Caldwell fights for BP's records

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, alleging that BP has not cooperated with state agencies investigating the ongoing Gulf oil spill, has asked a state court to order the British oil giant and several of its subsidiaries to produce the requested information.

The 17-page pleading filed in East Baton Rouge Parish District Court is not a lawsuit seeking damages, but is a key preliminary maneuver in advance of what Caldwell called an "imminent" suit on taxpayers' behalf. The state cannot move forward, Caldwell said, without gaining access to BP personnel and records "to gather information as part of the state's investigation as to the causes of the spill and the impacts to the state."

The state can try to recoup its response and recovery costs and compensation for damages to natural resources and the loss of tax revenues from economic effects. Gov. Bobby Jindal already has asked BP, independent of litigation, for a $300 million response fund and $475 million for a seafood safety program. BP has so far given the state a $25 million grant, $5 million of which went to Caldwell's office for spill-related expenses.

After the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, the state of Alaska and the federal government reached a joint settlement for more than $1 billion. That suit hinged partly on the findings of scientists and experts whose work was paid for with funds from Exxon. The Gulf spill that has flowed since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20 now far exceeds the 11 million gallons lost from the Valdez.

Though Caldwell's filing does not seek monetary damages, the document lays out facts and allegations about the spill, BP's failed attempts to cap the leaking well and initial damage observations that will form the core of any litigation.

"It is undisputed that Louisiana marshes, wetlands, shores, ecology, economy, tourism, waters and wildlife have been and will continue to be profoundly impacted by the Gulf oil spill," the filing states. "The state therefore seeks any and all information which is in defendant's possession regarding the circumstances surrounding the explosion, fire and consequences of the oil spill."

That includes, the state says, all information about the spill's "volume and rate of flow," the "composition of the mud used in the drilling and top kill operations," water and air quality data, and assessments of oiled and injured wildlife. As for toxic dispersants, the state seeks BP's records about "the use and effects ... and any and all information considered in evaluating and choosing said dispersants."

The state also accuses BP of not sharing enough information about its claims process, thus frustrating the Louisiana Workforce Commission's ability to manage its employment programs for affected residents.

The request comes as Caldwell seeks to bolster his legal team via legislative appropriations and the power to hire outside counsel on contingency. Direct appropriations are complicated by the state's tight budget, while the contingency bill has inflamed the traditional battle between the business lobby and the plaintiffs bar.

Caldwell has said that Alaska taxpayers had to spend about $1 million a week for three years in its litigation against Exxon. Jindal in previous years opposed giving Caldwell contingency contract authority, though he has hedged on that since the spill.

The attorney general's office has not released any contracts it has signed with outside counsel since the Gulf spill.

Besides Caldwell, the filing is signed by attorneys from Kanner & Whiteley of New Orleans; Marten Law of Seattle; Henry Dart Attorneys at Law of Covington; Usry, Weeks & Matthews of New Orleans; and E. Wade Show of Baton Rouge.

This article was written by Bill Barrow of The Times Picayune

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-8/127571958257030.xml&coll=1

If you or someone you love is dealing with the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, contact us at Murphy Law Firm to learn more about your rights to compensation. Schedule a free initial consultation with an attorney by calling us at 225-928-8800 or toll free at 800-734-6545. We work on a contingency basis, which means we do not receive any attorney fees unless we recover damages for you.

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Plaquemines Parish sues BP over damages to wildlife caused by oil spill

Citing a law typically used against fishers and hunters who exceed legal limits, Plaquemines Parish District Attorney Charles Ballay has sued British Petroleum and its subsidiaries in state court for damages caused by the Deepwater Horizion oil spill to the parish's wildlife.

Ballay's suit, which was filed in 25th Judicial Court on Tuesday, joins a growing number of lawsuits filed against the oil company for damages the leak has caused to local businesses and parishes. In a press release distributed Thursday, Ballay said that Louisiana hunters and fishers are punished whenever they illegally kill or damage the state's wetlands, and BP should be held to the same standard.

