Oil Spill
State lacks plan for RESTORE Act projects
Baton Rouge Advocate
WASHINGTON — With the federal RESTORE Act now law, state officials,
environmental groups and others are trying to figure out how billions of
dollars' worth of coastal restoration projects will be put into action.
The projects, to be funded from fines from the BP oil disaster, could
create nearly 60,000 jobs in Louisiana.
http://theadvocate.com/news/3578356-123/state-lacks-plan-for-restore
State News
MDA Director Will Decide If Gulf Drilling Rules Stand
MPB
PUBLISHED BY JEFFREY HESS ON 10 AUG 2012 04:13PM
It is now up to the executive director of the Mississippi Development
Authority to decide if oil and gas exploration can proceed in Mississippi
Gulf waters. MPB's Jeffrey Hess reports that three environmental groups are
challenging the rules to prevent drilling in Mississippi waters.
http://mpbonline.org/News/article/mda_director_will_decide_if_gulf_drilling_rules_stand
Vicksburg working on site it hopes to sell
AP
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - City crews worked this week to repair drainage and
erosion problems on city land off Fisher Ferry Road.
The Vicksburg Post reports (http://bit.ly/OYxesC ) Mayor Paul Winfield said
he is seeking a buyer willing to develop the property and put it back on
the tax rolls.
The work, including materials costing about $85,000, was ordered after an
inspection by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. The
project is expected to take about two weeks to complete, interim public
works director Garnet Van Norman said.
http://www.wdam.com/story/19256350/vicksburg-working-on-site-it-hopes-to-sell
Scientists keeping close eye on first loggerhead turtle nests on
Mississippi beaches in 20 years
Sun Herald
Scientists are monitoring loggerhead turtle nesting sites in Pass Christian
waiting to see if hatchlings will emerge.
http://www.sunherald.com/2012/08/10/4119754/scientists-keeping-close-eye-on.html
South Mississippi beaches called 'amazing' by USA Today
Sun Herald
BILOXI -- USA Today has named the beach along the Mississippi Coast one of
the most amazing American beaches.
http://www.sunherald.com/2012/08/10/4118542/coast-beaches-named-amazing-by.html
Curbside recycling on table again?
Natchez Democrat
Published 12:07amTuesday, August 7, 2012
NATCHEZ — A possible partnership between Adams County and the City of
Natchez could bring
curbside and drop-off recycling to city and county residents next summer.
http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2012/08/07/curbside-recycling-on-table-again/
Legislators hope to streamline shale work
Natchez Democrat
Published 12:04amSaturday, August 11, 2012
NATCHEZ — In the coming weeks state officials will meet with oilfield
developers to determine what the
State ofMississippi needs to do to ensure the development of the Tuscaloosa
Marine Shale is a
worthwhile investment.
http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2012/08/11/legislators-hope-to-streamline-shale-work/
Thousands of dead fish floating in Garden Isles
WLOX
A dead zone of warm water and low oxygen has caused thousands of dead fish
to wash up in the bayous surrounding the Garden Isles community in Bay St
Louis.
http://www.wlox.com/story/19247724/thousands-of-dead-fish-floating-in-garden-isles
Mississippi pine beetle infestations double
AP
MCCOMB, Miss. — The Mississippi Forestry Commission says the first Southern
pine beetle outbreak to hit southwest Mississippi in nearly 20 years has
apparently doubled in size and shows no signs of slowing.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/viewart/20120812/NEWS01/120812007/Mississippi-pine-beetle-infestations-double-
Bryant seeks limited government role
AP
First-term Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant makes no apologies about his belief
in small government and his pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps philosophy.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20120813/OPINION/208130321/Bryant-seeks-limited-government-role?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs
National News
States and fishing groups push back against federal mandate to remove idle
oil and gas platforms (gallery, video)
By Ben Raines
Press-Register
As BP oil swirled on the Gulf's surface in May of 2010, the Press-Register
visited an oil platform due south of the Alabama/Mississippi line and dove
underwater.
http://blog.al.com/live/2012/08/post_220.html
Coffee Island oyster restoration project more successful than designers
imagined
By Ben Raines
Press-Register
Coffee Island, which has been slowly disappearing for decades, has quit
shrinking.
In fact, there are signs that the island, located just south of Bayou La
Batre in the Mississippi Sound, is starting to grow larger.
http://blog.al.com/live/2012/08/coffee_island_oyster_restorati.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Texas Rivers create low oxygen areas along the Gulf Coast
Corpus Christi Caller
By Bethany Peterson
Sunday, August 12, 2012
CORPUS CHRISTI — Oxygen isotopes helped Texas A&M University researchers
prove Texas rivers create low oxygen zones off the coast.
