WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE DEMANDS TESTING, TRACKING AND TRANSPARENCY FROM GOVERNMENT DURING BP OIL DISASTER

One Month into Disaster, Environmental Safety Questions Remain Unanswered

Mobile Bay, AL; Baton Rouge and Barataria, LA; Apalachicola and Pensacola, FL; Galveston, TX – May 20, 2010 – Today, one month into the still-uncontrolled BP oil disaster, Waterkeeper Alliance, the global environmental organization, issued an urgent call to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), demanding testing and tracking of oil and dispersant contaminants in the Gulf of Mexico, and a demand to all agencies involved in the disaster for more transparency and forthrightness in reporting these findings and information to the public. 

The Alliance and its Gulf Coast member groups on the front lines of this still-unfolding disaster caused by BP, strongly urged the EPA to:

·        Rigorously and fully perform tests on the water column to determine what toxicity risks and dangers the Gulf’s people, communities, and fish and wildlife are being exposed to;

·        Conduct full and diligent tracking and testing of the flesh of fish, turtles and other marine animals to detect the presence of toxins associated with dispersants being used in the Gulf of Mexico by BP;

·        Improve air-quality testing, increase the number of air monitoring stations (which are wholly inadequate now), and establish monitoring stations in population centers;

·        And, full transparency in the straightforward public communication of these findings so that residents of gulf communities, public officials, and spill responders can take appropriate safety precautions. 

“We applaud EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s announcement that her agency will be more transparent in its communications, but one month into this disaster, we find that we still don’t have basic safety information or a systematic testing effort in place to determine health impacts of dispersants, oil and smoke from burning oil,” said Kristine Stratton, Executive Director of Waterkeeper Alliance. “BP, as the responsible party, has governed access to information, but the public’s right to know should not begin where BP’s prerogatives end.  We demand full accountability from government and BP, and accurate information to ensure the health and safety of Gulf Coast communities.”

Gulf Coast Waterkeepers – Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper and Louisiana Bayoukeeper, Alabama’s Mobile Baykeeper, Florida’s Emerald Coastkeeper and Apalachicola Riverkeeper, and Texas’s Galveston Baykeeper – continue to report on the effectiveness of natural resource protection and conduct clean up efforts, and several are taking part in meetings with local and federal authorities.  Their firsthand information is providing invaluable perspective, but they are also seeing where efforts are falling far short of what is needed.

“It is absolutely NOT our intention to make the incredibly unfortunate circumstances that our local fisherfolk and business owners have to endure even worse, but we are gravely concerned about what we have not been told - specifically about the hundreds of thousands of gallons of dispersants used.” said Emerald Coastkeeper Chasidy Fisher Hobbs.  “These chemicals pull oil into the water column where we locals, and the world watching, cannot see it.  The limited knowledge we have on these products causes me to pause and question the message that our beaches and seafood are safe.  We Waterkeepers have been working tirelessly to get the information needed to make informed decisions, but thus far, none have been forthcoming from the Government, and not from BP.  I hope we have these answers sooner rather than later.”

In calling for increased transparency, the Waterkeepers also outlined the urgent need to make public the type and nature of the chemicals used in dispersants, and further demanded that air safety monitoring, right now pitifully inadequate, be stepped up.  They note that there are only two mobile air monitoring trucks for the entire Gulf Coast region, and the few stationary monitors are not near population centers, which have gone largely untested.

“We now know that this deepwater drilling operation was undertaken without considering the very consequences that we are now facing, without creating a fall back plan in the event that disaster struck, and without any assessment of the risks,” said Apalachicola Riverkeeper Dan Tonsmeire.  “At best, this is an example of irresponsible development conducted without regard for the Gulf or lives of workers.  How can it be that the most reliable fall-back position is drilling an interceptor well that will take 3-4 months to complete, while this well spews somewhere between 200,000 and 1,000,000 gallons per day into the Gulf?”

Waterkeeper Alliance is a global environmental organization uniting more than 190 Waterkeeper programs around the world and focusing citizen advocacy on the issues that affect our waterways, from pollution to climate change. More information can be found at www.Waterkeeper.org.

To see what Gulf Coast Waterkeepers are doing to fight the disaster and to find out how you can help, visit www.saveourgulf.org .

MEDIA CONTACTS:

John Bianchi for Waterkeeper Alliance: 212-576-2700, ext 228 jbianchi@goodmanmedia.com

Sakura Amend for Waterkeeper Alliance: 212-576-2700, ext 237 samend@goodmanmedia.com

Casi Callaway, Mobile Baykeeper: 251-209-4253 callaway@mobilebaykeeper.org

Paul Orr, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper: 225-802-9255 paul@leanweb.org

Chasidy Fisher Hobbs, Emerald Coastkeeper: 850-429-8422 chasidy@emeraldcoastkeeper.org

Tracy Kuhns, Louisiana Bayoukeeper: 504-289-7162 bayoukeeper@cox.net

Dan Tonsmeire, Apalachicola Riverkeeper: 850-653-8936 riverkeeper@apalachicolariverkeeper.org

Charlotte Wells, Galveston Baykeeper: 281-455-9595 baytime@mac.com