PHOTO/JULIE DERMANSKY
Editor’s note: The following information was excerpted from desmogblog.com/user/julie-dermansky.
NEW ORLEANS, LA — On the eighth anniversary of the BP oil spill, Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who founded a coalition of Louisiana environmental groups, stood in front of the New Orleans Federal Court House and called “bullshit” on the court’s handling of claims made by thousands of workers BP hired to clean up the spill that polluted the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The workers have claimed exposure to oil and the dispersant has made them sick and still have not had their day in court.
One woman spoke on behalf of her dead husband who also worked the oil spill cleanup response. She described him as a healthy 45-year-old before the spill, who died two and a half years later after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. She has filed a wrongful death suit.
Recent scientific studies offered mounting evidence of the potential harm resulting from the oil dispersants Corexit 9500 and Corexit 952, applied to break oil into smaller droplets during cleanup efforts. A study from the Uniformed Services University found that almost 2,000 exposed members of the U.S. Coast Guard suffered “lung irritation, skin rash, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea,” more often than those who avoided dispersants or only had contact with oil.
According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Nearly one million gallons were dropped by air, and another 770,000 gallons were injected into the damaged wellhead about a mile under the water’s surface. It was the first time that dispersants had been used on a large scale and in proximity to people.”
Workers and their supporters called for federal judge Carl Barbier to reverse his decision to delay hearing remaining cases of cleanup workers indefinitely. They gathered at the rally before delivering a petition with 25,000 signatures seeking justice for the cleanup workers.
Meanwhile the federal government, with deep ties to the energy industry, is moving to open up almost all of the nation’s coastlines to offshore oil and gas drilling, and safety regulations put in place after the BP disaster are being rolled back.
“Our democracy has been hijacked by the oil and gas industry,” says Honoré, who founded a coalition of Louisiana-based environmental groups. He placed blame on the Obama administration for letting BP off the hook so easily in the wake of the spill and faulted the Trump administration for its reckless proposals related to offshore drilling.