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/aug/12/texas-rivers-create-low-oxygen-areas-along-the/
Report tallies continuing TVA ash spill costs
By Pam Sohn, Chattanooga Times Free Press
CHATTANOOGA, TN. (Times Free Press) -- Although TVA has excavated more than
1.6 million cubic yards of coal ash from the Emory and Clinch river area,
the utility and EPA are looking at ways to handle another 500,000 cubic
yards of ash that remain underwater in the Emory, Clinch and Tennessee
rivers.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/19253506/report-tallies-continuing-tva-ash-spill-costs
Beverage companies pay millions to conserve water
By Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Associated Press
WEST COLUMBIA, Texas – Fifty miles outside the nation's fourth-largest city
is a massive field of waist-high grass, buzzing bees and palm-size
butterflies, just waiting to be ripped up by a developer.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/story/2012-08-11/beverage-companies-water-conservation/56875526/1
Opinion
Anglers, guides say trout problem the result of oil spill
Published: Sunday, August 12, 2012, 3:46 AM
By Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune
As BP's oil approached the coast in 2010, many marina operators and fishing
guides who had been wiped out by Hurricane Katrina found themselves looking
back at that disaster with something akin to longing.
http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2012/08/anglers_guides_say_trout_probl.html
Oklahoma attorney general: Fighting a secret strategy by EPA
The Oklahoman
An investigation into tactics that threaten Oklahoma interests and families
has revealed an apparent strategy by the Environmental Protection Agency
that I find disturbing and so compelling that I've asked other attorneys
generals to join me in a records request to expose the agency's "sue and
settle" scheme.
http://newsok.com/shedding-light-on-epas-secret-strategy/article/3699938
Press Releases
BP-Sponsored Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Awards New Grants
PUBLISHED FRIDAY, AUG. 10, 2012
RESTON, Va., Aug. 10, 2012 --
19 groups receive funds to study effects of Deepwater Horizon oil spill
RESTON, Va., Aug. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Gulf of Mexico
Research Initiative, or GoMRI, announced today that it has approved funding
for 19 grants that will support studies of the effects of the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico. Roughly $20 million will be
awarded to these researchers over the next three years.
"Today is a significant milestone for the GoMRI," said Dr. Rita Colwell,
chairman of the GoMRI Research Board. "We have complemented the eight
research consortia we have already funded with important smaller grants
that significantly extend the scope of work being done by GoMRI. These
grants help fill some gaps in GoMRI's research portfolio that existed
between the consortia."
The GoMRI has now awarded more than $130 million of the $500 million that
BP committed to independent research into the effects of the tragic
Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico.
The research proposals being funded today were submitted in response to the
GoMRI's RFP-II initiative. This program funds research with defined goals
within at least one of the following five themes: 1) Physical distribution,
dispersion, and dilution of petroleum (oil and gas), its constituents, and
associated contaminants under the action of physical oceanographic
processes, air-sea interactions, and tropical storms; 2) Chemical evolution
and biological degradation of the petroleum/dispersant systems and
subsequent interaction with coastal, open-ocean, and deepwater ecosystems;
3) Environmental effects of the petroleum/dispersant system on the sea
floor, water column, coastal waters, beach sediments, wetlands, marshes,
and organisms, and the science of ecosystem recovery; 4) Technology
developments for improved response, mitigation, detection,
characterization, and remediation associated with oil spills and gas
releases; and, 5) Impact of oil spills on public health.
The GoMRI received 629 letters of intent from potential applicants.
Applications were evaluated for scientific and technical merit by an expert
panel. The Research Board considered the panel's recommendations and
approved funding for 19 of the research proposals.
