Give these animals a fighting chance... They desperately need you now...

[gasolineboycottday]

Hi guys, this is Bethann from http://www.gasolineboycottday.org
and Citizens Take Charge! We've been monitoring the Delaware oil spill at my post: "Are you ready for this? It's about time! (***not for the weak at heart)" - in the DU General Discussion...



This is a special post dedicated to the wildlife affected by the oil spill. The people at the "scene of the crime" are Tri-State Bird Rescue and they're working desperately around the clock to save thousands of animals (geese, turtles, ducks and more) in the area.

I just sent them $20 bucks to help out. You can send a couple of bucks too or you can donate sheets, towels, Ensure (plain vanilla) and Pedialyte to assist in the care of the oil-slicked animals. Call it and early Christmas present for the animals we love. AND, if you live in the area and have some spare time, you can volunteer. The agency is looking for help in that regard as well.

Here's all the links you need to learn more about helping Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research, Inc.:
http://www.tristatebird.org/giving/helping.htm
http://www.tristatebird.org/featured/oil%20spill.htm
http://www.tristatebird.org

You can reach me at the following links for more information about our grassroots org., Citizens Take Charge!, and our protest, Gasoline Boycott Day:
http://www.gasolineboycottday.org
[e-mail]
[e-mail]



Please do your best to pitch in and help save these poor animals...

Thanks,
Bethann

[Piperay]

1. THANKS

for posting this and for the link! :thumbsup:

[gasolineboycottday]

5. No problem

You're welcome...

[ernstbass]

2. Great post - thanks

[gasolineboycottday]

6. No problem

You're welcome...

[G_j]

3. thanks for posting this

I am broke but I will forward this far and wide!

[gasolineboycottday]

7. No problem

You're welcome...

[gasolineboycottday]

4. LATEST UPDATE ON HUGE OIL SPILL IN DEL. (Sun., Dec. 12, 2004)

I PULLED TODAY'S STORY FROM PHILLY.COM TODAY SO HERE'S THE LATEST UPDATE YOU MISSED!!!
VERY, VERY GOOD STORY, VERY IMPORTANT!!!
EVERYBODY PLEASE READ!!!

Posted on Sun, Dec. 12, 2004

Debris clutters Delaware River

Last month's oil spill points out the dangers down below. And the question of who should clean them up.

By Wendy Ruderman

Inquirer Staff Writer

There are no warning signs for mariners as they approach the mouth of the Delaware River.

But the river is not for navigational novices.

The surface of the river often looks like a floating garage sale, with anything from refrigerators and furniture drifting in the waters. The 40-foot-deep river bottom is more like a scrap yard - littered with items such as an 11-ton propeller, sunken ships, and steel chunks of cars and pipes.

As Coast Guard investigators try to identify who is responsible for dumping a 15-foot-long metal object that caused a massive oil spill last month, a debate is being waged about a river plagued by dumping:



Is it worth the time and money to scan every inch of the 103-mile shipping channel between the Delaware Bay and Philadelphia with the type of high-tech sonar and manpower used to pinpoint the metal culprit in the oil spill? Once located, how critical is it to retrieve these objects - thousands of them - particularly if they sit deep enough in the riverbed and are most likely not going to cause any risk.

Should the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Philadelphia act as a public works department for the Delaware River and scoop up floating and partially submerged debris that pose a serious hazard to recreational boaters?

"If someone did a good underwater survey of the Delaware River, they would find in the mud layer a cross-section of our material culture - the objects we use extending back as long as people have been living along the Delaware River," said Peter Hess, a Delaware-based maritime attorney who represents finders of historic shipwrecks and old aircraft. "Things that are hard to throw away but sink, tend to end up in the river."

Like the chunk of metal that sliced open the hull of the Athos I as the 750-foot-long tanker approached a dock in West Deptford owned by Citgo Petroleum Corp. The discarded object sat undetected at the bottom of the murky Delaware for months, or perhaps decades.

The spill of as much as 473,500 gallons of crude oil polluted about 120 miles of shoreline in three states, killed untold numbers of birds, and sparked a multimillion-dollar cleanup.

While the Nov. 26 oil spill was a rare event, the disaster dredged up fears about other river hazards, both hidden and in plain sight.

"We need more frequent and more accurate sonar scanning of the river bottom," said U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D., N.J.). "It's a shame that it took a problem of this magnitude to draw attention to this issue. We'd hope this day would never come, but it did."

Pinpointing and identifying objects at the bottom of the river is an expensive and painstaking endeavor. The technology to map every piece of junk on the river bottom is available, but the funding is not.

