The BP oil spill, the worst environmental disaster ever, has largely disappeared from the front pages of the newspapers amid assurances from public officials that the oil has disappeared. That’s convenient.
Where has five million barrels of oil released into the Gulf gone?
For all the business operators and Gulf workers who claim they have lost their livelihood, that is a convenient out. But it does not make their losses any less, and it may not be true.
Rick Outzen is the publisher and editor of Independent News, the alternative newsweekly for Northwest Florida and his report is republished in the Daily Beast.
He reports that fishermen hired by BP are still finding tar balls but are being instructed to hide that fact. One fisherman, Mark Williams, tells the paper he found tar balls as large as three inches wide floating off the Florida coast. When he told his boss, a private consulting company hired by BP, the report logbook reflected there was “no reporting of oil or tar balls anymore.” They didn’t want to hear it. They were there to remove booms, that’s all.
Certainly, it is in the best interest of BP to minimize the damage. Less damage means less payout of the $20 billion it has committed to compensate businesses and workers devastated by the environmental disaster. Less damage means BP can cut back on response operations. Less damage means that fishing season can resume. But who wants to eat the catch from the crude oil soaked Gulf, which also has chemical dispersants in an unknown quantity?
Commercial fisherman, Mark Stewart, has a video on YouTube showing his crew dipping an absorbent cloth into the Gulf water three-quarters of a mile off the Mississippi beaches.
The Florida oil spill loss attorneys at Farah & Farah is still talking to individuals and businesses that have suffered damages due to the Gulf Coast oil spill. Potential damages include, but are not limited to, injuries from the spill, property damage, lost employment, and lost business revenue.
We are dedicated to helping serious affected victims recover from substantial and catastrophic losses, despite all of the hype about the oil spill disappearing.
