the propaganda will be: See, oil spills are no big deal, now can we drill off Florida?

Everything is being arranged very nicely. After 60 days, it's finally off the front page. Things are moving along as planned. We'll all get over it and move on.

[Poboy]

2. All true, and more.

When they try to go out and do things for ourselves, we are to to cease or be subject to arrest. We'd like to try oil eating microbes, and other things in a field experiment to see what works best and where, but we are threatened at EVERY turn.
They want us to just sit here and watch the oil come in.

The Federal oversight is deplorable. We we told weeks ago that this situation would improve. IT HAS NOT.

Also-

1.BP contract workers are 'standing down' (getting caught hanging out at the dock by Parish officials, while oil comes in).

2. BP contract workers have been CAUGHT stomping on pelican eggs and nesting areas with wreckless disregard to habitat. This has happened repeatedly, despite them being told not to by Parish officials. The Audabon Society, as well as other organizations have confirmed this.

3. Barges are being placed, berms being built, etc. ALL OF WHICH IS BEING FAUGHT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

Why? Why is this being allowed to happen? Why doesn't whomever is in charge of the federal oversight care?
This is unforgivable.

[izquierdista]

3. "contractors who make money for doing nothing"

Billy should, as Ari Fleischer would say, watch what he says. He's getting perilously close to condemning the American way of life.

[LaurenG]

4. The contractors are

capturing oiled pelicans ( remember these are endangered ) and putting them in pens,where they sit, covered in oil. The excuse is BP wants the birds to "calm down" for a week.

CALM DOWN. WTH, they mean just die covered in oil!

[pitohui]

23. see my post below

nungesser is not what he claims

the treatment of pelicans, having to be stabilized, before they can be transported and cleaned is ALL on him, the cleaning station should have been set up where the birds are actually being oiled, but that wouldn't be in plaquemines parish

[Angry Dragon]

5. Perhaps they need to push the cease and desist

Americans have the right to protect themselves. Perhaps it is time to push the issue and see if some would be actually arrested. That may be the only way to really bring the lack of cleanup that is going on to the forefront.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. I am impressed with Nungesser. And he is a Republican!

People who are not from the South do not get how closely tied to the land the average Southerner is.
And by average, I do not mean the professional politician type.

People around here are ON the land a lot. They hunt, they fish, they boat, they know their woods and beaches and farms in a way that city dwellers do not.
Their sense of place is strong and deep.

Handling a problem like this from the top down is effective and insane.

[Mimosa]

7. ^ That is so true. ^ n/t

[Scuba]

9. Yeah, us Northerners can't understand being tied to the land....

...being as were from big cities. Mine is population 650, but I live outside of town. I grew up on a 40 acre farm and we lived on what that 40 could provide. We could never understand it like southerners.

C'mon, we're all Americans. Even some guy in an apartment in NYC can have an appreciation for our planet.

[Mimosa]

26. I apologise.

Just overly sentimental, Scuba. ;-)

[Scuba]

29. No sweat. Please remember that us northerners love the earth too, and we share your anguish.

[Scuba]

10. Duplicate, please delete

[Tsiyu]

13. People who are not from ...........

People who are not from the South do not get how closely tied to the land the average Southerner is.


I hate to break this to you, but I think broad brush smears are against the rules now.

Stating that anyone "not from where you're at" is "clueless" as to humans' ties to the natural environment is a broad brush insult to people "not from where you're at."

I don't believe Southerners invented land, farming, hunting, fishing or boating. If you go above the Mason Dixon line, I promise you America does not suddenly become a concrete metropolis.

There are actually yankees who own farms, who hunt and fish and boat. Really.

And there are British people and African people and South American people and Chinese people who feel a strong affinity to their land.

I'm not lying to you!

Travel is your friend.


:)

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. I could have phrased that differently, you are correct.

[pitohui]

24. if you're impressed with nungesser you haven't got a clue

& you can't possibly know anything abt the history of plaquemines parish

this man is racist self-promoting slime playing on people's fear, grief, and racism to put $ in his own pockets

what he is doing to the pelicans is just vile

see my other post

[cwydro]

8. This is horrendous.

As angry as I am down here, I cannot imagine the anger of those people dealing with it right now.

Why doesn't our government step in and make things happen with this massive cleanup that is so needed?

[Scuba]

11. Because they don't really give a damn about you?

[cwydro]

12. Hmmm,

I think you nailed it.

[Poboy]

21. That appears to be the most likely answer. -nt

[Poboy]

14. American Birding Association

Be careful cleaning up oil spill in areas where protected birds nest: An editorial
Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 6:04 AM

Environmental destruction from the BP oil spill shouldn't be compounded by clumsy cleanup efforts, but a bird watcher found damage to nesting areas on Grand Isle.Since only cleanup workers have access to the beach, Drew Wheelan of the American Birding Association believes that they are responsible for the all-terrain vehicle tracks he photographed inches away from unhatched least tern eggs. He also took pictures of 2-day-old chicks in a depression created by a second set of tires.

Share The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries rushed to the site to flag the area as a no-drive zone. But when Mr. Wheelan returned days later, the rut where the chicks were huddled had been obliterated by an even bigger vehicle track, and the eggs were gone.

FULL-
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/be_careful_cleaning_up_oil_spi_1.html

=====

Tern nesting areas being disturbed by oil spill cleanup workers, conservationist says
Published: Monday, June 21, 2010, 6:00 AM
Last weekend Drew Wheelan, the Gulf of Mexico conservation coordinator for the American Birding Association, documented the near-destruction of several least tern nests on the sand in front of a Grand Isle beach house owned by the Nature Conservancy.

