One easy way to see what the US government is doing to coordinate its response to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is by looking at the Joint Information Center Twitter account. For those who are so busy complaining about the lack of responsiveness, it might be helpful to see what is actually being done and the number of coordinated federal, state, and local responses in coordination with businesses, media, and residents of the area.
Looks like they're listening to Fishgrease not listening to Fishgrease about how to boom.
Just as an example of the coordinated federal response and how extensive it is, and how many branches of the federal government are coordinating at once, look at the last 24 hours of tweets from the JIC. (This is in chronological order from earliest to latest, unlike the way the Twitter feed typically displays.
about 24 hours ago via TweetDeck:
@lisapjackson EPA Administrator to Return to Gulf Region to oversee ongoing response to the BP #oilspill http://bit.ly/...
Here is the actual press release linked on the tweet:
Phone: (985) 902-5231
(985) 902-5240
Key contact numbers
Report oiled shoreline or request volunteer information: (866) 448-5816
Submit alternative response technology, services or products: (281) 366-5511
Submit your vessel for the Vessel of Opportunity Program: (281) 366-5511
Submit a claim for damages: (800) 440-0858
Report oiled wildlife: (866) 557-1401
CONTACT:
Alisha Johnson
Johnson.alisha@epa.gov
WASHINGTON – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson will return to the Gulf Coast on Sunday to monitor EPA’s on-the-ground response to the BP oil spill and speak with residents about efforts to mitigate the spill's impact on the region.
This marks Administrator Jackson’s third visit to the gulf region since the oil spill began. During her trip, the Administrator will visit the command center in Robert, Louisiana and will also travel to Venice and New Orleans. She will remain in the gulf region until Tuesday. Additional details on the trip will be released as they become available.
For more information on EPA’s efforts in the gulf and for the latest air, water, sediment and underwater dispersant monitoring data, please go to http://www.epa.gov/....
MEDIA: To request an interview with Administrator Jackson, please email johnson.alisha@epa.gov.
For information about the response effort, visit www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com.
Just a few quick notes about this press release - First, note that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is going to spend all day Monday as well as parts of Sunday and Tuesday to hear what's going on and to speak with residents about their concerns. Second, note that Jackson is going there for the third time - in person - since this began. Her office is coordinating a full response effort to measure and address the environmental impact of the spill.
There is a FAQ section on the EPA spill page explaining how the environmental impact is being assessed and how they will report. As the FAQ states, "We know that EPA’s role will only increase as the incident develops and we are actively preparing. Please continue to monitor local news stations and our web site for the most up to date information."
For those who want to stop simply complaining and feeling powerless, EPA provides a detailed list of things you can do:
How can I help?
At this stage the federal government and BP are leading response efforts. You can suggest technology solutions at our website http://www.epa.gov/... and request volunteer information by calling 1-866-448-5816. Stay tuned for updates on opportunities to assist in cleanup and community support efforts.
How can I report an oil sighting?
Report oiled shoreline at: 1-866-448-5816
Report oiled wildlife at: 1-866-557-1401
Discuss spill related damage at: 1-800-440-0858
Who do I call for other questions?
You can contact the Joint Information Center, or JIC, located in the heart of the response effort. The JIC is a coordination center for federal, state and local responding agencies. You may call the JIC at 985-902-5231.
Where can I find environmental data? What information will I find there?
EPA will be posting the latest environmental information and data as it becomes available through our responders and equipment on the EPA website. We're posting air data, water data, and sediment data.
Where can I find more information?
The best resources to use at this time will be found at:
Joint Federal Website about the BP Oil Spill
NOAA Office of Response and Restoration
NASA Satellite Imagery Keeping Eye on the Gulf Oil Spill
OK, that was one, 140-character tweet expanded to explain all the information that is available on the spill. Do you understand what a data-rich, complex, transparent process we've got here? All I had to do was click three links and I found all that information. That is a smart, high-tech, networked government at work.
