Video Suggests BP Literally Covering Up Oil Damage on Louisiana Beaches

"sandorski" said
Not useless, but not definitive either. May have been the locals who did it in order to spare Tourism, for eg. Certainly does look like an attempt to simply bury it.

"Alta_redneck" said
Not useless, but not definitive either. May have been the locals who did it in order to spare Tourism, for eg. Certainly does look like an attempt to simply bury it.

"BartSimpson" said
Give it a few years and this will be forgotten and the beaches will look just fine. That's not making excuses for BP, not at all, but the apocalyptic predictions of environmental armageddon don't jibe with the fact that after every major oil spill of the past century the environment has recovered and done fine. This too will pass and be forgotten.

To the naked eye, Prince William Sound may appear "normal." Visitors can see spectacular, unspoiled vistas of islands surrounded by blue-green waters and mountain-rimmed fjords. But if you look beneath the surface, oil continues to contaminate beaches, national parks and designated wilderness. In fact, the Office of Technology Assessment estimated beach cleanup and oil skinning recovered only 3-4 percent of the Exxon Valdez oil, and studies by government scientists estimated that only 14 percent of the oil was removed during cleanup operations.

Pockets of oil�an estimated 16,000 gallons, according to federal researchers�remain buried in small portions of the intertidal zone hard hit by the spill. Moreover, surveys "have documented lingering oil also on the Kenai Peninsula and the Katmai coast, over 450 miles away," according to the council.

Twenty years after the oil spill, the ecosystem is still suffering. Substantial contamination of mussel beds persists, and this remarkably unweathered oil is a continuing source of toxic hydrocarbons. Sea otters, river otters, Barrow's goldeneyes and harlequin ducks have showed evidence of continued hydrocarbon exposure.

The depressed population of Pacific herring�a critical source of food for over 40 predators including seabirds, harbor seals and Steller sea lions�is having severe impacts up the food chain. Wildlife population declines continue for harbor seal, killer whales, harlequin ducks, common loon, pigeon guillemot, and pelagic red-faced cormorants and double-crested cormorants.

The Exxon oil spill resulted in profound physiological effects to fish and wildlife. These included reproductive failure, genetic damage, curved spines, lowered growth and body weights, altered feeding habits, reduced egg volume, liver damage, eye tumors and debilitating brain lesions.

Ixtoc I was an exploratory oil well being drilled by the semi-submersible drilling rig Sedco 135-F in the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche in waters 50 m (160 ft) deep. On 3 June 1979, the well suffered a blowout resulting in the fourth largest oil spill and the third largest accidental spill in history

Despite over 3.3 million barrels of oil ending up in the environment after the cleanup, the beach fauna or beach populations were back to where they were before the spill within two to three years. After 6 years, it was difficult to find any evidence of oil. Today, after more than 30 years, there is little sign of the oil spill.

The Lakeview Gusher Number One was an immense out-of-control pressurized oil well resulting in what is regarded as the largest oil spill in history, lasting 18 months and releasing 9 million barrels (1.4�10^6 m3) of crude oil. Pressure in what was one of the largest oil reserves in America, in Kern County, California built to an extreme due to the quantity of crude oil and geothermal activity in the area. When drilling in the area began, primarily by the Lakeview Oil Company, it was intended only to discover natural gas and a small amount of crude oil; but the drilling hit the massive oil reserve resulting in an overload of storage tanks and the eruption of the entire reserve.