BP's forgotten victims from the 2010 Gulf oil spill disaster - documenting the legacy of psychological an social problems !

BP's silent disaster

2010 oil spill has left a legacy of psychological and social problems among residents in the impact zone. Dahr Jamail Last Modified: 16 Oct 2013 13:47

John Gooding has suffered physical problems and now struggles with depression as well [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]

New Orleans, US - Most people believe only those who have experienced war can know post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But those living in the impact zone of BP's 2010 oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico know differently. John Gooding, a fisherman and resident of the coastal city of Pass Christian, Mississippi, began having health problems shortly after the disaster began. He became sicker with each passing month, and moved inland in an effort to escape continuing exposure to the chemicals after being diagnosed with toxic encephalitis. He experiences seizures regularly, and two of his dogs even died of seizures from what he believes was chemical exposure. "I've been married 25 years, and my wife and I've never had problems. But recently we've started having problems, mostly because of finances and my health," Gooding told Al Jazeera. "I can no longer work because of my physical sickness from the chemicals. My wife is struggling with depression, and is going through grief counselling due to having to deal with my ongoing health issues. Our savings is gone. Our retirement is gone. This has been a living hell and continues to be a nightmare." Gooding's story is not uncommon among countless Gulf residents living in areas affected by the BP disaster. "People are becoming more and more hopeless and feeling helpless," Dr Arwen Podesta, a psychiatrist at Tulane University in New Orleans, told Al Jazeera back in August 2010. "They are feeling frantic and overwhelmed. There is already more PTSD and more problems with domestic violence, threats of suicide and alcohol and drugs." BP's attempts to minimise the amount of compensation it pays to those affected is not helping to improve what now are chronic psychological, community, and personal impacts along the Gulf coast. BP returns to court over Gulf oil spill "BP's claims process is still completely unfair. They now want to charge you for them to reconsider your claim," Gooding added. "So we have to pay them to look at our claims if we think it is unfair. It's like everything has been designed to benefit BP." Podesta warned of the consequences of BP breaking their initial promises to "make people whole". "There is an acute event [the initial oil disaster], but then a long-term increase in hopelessness with every promise that is broken," said Podesta, who believes the psychological impacts from BP's disaster could persist for two to three decades. "People are put through red tape and each time they fail to move forward, they take five steps back in their psychological welfare." Repeated calls to BP seeking comment did not elicit formal responses.  During testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on July 21, 2010, Kenneth Feinberg - a prominent lawyer chosen by BP and President Barack Obama to run the compensation fund for victims of the spill - said the fund was not likely to pay for individual claims of mental illness and distress alleged to be caused by BP's spill. "If you start compensating purely mental anguish without a physical injury - anxiety, stress - we'll be getting millions of claims from people watching television," Feinberg said. "You have to draw the line somewhere. I think it would be highly unlikely that we would compensate mental damage, alleged damage, without a signature physical injury as well." To date, no compensation claims have been paid out to an individual regarding mental healthcare needs. However, at the state level in May 2012, as part of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement, $36m in grant money was earmarked to support behavioural and mental healthcare needs in southeastern Louisiana.  'Explosion of new clients' Social scientists and mental health professionals such as Podesta say psychological suffering continues to worsen two--and-a-half years after the spill. "We're seeing newly identified people," Podesta recently told Al Jazeera. "We're successfully dealing [with] some of the chronic mental illness, but are seeing an explosion of new clients." Dr Janet Johnson, an associate professor of psychiatry at Tulane University, sees other long-term negative consequences as well. "People are on edge. People are feeling grief. I'm hearing of physical illnesses related to the oil, and people are worried about losing their home, their culture, their way of life." Joe Yerkes, a cast-net fisherman from Destin, Florida, worked for five months on BP's clean-up operations. "Fishing was my whole life, so it was only natural for me to return to the livelihood I was so proud to be a part of," Yerkes told Al Jazeera. "Saltwater flowed through my veins and I wouldn't have traded my old life for anything in the world." But after being exposed to BP's oil and dispersants while trying to fish, Yerkes began bleeding from his nose, ears and mouth. Like Gooding, he had to move from the Gulf to seek healthcare away from the coast, in order to protect himself from further exposure. "I have spent the last three years trying to survive," he said of his ongoing health and economic problems. "Seven out of 10 on a pain scale is bearable and normal for me these days." The combination of his failed health, inability to work, and economic stress has Yerkes in what he describes as "a vice grip". "I've fought depression through this and the last six months have been particularly tough due to my economic situation," he said. "It's wearing on me every day. It's there, like a big giant weight on my chest." Chronic effects "What we find in our field when we study technological disasters, i.e. human made disasters, is that the impacts are chronic," Dr Anthony Ladd, a professor of sociology at Loyola University, told Al Jazeera. "They don't really end, whereas with a natural disaster people move through it once it ends." Anthony Ladd predicts chronic social problems related to the spill [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera] Sociologists point towards the drawn-out period of recovery and accompanying uncertainty that make technological disasters such as the BP oil disaster much more threatening to the health and welfare of affected people and communities along the Gulf Coast. "With natural disasters, there is this sense that they will get through it and there is a light at the end of the tunnel," Ladd explained. "But with technological disasters you don't get that. It's a very different spiral into a malaise, into anxiety, into a feeling that there is no end in sight. You don't know when the impacts are going to stop." Ladd, whose research focuses on environmental