Next tweet:
about 24 hours ago via TweetDeck:
EPA Releases BP's Response to Directive on Dispersants http://bit.ly/... #oilspill
This is a link to a press release from Brendan Gilfillan, who lists his email address as gilfillan.brendan@epa.gov. He notes that the directive, along with BP's response to the directive, can be found here. In the directive, BP is ordered to implement an assessment and monitoring plan, and to provide data about the oil itself to find out if the plume is toxic to aquatic life. (In other words, we know this is probably not very healthy but the decision is going to be based on scientific data, not exasperated outrage or attempts to downplay the impact.) The EPA is ultimately responsible for assessing this, which is what the proper role of the Environmental Protection Agency ought to be! So, you've got BP on the hook to provide the data, and EPA acting as a safeguard to assess independently and make sure that what's going out of the Deepwater Horizon incident site is not destroying wildlife. And if it is, then we move on to EPA enforcement mechanisms.
You can read the directive itself here.
You can read BP's response here.
Again, this is just a few clicks away. It is not very complicated to find the information. And by the way, here's a snippet of what BP said:
Only five products on the NCP Product Schedule meet the criteria on the May 19th directive. These are: Sea Brat #4, Nokomis 3-F4, Mare Clean 200, and Neos AB3000.
EPA has used acute toxicity criteria to evaluate dispersants that will be applied to oil floating on the water surface. When evaluating the same materials for subsea use, additional criteria may be relevant. We have attached a summary of the criteria that BP is using to evaluate dispersant options, and comparison tables that evaluate each dispersant by such criteria, based on information currently available to us.
It's worth noting that all of this stuff is way over my head. I took two chemistry courses in college but I have no understanding of marine biology or of dispersant agents. I'd suggest that if someone on Daily Kos does, maybe they write a diary about it. (Update at 9:05 PM: Slinkerwink wrote one after I published mine, and it's worth reading.) My sister is a marine biologist but she is not a chemist. Perhaps she knows someone who can help, but I haven't had a chance to find out yet.
OK, that's two tweets. Next one:
about 24 hours ago via TweetDeck:
EPA Administrator, @lisapjackson to Return to Gulf Region to oversee ongoing response to the BP #oilspill http://bit.ly/...
(note, this is a repeat tweet but I'm just quoting what's on the feed)
Next:
about 22 hours ago via TweetDeck
Sec. Salazar & Sec. Napolitano to lead bipartisan Senate delegation to LA to inspect response to the BP #oilspill http://bit.ly/...
This press release names Kendra Barkoff (DOI), (202) 208-6416 and Clark Stevens (DHS), (202) 282-8010 as the points of contact for the information.
WASHINGTON—At the direction of the President, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will visit Louisiana on Monday to inspect the ongoing response to the BP oil spill, accompanied by a bipartisan Senate delegation.
Secretary Salazar, Secretary Napolitano and the Senate delegation will conduct a flyover of the affected areas; discuss the latest response efforts in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast with federal officials leading the effort as well as BP representatives; and meet with local community and industry leaders.
The Senate delegation accompanying Secretary Salazar and Secretary Napolitano will include: Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Senator David Vitter (R-LA).
Note that Vitter and Landrieu will make the trip to represent Louisiana, which is most adversely affected. But I'm also seeing that we've got a 4:2 ratio of Dems to Republicans in this bipartisan group, with Durbin, Bingaman, and Whitehouse triple-teaming Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Durbin's in the home state of BP (formerly Amoco) and I can remember him giving Amoco a hard time a decade ago regarding price gouging of gas in Chicago. I trust that while Durbin is a pro-business guy, he's also going to be using his clout as a top member of the Judiciary Committee regarding the future of any regulation. (Remember that the Dems are battling Republican opposition to increasing the cap on damages from $75 million to somewhere in the billions of dollars - and Murkowski has been vocally opposed to raising the caps because of the potential negative impact on smaller oil and gas companies.) Bingaman, for his part, has been hard on BP execs in his role on the Energy committee. He chaired a meeting 2 weeks ago on the issue of the spill and cleanup efforts. And Whitehouse, for his part, serves on the Environment Committee as well as the Judiciary Committee and has a bully pulpit on the push for green energy legislation as well as corporate regulation.