He took pictures of an unhatched egg -- white speckled with brown -- only a few inches from the track marks of an all-terrain vehicle, and of two days-old chicks precariously sitting in depressions created by a second set of tire tracks made by vehicles he believes are involved in cleaning up the Gulf oil spill created by the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

Disturbing least terns is a very big no-no. The gray and white shorebirds -- with a black cap sporting a thin band of white across their eyes -- are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and individuals who disturb nesting areas are subject to fines of as much as $15,000 or 6 months in jail.

FULL-
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/tern_nesting_areas_being_distu.html

====

Slideshow -Pelican Nests Trampled During Oil Cleanup
http://www.wdsu.com/slideshow/news/23910011/detail.html

====

Parish President: “Clean up crews stomping eggs” of brown pelicans; Asks HSUS to help
Plastic bags containing snare boom were “recklessly placed” around the island without consideration for wildlife. In one picture released by the parish, a plastic bag was on top of a nest containing broken speckled eggs. …

Nungesser met with the Humane Society of the United States and asked it to work with contractors who are cleaning the birds to come up with a better way to enlist the help of volunteers, the parish said.

“We want to improve our comfort level of knowing someone is out there looking for these birds and other animals — doing all they can to save them,” Nungesser said on the parish website.

“The people BP sent out to clean up oil trampled the nesting grounds of brown pelicans and other birds,” he said. “Pelicans just came off the endangered species list in November of last year. They already have the oil affecting their population during their reproduction time, now we have the so-called clean up crews stomping eggs.

“The lack of urgency and general disregard for Louisiana’s wetlands and wildlife is enough to make you sick,” he said.

FULL-
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/16/louisiana.trampled.nests/

[eowyn_of_rohan]

15. BP "should" do this - "shouldn't" do that - DAMN!! Someone STOP THEM!

DEMAND access to OUR beaches!! Letting a criminal, foreign company take over our beaches and deny our right to our own public land ...this is like the Twilight Zone

[End Of The Road]

16. Who is overseeing BP's contractor's efforts here?

Is there any oversight? How many contractors? Do we have company names? Do the contractors have any training whatsoever?

I'm increasingly puzzled by the decision to have BP active in coastal clean-up beyond PAYING FOR IT. This is NOT their area of expertise, and plenty of their public comments have exhibited complete insensitivity.

Besides being an environmental mistake, I think allowing BP in this role will prove to be a political mistake as well.

[pitohui]

25. drew wheelan is for real and the disaster at grand isle is for real

nungesser trying to gain control of the contractors and put all the $ in his pocket from BP with his loudmouth grandstanding is a completely different story

you can't compare the two

wheelan and many others are working to capture, recover, and clean birds w. the extra difficulty that the actual cleaning station is at fort jackson in plaquemines parish instead of on or near grand isle where the birds are actually being oiled

nungesser and jindal would like nothing more for uncritical people to believe that all money from BP should flow directly to THEM and the (republican-owned) contractors of their choice, they are truly without shame

having the bird cleaning station set up at fort jackson is just the first example of their shamelessness

it won't be the last

[amborin]

18. why is this being allowed?

[End Of The Road]

19. I've wondered same. This gave me part of the answer...

http://gulfcoastcleaning.blogspot.com/

Read, especially, the press release that starts about 1/4 the way down.

So, it appears to be gov't red tape related to qualifying to be a government contractor.

BUT the GSA should have plenty of already-approved qualified environmental contractors on their list.

So I'm back to square one: I don't get it.

[nashville_brook]

20. k n r

[pitohui]

22. nungesser is a self-promoting piece of well never mind

boy, is this guy lying thru his teeth

first lie, "in belle chase, where all the oil is landing"

um, no, the most severe incidents have been in grand isle, jefferson parish, quite a distance away, but that doesn't put money in his pocket does it

plaquemines parish is traditionally one of the most corrupt of the louisiana parishes, and nungesser's own marina is being used as by BP, and nungesser cashing in big time out of this

the majority of the oiled wildlife has to be captured, stabilized, and then transported from grand isle area, a very long ride overland to the wildlife cleaning area in plaquemines at fort jackson (buras) much to the detriment of the birds

after some outcry, there are now boats to transport the birds fort jackson but it's still a journey of over an hour

the wildlife cleaning operations should be centered at grand isle, and there are lots of marinas there and lots of places to set up, just as good as fort jackson but that wouldn't be money in nungesser's pocket

i have no use at all for nungesser and how he's using this to 1) enrich himself and 2) crap all over obama

i'm done w. this man, absolutely done! he has told so many lies and done so much harm to the birds by having the cleaning center set up in his parish that i hope the souls of every dead pelican haunt his sleep forever, but they won't

nungesser is out for nungesser, he wouldn't piss on a pelican if it was on fire, let them travel suffering for a long way if that puts an extra nickel in his pocket

sorry for the rant but there's just no call for this...

[tranche]

27. I'd like to know who they're contracting out to.

[End Of The Road]

28. I found these names on an LSU message board.

But it may vary regionally.

USES is the prime. ES&H is #2 Ashland Services is supplying the majority of labor.

Also mentioned were:

US Environmental Services
Oil Stop
Oil Mop
PSC
Trussco
PMI


I don't know how accurate this is. But I was trying to answer your question for myself earlier today, and it's all I could find at the time.