disasters' effects on communities, highlighted the negative impact of the ongoing litigation around the disaster. "You don't know when the BP check is going to show up in the mail, if ever. You don't know when the Feds and the state are going to do their thing toward recovery. It's a chronic unending spiral of people into often deeper and deeper levels of anxiety, and research shows that one of the major sources of anxiety is the litigation process itself. "So on top of everything else the disaster throws at you, then you have the decade-long experience of trying to litigate your way back to your economic livelihood, or trying to get some kind of economic compensation for what you've lost, and of course that never comes." I'm watching everything I created over my life deteriorate. - John Gooding, fisherman Podesta's work as a psychiatrist has uncovered countless examples of what sociologists have predicted would happen with this disaster. "The timeframe makes this worse. PTSD is usually one incident that results in hopelessness, helplessness and fear of death. It usually peaks then comes back down. But with the continued insults to hope and welfare, instead of dropping back down, it kind of step-ladders up with each insult." Ladd said he believes psycho-social recovery from the BP oil disaster will take decades. "We need to stop thinking of this as a sprint and think of it as a marathon. This disaster and its impacts are going to go on for at least a decade and it could be more. It's hard to put into words the astronomical ways in which this disaster is likely to affect the Gulf Coast." Meanwhile, Gooding's description of his life today reminds one of a war veteran trying to find a way to live with the scars. "I'm watching everything I created over my life deteriorate," he said. "If you don't use your boat, it starts to break down. Everything I own is breaking down. I used to be someone who helped out the community, and now I'm someone who needs help from the community, and that's hard to adjust to. There's really nothing left to look forward to."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/15/ex-halliburton-manager-pleads-guilty-to-destroying-evidence-after-bp-2010-gulf/ NEW ORLEANS –  A former Halliburton manager has pleaded guilty to destroying evidence after the rig explosion that spawned BP's 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Sixty-two-year-old Anthony Badalamenti of Katy, Texas, faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine after his guilty plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court to one count of destruction of evidence. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 21. Badalamenti was the cementing technology director for Halliburton Energy Services, BP's contractor on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Prosecutors said he instructed two Halliburton employees to delete data during a post-spill review of the cement job on BP's blown-out Macondo well. Last month, a federal judge accepted a separate plea agreement that calls for Halliburton to pay a $200,000 fine stemming from Badalamenti's conduct. US trial over Gulf oil spill resumes Fines for BP could run into the billions of dollars, as UK oil giant and plaintiff's argue over extent of leak. Last Modified: 30 Sep 2013 14:44       The spill affected hundreds of kilometres of US coastline, and damages could run into the billions of dollars [EPA] A US federal trial over the 2010 Gulf oil spill has resumed, with a focus on BP's response to the disaster, with billions of dollars at stake as the two sides argue over how much oil was leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. The government and BP have different estimates of the extent of the leak, and establishing how much oil flowed into the Guld during the 86-day struggle to cap the well will help determine the penalties the oil company must pay. US District Judge Carl Barbier was expected to hear two hours of statements on Monday from lawyers for BP and for Gulf Coast residents and businesses who claim the spill cost them monetary damages. The second phase is divided into two segments. The first explores methods BP employed to cap the well. The second is designed to help Barbier determine how much oil spilled into the Gulf. The first phase of the trial ended in April this year, after Barbier heard eight weeks of testimony about the causes of the blowout. Claims BP 'lied' BP insists it was properly prepared to respond to the disaster, but plaintiffs' attorneys will argue the UK-based global oil company could have capped the well much sooner if it had not ignored decades of warnings about the risks of a deep-water blowout. The plaintiffs' lawyers, who are teaming up with attorneys for the five Gulf states and two of BP's contractors for the second phase of the trial, also claim BP repeatedly lied to federal officials and withheld information about the volume of oil that was flowing from the well. "It should pay the price for its choices. BP should be held accountable for the lengthy delay caused by its fraud," they wrote in a pretrial court filing. BP maintains its spill preparations complied with every government requirement and met industry standards. But the April 20, 2010, blowout of its Macondo well, more than 1.6km beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico and 80km off the Louisiana coast, presented "unforeseen challenges", the company's attorneys wrote. "With these uncertain and unique conditions, one overarching principle governed the team's work: 'Don't make it worse,'" they wrote, saying BP deserved "recognition, not condemnation" for its spill response efforts. The second phase is scheduled to last 16 days over four weeks. The last three weeks will focus on the question of how much oil spilled into the Gulf. Dispute over fine Under the Clean Water Act, a polluter can be forced to pay a maximum of either $1,100 or $4,300 per barrel of spilled oil. The higher maximum applies if the company is found grossly negligent, as the government argues BP should be. Congress passed a law dictating that 80 percent of the Clean Water Act penalties paid by BP must be divided among the Gulf states. Judge Barbier has outlined a rigid schedule for attorneys to present their arguments and evidence - and a court reporter will use a chess clock to keep track of time. The Justice Department's experts estimate 4.2 million barrels, or 666 million litres, spilled into the Gulf. BP has urged Barbier to use an estimate of 2.45 million barrels, or nearly 389 million litres, in calculating any Clean Water Act fines. Both sides agree that 810,000 barrels (128 million litres), escaped the well but was captured before it could pollute the Gulf. The difference in figures could amount to a difference of billions of dollars in fines. If the government figures are used, a maximum penalty could total $18 billion, while using the company's figures that number would be around $10.5 billion. A "penalty phase" for the trial has not been scheduled yet.