It would cost the Army Corps, which is responsible for keeping the shipping channel clear and dredged to 40 feet, more than $5 million a year to search every square inch of channel with more high-powered sonar and divers, according to estimates by maritime and salvage experts.

For example, the Army Corps spent $305,441 this year on a multibeam and side-scan sonar search to try to locate a $600,000, 11-ton propeller that fell off a Corps dredge boat in April. The propeller still sits somewhere on the bottom of the Delaware.

"That's not something the American taxpayer wants to pay for," said Merv Brokke, spokesman for the Army Corps.

Twice a year, the Army Corps conducts a mandatory and less sophisticated single-beam sonar survey of the channel.

Until the recent oil spill, the routine survey was sufficient.

Andrews and U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) have been trying to secure more funding for the Army Corps for the last few years to clean up the debris on the top and bottom of the river.

Industrial-sized refrigerators, above-ground swimming pools, couches, telephone poles, 300-gallon fuel storage tanks, railroad ties, and cars - some with their headlights on and engines running - have all been spotted either floating in the river or partially submerged.

"It's kind of a way of life on the Delaware," said Tom Slager of Mount Laurel, who repairs damaged propellers for a living. "You have to go through the gauntlet of debris to get from one end of the river to the other... . Everyone who frequently boats on the river has a horror story. People always have stories about things they've hit."



While the Army Corps has the task of keeping the shipping channel clear of obstructions, and the Coast Guard is responsible with policing the Delaware, neither agency is responsible for removing debris from the river on a regular basis.

"If given the funding, the equipment, the manpower, the Corps is more than happy to comply with what Congress tells us what to do," Brokke said.

Currently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration updates navigational charts weekly with new "hazards to navigation."

NOAA also conducts regular underwater surveys of the Delaware to keep track of obstructions, especially shipwrecks that tend to shift in the current or are moved by ice. The agency updates about 1,000 navigational charts, including those for the Delaware.

The Coast Guard alerts vessel operators to underwater hazards with an online publication called Local Notice to Mariners.

"There could be any number of things down there," said Howard Danley, deputy chief of NOAA's Navigation Services Division. "But until somebody knows about it and tells us about it, it can't go into the chart."

NOAA learns about submerged objects through a variety of sources, including boaters, the Coast Guard, or their own underwater surveys.

Vessel operators who lose something overboard that could present a hazard must alert the Coast Guard.

But there is little incentive to do so. The Coast Guard requires vessel operators to locate and retrieve any potentially dangerous objects, the cost of such a search can far exceed the value of the lost item.

The price of hiring a search team and sonar-equipped boat can reach $8,000 a day. And there is no guarantee of success, particularly in the dark and swift Delaware.

Earlier this year, the New York-based Reinauer Maritime Group, which operates petroleum barges and tugboats, hired divers and shelled out "thousands of dollars" in a failed attempt to locate a lost anchor and chain worth considerably less, according to Burt Reinauer.

The anchor and chain slipped off a Reinauer barge in an anchorage area near Reedy Island on an icy February day.

The anchor and chain are likely to remain a permanent fixture on Delaware River navigational charts, which now mark the general vicinity with a blue circle - NOAA's trademark for underwater obstructions and ship wrecks.

"Depending upon how that anchor is oriented, another ship in the area could snag it with its own anchor," Danley said.

The Coast Guard's most recent edition of its Local Notice to Mariners advises them "to use extreme caution while transiting this area."

Contact staff writer Wendy Ruderman at 856-779-3926 or [e-mail].

From: Bethann
http://www.gasolineboycottday.org

[gasolineboycottday]

8. Our mission statement for you... (from Bethann & Gasoline Boycott Day)

Support change in environmental and energy policy...

Hello, my name is Bethann from Gasoline Boycott Day
and Citizens Take Charge! I am an editor for a daily
newspaper and the co-founder of Citizens Take Charge!,
my grassroots activist organization. We're trying our hardest
to connect and network with as many of you as we can.

A bit about us that we hope many people here would
call to everyone's attention...

Citizens Take Charge! is a nonprofit, grassroots org.
fighting for new and effective alternative energy
policy. The matter is going nowhere fast with Bush in
office. We should have had solid alternative energy
policies in place by now. But Bush has been a major
impediment to progress regarding this issue. Mother
Jones will be discussing his failures this week in
their magazine report...

The boycott has been extended another day. It will
begin on Jan. 20 (Inauguration Day). Repetitive
boycotts of gasoline will ensue. January 20th was
chosen to be our kick-off boycott because of the
significance of the day. A day in which an oil man,
who happens to be our president, will take office and
begin to plunge our environment into chaos. He will
continue the oil-driven Iraq conflict, he'll soon be
drilling for oil in protected lands in Alaska, and
he'll also be pursuing more off-shore drilling. These
are just SOME of his plans...

