We arrived on day 100…
Bill Chamides buckles up for the flight to Grand Isle.
When Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill happened on April 22, 2010 the news described environmental devastation beyond imaginable. After 87 easy they stopped the leak. I was part of a 8 person team from Duke University to mount a recon mission of the Grand Isle community, We had wetlands scientists and fishery experts with us because we felt the need to go and see what happened and if we could help. We arrived exactly 100 days after the spill. Our first stop was the mayor’s office in Placquemines Parrish to get his update on the crisis. While we waited outside his office I casually asked his admin how many interviews the major does each day. She responded saying that we were actually the 300th interview since the spill. That was my first hint that something else was happening beyond rescuing the people and wildlife down here.
The mayor Bobby Nunguesser (now LT Governor of LA) gave us his blessing to explore and do what we could to help. So we left for Belle Chasse to board a couple helicopters to fly the 50 miles to Grand Isle. The Delta is beautiful from the air and while I expected to see every miles of shoreline covered in oil, I did not see any oil during the 50 mile ride. I was surprised after watching all the news footage of pelicans covered in oil and shorelines drenched in the black stuff.
Shrimp boats dragging oil booms in Barataria Bay just North of Grand Isle, LA
Landing in Grand Isle we found a island full of contractors cleaning beaches, shrimp boats dragging oil booms and trucks everywhere. Seems BP employed the entire island to help with the clean up. There were no hotel rooms or beach rentals - all full with contractors working. Shrimp boats were being paid $50K a day to drag booms to collect the last remaining oil. Shorelines covered in oil were being vacuumed foot by foot by guys using shopvacs to suck up the oil into barrels. Everyone had been working 24x7 since the spill to clean the beaches and wetlands.
We met with a wetland scientist from the State and he gave us a complete update on the recovery effort. BP was paying everyone who could work to clean up the oil which was a great PR move by them as well as their responsibility. But there had been massive damage to the wetlands and estuaries: fish, shrimp, oysters as well as tourism. But everybody seemed happy to get paid 10x what they made in their regular day job.
Mayor Bobby Nunguesser of Placquemines Parrish does another interview for Duke’s video team.
Scientists are still assessing the damage to the ecosystem 11 years later. We. may never know what the ultimate cost of the man made disaster in the long term. Clearly BP paid out billions of dollars to everyone with reason along the Gulf Coast. Bobby Nunguesser became famous and I expect he will be the next governor of Louisiana. Like wars some groups ride the news cycle to get their share of the spoils. In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, we decided to fund Jon Bowermaster’s film “After the Spill” to tell a more indepth story of the disaster. I would encourage you to learn more about what really happened during those summer months of 2010. Some people are still paying the price for BP’s fuckup and mismanagement. And as usual the environment and we pay the ultimate price sadly.