I don't know if anyone on Daily Kos has written about this flyover, or the continuing push in the Senate to increase the caps on damages caused by this and future spills. But it seems evident to me that the Salazar-Napolitano trip is designed to pressure Murkowski into dropping her block on moving the bill forward.
Next tweet:
about 21 hours ago via TweetDeck
The ongoing administration-wide response to the Deepwater BP #oilspill http://bit.ly/...
This update is so huge, it could be a whole diary in itself. I'll keep to the headlines:
Past 24 Hours
The President Signs an Executive Order Establishing Bipartisan Commission
EPA Releases BP’s Response to Dispersants Directive
Preparation Continues for BP’s Top Kill Attempt to Stop Leaking Oil
Wildlife Rescue Flights Continue
Officials Plan and Prepare for Any Potential Impacts to Tribal Lands
And there's also this overview:
By the Numbers to Date:
Personnel were quickly deployed and approximately 24,900 are currently responding to protect the shoreline and wildlife.
More than 1,100 vessels are responding on site, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels to assist in containment and cleanup efforts—in addition to dozens of aircraft, remotely operated vehicles, and multiple mobile offshore drilling units.
More than 1.52 million feet of containment boom and 560,000 feet of sorbent boom have been deployed to contain the spill—and approximately 310,000 feet of containment boom and 1.27 million feet of sorbent boom are available.
Approximately 9.7 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.
Approximately 715,000 gallons of total dispersant have been deployed—630,000 on the surface and 85,000 subsea. More than 375,000 gallons are available.
17 staging areas are in place and ready to protect sensitive shorelines, including: Dauphin Island, Ala., Orange Beach, Ala., Theodore, Ala., Panama City, Fla., Pensacola, Fla., Port St. Joe, Fla., St. Marks, Fla., Amelia, La., Cocodrie, La., Grand Isle, La., Shell Beach, La., Slidell, La., St. Mary, La.; Venice, La., Biloxi, Miss., Pascagoula, Miss., and Pass Christian, Miss.
Next tweet? A link to pictures:
about 8 hours ago via TweetDeck:
Photos of shoreline cleanup and assessment teams responding to areas impacted by #oilspill http://bit.ly/...
Not much more to say here.
Next tweet:
about 7 hours ago via TweetDeck
Situation status map for May 23, 2010 http://bit.ly/... #oilspill
Just click the link. Again, a picture is worth a thousand words.
The next three tweets thank other Twitter users for re-tweets. I'll not bother to include that. But then...
about 7 hours ago via TweetDeck
Current operations and ongoing #oilspill response http://bit.ly/...
Most of this stuff is already included above, but it's a morning report and provides the latest update on who's deployed, what's being done, and a map of activity and situation status updates.
Then you've got this one - now bear in mind, this is the Federal Government's response team, quoting and linking to these pictures:
about 4 hours ago via TweetDeck:
RT @craigtimes: Warning -- graphic #oilspill photo. Not for faint of heart. http://bit.ly/... (via @climatebrad)
And they're not kidding. For someone like me, this ranks up there with pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib in terms of visceral response. I won't link - just click on the link from the Times-Picayune website and see for yourself.
Then we've got this:
about 4 hours ago via TweetDeck:
Sign Up for Deepwater Horizon Response Text Message Alerts http://bit.ly/... #oilspill
And we've got this amazing information node:
A new text message alert notification system has been set up for public use to receive alerts of interest from the Deepwater Horizon Response. Members of the public can now sign up for text message alerts organized by information categories, state or general news.
Text message alerts are organized by information categories, state, or by general news. To subscribe, please choose which alerts you would like to receive and follow the subscription information provided below:
For example, to sign up to receive information on beach closures in the Gulf region, type beach@gulf to code 84469.
For information on all Deepwater Horizon Response Gulf and breaking news, text news@gulf to 84469.