What we've initiated right now is a full-fledged
movement - a nationwide push for alternative energy
resource funding and legislation. January 20th is just
the beginning. Repetitive boycotts will ensue. We're
shooting for about 5 to 10 per year to accomplish our
goals. These boycotts of gasoline will occur on
specific days which are hopefully just as significant
and symbolic as Jan. 20. We're prospecting a few
national holidays, as well as some environmental
holidays, such as Earth Day (April), National Wildlife
Week (April), and World Environment Day (June).

So it's all about timing (for impact), message (for
demand), and unity (for common ground and cause). This
is a massive undertaking. It takes adequate funding,
resources, organization, planning, maneuvering, timing
and effort to achieve what we're hoping for. We have
support from all across the U.S. and we've teamed up
with universities who help us stay on top of the game.

Currently, we have Gasoline Boycott Day Boycott
Captains and Petitioners in 5 regions of the country
and we're branching out to more areas every single
day. We're not messing around this time. Other
gasoline boycotters in the past failed because they
lacked the foundation and support we have. We've only
begun to dig in the trenches and fight. We're working
to win the battle for new energy on the ground and
from the ground up. We mean business and we won't stop
until the plans drawn for alternative fuel sources
land on the floors of Congress.

I hope you can help us by just spreading the word.
There is so much environmental devastation happening
right now, especially with the Delaware oil spill.
When I was a recent guest on The Mike Malloy Show and
The Laura Flanders Show (Air America Radio), I briefed
them on the massive spill that took place on the
Delaware River Nov. 26. Mike and Laura hadn't even
heard of the week-old story. Both of them were shocked
and very upset to discover 473,000 gallons of crude
were missing in our water and that 3 states' habitats
were affected. At the same time, they were glad I
called it to their attention because they had missed
the big news. I told them not to feel bad because
"Bush TV" had barely covered the story.

Anyway, that's who we are and what we plan to do. I
hope that I've garnered your support for our
massive effort. We need you and we thank every
activist and American reading this comment for their
time.

Sincerely
Bethann
co-founder, Citizens Take Charge!
& Gasoline Boycott Day
http://www.gasolineboycottday.org
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then
they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi

[gasolineboycottday]

9. Wool over our eyes again...

The big, bad government is trying to pull the wool over our eyes again.

The Army is in charge of CLEARING the bottom of the Delaware, they're responsible for the pipe being left behind which gashed the tanker and caused the spill (but, MANY questions remain, and now that it's been "reported" that the oil co. isn't at fault, they probably won't have to pay a fine, which means WE WILL PAY to clean the oil up)...

But WHY are single-hulled ships even let anywhere near our waters? They are dangerous tankers...

The Exxon Valdez was a single-hulled ship. They passed a law shortly after the big spill to make all of the oil tankers double hulled by 2015, BUT in the meantime their MESSES are killing us...

Our organization will begin pledging to fight for NEW double-hulled oil tanker legislation NOW, not later. What they've done CANOT be undone. The PRESSURE is ON! It's time to make change happen.

Bethann
http://www.gasolineboycottday.org

[gasolineboycottday]

10. A PIPE? There's more to this story than meets the eye..

This is what the Army Corps of Engineers forgot to pick up on the Delaware...
This is what a single-hulled oil tanker, that shouldn't have been allowed in OUR waters, struck...
This is what Americans, for years, will errantly blame for this environmental catastrophe...
A PIPE???
Yes, it's part of the reason, BUT IT IS NOT THE WHOLE REASON why this disaster fell upon us...
Seek the truth America, there's more to this story than meets the eye...
Bethann

[G_j]

13. "NEW double-hulled oil tanker legislation NOW"

VERY important. Thank you for pointing this out.
Keep up the good work! :yourock:

[proud patriot]

11. politics is nothing compared to what these oil spills do to me

it's so devastating :cry:

[gasolineboycottday]

12. I know proud patriot... I love you guys in the Bay Area

I know proud patriot... You guys in the Bay Area are always the most sympathetic to major issues like this one, My girlfriend in San Fran is always on top of environmental probs. She's great and we're glad to have her on board. She's been e-mailing folks out there to get the boycott and our grassroots org. rolling.... Gotta love her! I'm surprised she hasn't contacted someone like you yet. You can always send us an e-mail and let us know if you're willing to help, k? Stay active...
Bethann
http://www.gasolineboycottday.org