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Gulf Oil Disaster
Sampling Project Update
We have all had
frustrations with the response to the recent Gulf oil disaster. One such
frustration that we at Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper felt early on was the lack
of solid data about the impacts from the disaster. This frustration prompted us
to begin an environmental sampling project.
LEAN/LMRK technical
advisor, award winning chemist Wilma Subra, put together the sampling protocols.
We coordinated with world-class commercial laboratories who would process the
samples. We prepared Julia the LMRK patrol boat and were ready to
go.
On August 2, 2010 we made
our first sample collection trip. Since then we have made 8 sampling trips, from
the western edge of Terrebonne Parish to the Louisiana/Mississippi line, and
collected over 50 samples.
Samples of water, soil,
plants and animals have been collected. As the project progressed we have
decided to focus on seafood species as these have the greatest impact on
people.
The following list details
a few of our findings to date:
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Sample:
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Date:
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Location:
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Total Polycyclic
Aromatic Hydrocarbons:
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Total Petroleum
Hydrocarbons:
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Oysters
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8/2/10
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Terrebonne Parish
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0.016 mg/kg
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9,780 mg/kg
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Blue Crab
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8/2/10
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Terrebonne Parish
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NT
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2,230 mg/kg
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Oysters
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8/3/10
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Plaquemines Parish
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0.063 mg/kg
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12,500 mg/kg
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Mussels
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8/3/10
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Plaquemines Parish
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0.386 mg/kg
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6,900 mg/kg
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shrimp
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8/12/10
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St. Bernard Parish
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0.017 mg/kg
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8,350 mg/kg
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Flounder and Speckled
Trout
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8/12/10
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St. Bernard Parish
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ND
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21,575 mg/kg
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Seagull Viscera
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8/19/10
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Terrebonne Parish
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ND
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23,302 mg/kg
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Fiddler Crabs and Periwinkles
(snail)
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8/19/10
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Terrebonne Parish
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0.012 mg/kg
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6,916 mg/kg
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Blue Crab
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10/26/10
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Plaquemines Parish
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0.078 mg/kg
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147
mg/kg
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The high levels of
petroleum hydrocarbons are troubling particularly since many of these species
are consumed by people. It is our understanding that there should be no
detectable levels of petroleum hydrocarbons in
seafood.
It should be noted that
none of the samples listed above were visibly contaminated nor did they have any
unusual odors. The seafood species, in particular, appeared pristine. We have
made an effort to test a broad sampling of areas across the
coast.
Based on our sampling
project we believe that the government's pronouncement that Gulf seafood is safe
is premature.
Hard data about what
contaminants are in the Gulf environment is particularly valuable in determining
possible public health concerns related to contamination from the oil disaster.
Information gathered will help us to understand what possible precautions should
be taken now and what actions are necessary to fully restore the environment of
the impacted areas.
We hope that the results
from our sampling project will help to fill in some of the unanswered questions
about the impacts of this disaster. As a small nonprofit, our scale and scope is
limited greatly by budget but it is our hope that this research contributes to
an accurate, independent and publicly accessible analysis of the state of the
Gulf environment.
We are currently waiting
for the results of two more trips worth of samples which are being processed at
the lab. We will continue to collect this important data as long as we can
afford to. As always we will continue to assist the communities we serve and
strive to find answers to the questions vital for maintaining healthy and
sustainable coastal communities.
To help continue
this project and get more information go here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Gulf-Seafood-Safe
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