State-specific information can be obtained by texting the following codes:
For Florida alerts, text FL@gulf to 84469
For Mississippi alerts, text MS@gulf to 84469
For Louisiana alerts, text LA@gulf to 84469
For Alabama alerts, text AL@gulf to 84469.
Topic specific information can be obtained by texting the following codes:
For information on beach closures and cleanup, text beach@gulf to 84469
For information on air quality monitoring from the EPA, text air@gulf to 84469
For information on water quality monitoring, text water@gulf to 84469
For fishing information / closures, text fishing@gulf to 84469
Important Information:
Subscribers may sign up for one or more feeds, and may incur normal text messaging charges from their cell phone carrier.
Subscribers will receive a confirmation message that their inquiry has been received. No further action is necessary.
Subscribers may cancel out of the alert program at any time by sending stop gulf to 84469.
Your federal government is working to keep you informed. It's a total media response network the likes of which we've never seen, but the mainstream media just doesn't know how to keep up.
And finally...
about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck:
Some new photos posted to our Flickr site http://bit.ly/... #oilspill
These photos show members of the National Park Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service responding to the incident locally, demonstrating the work of other Federal agencies as part of the US Department of Interior.
I hope this diary gives you a little bit more of a sense of the ways that the US Government is responding to the oil spill, in real time, with continuous updates through new media.
Update 6:07 PM CDT: Thanks for putting this on the wreck list. I know as much about booming as I know about dispersants. I'm going to leave it up to Fishgrease whether my picture is evidence of a failure or evidence that they're doing it the right way.
On another note, everyone is exactly right that there's not enough data on what BP is doing to stop the leak. Without seeing this explicitly stated, it does appear that the US Government response is to hold BP responsible for the leak and for stopping it, but to allow BP to ask for government help in the process. I think this is largely for legal reasons, since as soon as the US Government steps in they become liable not only for any failure to stop the leak, but also for the environmental impact of the spill. Furthermore, I have read from several sources that BP is better equipped than the Feds to actually use the submersibles and other technical equipment that would be needed to stop the leak.
Perhaps one lesson we can learn for the future is that, unless the oil and gas companies have mechanisms in place (mechanisms that actually work!) to stop spills and leaks, they shouldn't be allowed to drill. And I don't think we should allow offshore drilling unless we know that the people and natural resources of the United States are protected from any disaster like this that might happen again.
Update 2 7:43 PM CDT: Fishgrease has spoken, and the booms apparently suck. I edited the diary with a strikethrough.
Update 3 8:16 PM CDT: More from Fishgrease - helpful PDF/power point presentation on fastwater booming - some of it applies to the Louisiana coast but obviously we're dealing with some different waterways and water coming up from 5000 feet under the surface, rather than at the surface.
Update 4 8:22 PM CDT: Slinkerwink and a few others have suggested that the Joint Information Center is "owned by BP and Transocean". I've done a bunch of research on this and the best I can find is this: NOAA had an incident response page, but it appears that they set up the Unified Command page which has this link: "http://www.d8externalaffairs.com/go/site/2931/#/". D8 External Affairs seems to be a site owned by the US Coast Guard's 8th District. Again, I'm not 100% clear on this, but it does appear that this is a site being run by the Coast Guard, along with NOAA and others. I'm going to stand by my claim until someone can prove me wrong.
Update 5 9:37 PM CDT With kudos to Patriot News Daily Clearinghouse for posting the link on its diary (which is well-written and a good addition to the information I've posted), we see this info via Thad Allen, who's in charge of the federal government response. It appears that the government isn't just posturing. It's legally not permitted to clean up. Congress "fixed" the law after the Exxon Valdez spill.
The government is overseeing the cleanup and response, but the official responsible for the oversight said he understands the discontent.
"If anybody is frustrated with this response, I would tell them their symptoms are normal, because I'm frustrated, too," said Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen. "Nobody likes to have a feeling that you can't do something about a very big problem."
As simple as it may seem, the law prevents the government from just taking over, Allen said. After the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, Congress dictated that oil companies be responsible for dealing with major accidents — including paying for all cleanup — with oversight by federal agencies.
In other words, the government is doing what it is supposed to do.