Funded grants are:
· Defining Ecologically Relevant Sublethal Effects: How Do Low Levels
of Exposure to Oil and Dispersants Affect Performance and Survival of
Larvae of Gulf Nekton? Edward J. Chesney, Louisiana Universities
Marine Consortium
· Dynamics of Dissolved Inorganic Carbon and Dissolved Oxygen Following
Natural or Manmade Petroleum Carbon Release into Marine Environments
Wei-Jun Cai and Xinping Hu, University of Georgia
· Using Embryonic Stem Cell Fate to Determine Potential Adverse Effects
of Petroleum/Dispersant Exposure Demetri D. Spyropoulos, Satomi
Kohno, John E. Baatz, and Louis J. Guillette, Medical University of
South Carolina
· Multifunctional Colloidal Particles as Dispersants for Maximizing
Biodegradation of Crude Oil Arijit Bose, University of Rhode Island;
Anubhav Tripathi, Brown University; Mindy Levine, University of Rhode
Island; and Anuj Chauhan, University of Florida
· Analysis of Continental Shelf Meiofauna in the Northern Gulf of
Mexico: Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Investigated
During a Long-Term Community Study (2007-Present) Stephen C. Landers,
Troy University; Frank A. Romano, III, Jacksonville State University;
Kewei Yu, Troy University; and Martin V. Sorensen, Natural History
Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen
· Accelerating Recovery after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Response
of the Plant-Microbial-Benthic Ecosystem to Mitigation Strategies
Promoting Wetland Remediation And Resilience Irving A. Mendelssohn,
Qianxin Lin, Aixin Hou, and Kevin R. Carman, Louisiana State
University
· Creating a Predictive Model of Microbially Mediated Carbon
Remediation in the Gulf of Mexico Jack Gilbert, University of Chicago
· Large Eddy Simulation of Turbulent Dispersion of Oil in the Ocean
Surface Layers: Development, Testing and Applications of
Subgrid-Scale Parameterizations Charles V. Meneveau, Johns Hopkins
University; and Marcelo Chamecki, The Pennsylvania State University
· Resolving Deepwater Horizon Impacts on Highly Variable
Ichthyoplankton and Zooplankton Dynamics in the Northern Gulf of
Mexico Frank J. Hernandez, Jr., Dauphin Island Sea Lab
· Monitoring of Oil Spill and Seepage Using Satellite Radars Hans
Graber, CSTARS-University of Miami; Brian Haus and Roland Romeiser,
RSMAS-University of Miami; and John Hargrove, Sr., CSTARS-University
of Miami
· Effect of Photochemistry on Biotransformation of Crude Oil Matthew A.
Tarr, University of New Orleans; Russell Schmehl, Tulane University;
Amy Callaghan and Joseph Suflita, University of Oklahoma
· The Effect of Sediment Bioturbators on the Biological Degradation of
Petroleum in Coastal Ecosystems Paul L. Klerks, Darryl Felder, Andrei
Chistoserdov, and Febee Louka, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
· The Environmental Effects of an Oil Spill on Blue Crabs in the Gulf
of Mexico and the Dynamics of Recovery: Integrating Oceanography and
Molecular Ecology Joseph E. Neigel, University of Louisiana at
Lafayette; and Caroline M. Taylor, Tulane University
· Novel Sensor System for the Early Detection and Monitoring of
Offshore Oil Spills Wei-Chuan Shih, Craig Glennie, and Zhu Han,
University of Houston
· Spatial and Temporal Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on
Growth and Productivity of Important Recreational and Commercial
Fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico Debra J. Murie, Daryl C. Parkyn, and
Robert Ahrens, University of Florida
· Characterizing the Composition and Biogeochemical Behavior of
Dispersants and their Transformation Products in Gulf of Mexico
Coastal EcosystemsKevin L. Armbrust, Mississippi State University; P.
Lee Ferguson, Duke University; Bruce J. Brownawell and Anne E.
McElroy, Stony Brook University
· Weathering of Petroleum and Dispersant Components in the Aftermath of
the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Elizabeth B. Kujawinski, Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution; and Helen K. Whilte, Haverford College
· Development of Cost-Efficient and Concentration-Independent
Dispersants for Improved Oil Spill Remediation Scott M. Grayson,
Tulane University; Daniel A. Savin, University of Southern
Mississippi; and Wayne Reed, Tulane University
· The Combined Effect of Environmental and Anthropogenic Stressors on
Fish Health Thijs Bosker, University of Connecticut; Joseph Griffitt,
University of Southern Mississippi; Maria S. Sepulveda, Purdue
University; and Christopher Perkins, University of Connecticut
The GoMRI Research Board is an autonomous body that administers BP's
ten-year research program, created to study the effect, and the potential
associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public
health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection,
characterization and remediation technologies. Through a series of
competitive grant programs, the GoMRI is investigating the impacts of the
oil, dispersed oil, and dispersant on the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico
and the affected coastal States in a broad context of improving fundamental
understanding of the dynamics of such events and their environmental
stresses and public health implications. The GoMRI also funds research
that improves techniques for detecting oil and gas, spill mitigation, and
technologies to characterize and remediate spills. Knowledge accrued will
be applied to restoration and to improving the long-term environmental
health of the Gulf of Mexico.
To learn more about the GoMRI, please visit
http://www.gulfresearchinitiative.org/.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/10/4713658/bp-sponsored-gulf-of-mexico-research.html
