Marine biologist describes BP's clean up as cosmetic

28 March 2011

Dispatches: BP: In Deep Water

A leading Marine Biologist describes the BP clean up operation on an environmentally protected island near to the source of the Deepwater Horizon blow out as "superficial" and "cosmetic" 

Five months on from the blow out Dispatches join Professor Rick Steiner -  a leading Marine Biologist and expert on the impact of oil spills - on a visit to East Ship Island which is situated around 100 miles from the scene of the world's worst oil spill. 

At the time of the blow out Tony Hayward BP's then chief executive, said: "We're going to clean every drop of oil off the shore we will remediate any environmental damage and we will put the Gulf Coast right and back to normality as fast as we can."

BP and the US Government claimed early success. 

Dr. Jane Lubchenco from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says: "The vast majority of the oil has either evaporated or been burned; skimmed and recovered from the well head; or dispersed. And much of the dispersed oil is in the process of rapidly rapid degradation".

However, on East Ship Island, Dispatches filmed large mats of oil being washed up on the shore and the clean up operation being done with broom handles, kitchen utensils and pet litter scoopers.

BP said it has specially trained teams to patrol the shore, with equipment ready to deal with any tar balls. 

Greg Palast interviewed a BP's Division Supervisor and a beach cleaner working on East Ship Island who gave conflicting details about the clean up operation.  

While the BP's Division Supervisor says clean-up contractors were cleaning the shore to a dept of ‘approximately three inches", a beach cleaner says he was under orders to only dig to a dept of around half an inch. 

Whether three inches or a quarter inch, Professor Steiner concludes that BP's work on this Island is just "clean up theatre ..."superficial" and "cosmetic".

BP says it is "adhering to National Parks Service guidelines to protect wildlife while facilitating maximum cleaning of the beaches."

Background to the blow out

In April 2010, BP's Deepwater Horizon Macondo well blew out. Half a million tonnes of crude spewed into the Gulf of Mexico.

11 rig workers died and thousands of jobs in fishing and tourism were threatened along the Gulf Coast.

The crude hit at the most biologically sensitive time of year - spring. Over 50,000 birds were killed and the reproductive cycles of entire species here threatened for the future.

BP promised that the Gulf Coast will return to "baseline conditions" - that is, back to how it was before the spill occurred.

Exxon Valdez Oil spill

In Dispatches: BP: In Deep Water, Greg Palast also examines the environmental impact of previous major oil spills involving BP.    

He visits Prince William Sound in Alaska were in 1989 the once pristine waters were poisoned by 11 million gallons of oil spilled from the tanker the Exxon Valdez.

Birds, sea mammals, and fish were wiped out and the incomes of entire communities were destroyed.

But although it said Exxon on the ship, responsibility for containing the spill lay with Alyeska, in which BP had a majority share take.

Twenty years and over four billion dollars later, Dispatches discovers that the oil is still there.

The Gulf of Mexico spill is estimated to be twenty times bigger.

 A BP spokesman said the company has "very little to say about the Exxon Valdez oil spill," and that Alyeska is an independent organization that "works for an owner's committee..."

Yet Dispatches can reveal that all but two of Alyeska's Presidents have come on loan from BP.