This time it's oil trouble for Lake Pontchartrain

[ensho]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100707/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill


Oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is seeping into Lake Pontchartrain north of New Orleans, threatening another environmental disaster for the huge body of water that was rescued from pollution in the 1990s.

-snip-

It is threatened again after a weekend when tar balls and an oil sheen pushed by strong winds from faraway Hurricane Alex slipped past lines of barges that were supposed to block the passes connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the lake.

"Our universe is getting very small," said Pete Gerica, president of the Lake Pontchartrain Fishermen's Association.

The oil could be the second setback in five years. Hurricane Katrina knocked out seafood docks and lakeside restaurants in 2005. The lake's water quality also took a hit when the Army Corps of Engineers drained New Orleans' contaminated floodwaters into the lake.
-snip-
-----------------------------

[Mimosa]

1. And some wonder why Louisiania's governor has been stoked to try to stop this

The oil is going to kill off all the seafood which Louisianians used to eat.

[ensho]

2. yes - they might as well start packing up now - oil has 'changed' their lives

things are falling apart

[immune]

3. This news was posted a few days ago

and I was accused of believing information from a conspiracy site. I have no idea if that website is full of conspiracies or not because I'd never seen anything from it before, but some of us had better open our minds a little bit more or we'll always be a day late and a dollar short.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8695944

If this wasn't so damned depressing, I'd be feeling a little more vindicated.

[Phentex]

4. It's been all over the news...

if that makes you feel any better. Not sure why you were blasted.

[immune]

6. It was new news when I posted it.

And no, it doesn't make me feel any better and I'm not sure what it would take to make me feel better about all this since its too late for the current administration to go back and rewrite the regulations in time to avoid the blowup.

And that's what I mean about opening our minds to things we believe are impossible because they are said by people we don't particularly like. The warnings were out there ... for years. No one listened. It was all a lie, until it wasn't a lie anymore.

[ensho]

5. just ignore them and go with your own decisions

nt

[immune]

7. Well now,

if I could only write the rules according to my own decisions.

Things would change. :woohoo:

[Mimosa]

8. Anybody who knows the area was actually expecting this

Immune, you are vindicated. *hug*

My heart has been breaking over this. People were actually recovering , nearly 5 years after Katrina, then this disaster blows away jobs, blows away hope.

[immune]

10. Thanks, Mimosa. Hugs back to you.

I don't live there and have never been there, although its a place I've always wanted to go ... and I thought it would always be there, just the way it was, so I had plenty of time. And that's the least of it.

My heart is also breaking for the people whose lives and futures have been so utterly destroyed, first by Katrina and now this.

And yes, oil spreading into Lake Pontchatrain was inevitable.

[Cresent City Kid]

9. It's not your fault you have to dig beyond media coverage

The best you can do is qualify any statements, and state clearly the degree to which you believe the article. If people don't like it, they get to not like it. Sadly, the facts have been worse than the expectations instead of the other way around. If someone did worry about something that turned out to be false, that would indicate a turnaround in this disaster.

[immune]

11. I guess the only qualifying statements I could have included

would be that, given the geography of the area and unavoidable hurricanes, there was almost no way spillage from the gulf into the lake wouldn't come to pass.

But yes, if people are prepared for a disaster and it doesn't happen, they've still got the items they put aside and can use them in their leisure. IMO, that is one hell of a lot better than having a disaster and not being prepared.

But what makes this disaster so fubar is that the people we hire and pay to prevent such disasters were apparently in bed (literally) with the people who caused it.

And no heads are rolling. That's stunning.