Coast Guard Discovers A 4,000-Pound Mat Of Tar In The Gulf

[highplainsdem]

Source: ThinkProgress

As Coast Guard crews were scouring the Louisiana coast looking for damage from Tropical Storm Karen this week, they made a startling discovery: A tar mat weighing 4,100 pounds, presumably remnants from the devastating BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010.

Petty Officer First Class Michael Anderson tells the Times-Picayune that the tar mat is a mixture of “80 percent to 90 percent sand, shell and water and 10 percent to 20 percent oil.” Crews are now working on cleaning up the mess, and will search nearby waters for any additional pollution.

Mats and balls of tar have continued to wash up on gulf shores, despite the more than three years that have passed since a rig explosion left oil spewing into the gulf’s waters and spawned the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. And, in comparison, this one isn’t that big. In June, officials discovered a massive 40,000 pound mat — a collection that BP reported was in addition to the over 2.7 million pounds of tar collected at that point in 2013.

-snip-

The scope of damage from this tar isn’t entirely clear. What is known is that tar from the Deepwater spill contains the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus — which causes a deadly type of seafood contamination — at a rate 100 times higher than surrounding waters. On top of that, a combination of these tar balls and the dispersants that were used to clean up the spill can hold carcinogenic pollutants that are soaked up by human skin.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/17/2799781/tar-mat-gulf/

[mtasselin]

1. begining

This is just the beginning if they are truthful which I have my doubts that they will be there is much more to be discovered. This will be happening for years to come and of course BP will disavow any and all responsibility, what assholes.

[Miranda4peace]

2. Meanwhile, Bp is using online personas to intimidate activists!

Not only that they also want to get out of paying for the ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE THEY CAUSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One that could have been easily avoided by using the safest technologies. Unfortunately BP thought protecting our environment was tooooooo expensive.

[KansDem]

3. Drop it on BP execs...

But despite the lasting impact that BP’s oil spill has had on the region, the company discontinued its regular searches for remaining oil earlier this year.

Wrap them up in it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. The gift that keeps on giving..

The hotels along the beaches in Ala and Fla thoughtfully provided hoses for guests to rinse themselves off after swimming in the Gulf.
Big headline and pics of same were in local papers in stories announcing the beaches were open.
People still insist on eating seafood esp. shrimp, from the Gulf, too.
"They said it was safe......"

[louis-t]

5. B-b-b-b-ut BP says they SAVED the gulf!1!11

They say they're sorry and won't do it again, honest. And they're werkin' real hard to fix everything. Really. The tv said so.

[truedelphi]

6. What is a seafood lover to do?

Can't eat anything from the Gulf, or anything from the Pacific which has its marine life so0 highly irradiated from Fukushima. (To not even consider the massive numbers of 55 gal drums of radioactive waste that were dumped by various state and Fed agencies off the coast of California.)

[Sedona]

7. That stuff is still washing up in Santa Barbara from a spill in 1969

[silvershadow]

8. Good thing they paid an amount sufficient to cover all the damages.

[Nihil]

9. Send it to Halliburton ...

... as they are the cause of it being there.

[dipsydoodle]

10. That's one of the purposes of Corexit.

Form tar balls which sink to the bottom and thereby protect coast lines because they're easier to clear if they do reach the shore. That's why its been used in the UK other than near rocky shore lines

[Theyletmeeatcake2]

11. Can't they go in and mine this shit!!!!!

Look at it as storing oil for the future.....new tar sands project.....I've e read on the inner nets that most of the people who mopped up oil at the Ezzon Valdez have passed away from the effects of the oil...they don't give a stuff and they never will as long as people hide behind corporations....