"It is only fair that this statute and penalty be used against BP and other responsible parties for this catastrophic loss since it is used on individuals on a regular basis for doing damage to our wildlife, such as when someone catches over the limit of redfish or trout," Ballay said in the news release. "A major corporation that does the damage that we have incurred should certainly be held accountable."

Louisiana law allows BP to be cited for all wildlife killed and the company would then have to pay a civil penalty for each animal, Ballay said. The lawsuit says that dead fish, birds and other wildlife have been washing ashore in Plaquemines Parish.

This article was written by Allen Powell II of The Times Picayune

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/plaquemines_parish_sues_bp_ove.html

If you or someone you love is dealing with the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, contact us at Murphy Law Firm to learn more about your rights to compensation. Schedule a free initial consultation with an attorney by calling us at 225-928-8800 or toll free at 800-734-6545. We work on a contingency basis, which means we do not receive any attorney fees unless we recover damages for you.

Gulf oil spill may be 19 times bigger than originally thought

WASHINGTON — The latest glimpse of video footage of the oil spill deep under the Gulf of Mexico indicates that around 95,000 barrels, or 4 million gallons, a day of crude oil may be spewing from the leaking wellhead, 19 times the previous estimate, an engineering professor told Congress Wednesday.

The figure of 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day that BP and the federal government have been using for weeks is based on observations of the surface slick made by satellites and aircraft. Even NASA's satellite-based instruments, however, can't see deep into the waters of the gulf, where much of the oil from the gusher seems to be floating. The well is 5,000 feet below the surface.

Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, said in an interview Wednesday that he'd had many conversations over the past week or more with other government science officials about how to get a more precise calculation of the flow, a better estimate of the total oil in the gulf since the April 20 explosion and an accurate assessment of what's happening to the oil on the surface.

Allen said his advisers are considering putting sensors near the leak that would give a better understanding of the amount of oil entering the water. "It's coming together very nicely. I'm satisfied we'll have the right people," he said. It's not yet known when the equipment would be ready to use, he added.

Sonar equipment already has been used to try to figure out how well chemical dispersants are working at deep levels, Allen said.

"I don't mean to be glib, but it's kind of hard to measure the amount of water you're putting on a fire while you're fighting a fire," he said. Federal agencies got as much equipment assembled as they could to keep the oil away from shore by skimming, burning and other measures, he said.

There's also limited space for the robotic vehicles to work near the spill site as BP engineers try to contain the spill, which is the top priority, he said.

Allen announced plans to assemble the team of experts to measure the size of the spill during hearings on Tuesday. NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said that it would be important, but difficult, to figure out the amount of oil from the ruptured wellhead.

Steve Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., earlier this month made simple calculations from a single video BP released on May 12 and calculated a flow of 70,000 barrels a day, NPR reported last week.

On Wednesday, Wereley told a House of Representatives Energy and Commerce subcommittee that his calculations of two leaks that are on videos BP released on Tuesday showed 70,000 barrels from one leak and 25,000 from the other.

He said the margin of error was about 20 percent, making the spill between 76,000 and 104,000 barrels a day. However, Wereley said he'd need to see videos that showed the flow over a longer period to get a better calculation of the mix of oil and gas from the wellhead.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who led the hearing, said he'd work to get that information from BP.

"The true extent of this spill remains a mystery," Markey said. He said BP had said that the flow rate was not relevant to the cleanup effort. "This faulty logic that BP is using is . . . raising concerns that they are hiding the full extent of the damage of this leak."

Markey said he wrote to BP last week asking how it made its estimate and whether it had refused offers by scientists to provide better estimates. He said BP merely sent back an acknowledgement of the receipt of his letter, but didn't answer.

Richard Camilli, an associate scientist in the department of applied ocean physics and engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, told Markey and others on the panel that he responded to a request for help from BP on May 1 to get a look inside the failed blowout preventer.

Camilli develops instrument sensors and robotic technology to detect pollution in the ocean below the surface. He suggested using multi-beam sonar and an acoustic current profiler to measure the flow of oil and gas. That would help scientists determine if the blowout preventer was partially constricted and what happened to it, he said.

BP was at first interested, but a few days later declined the offer.

Camilli said the same instruments could be used to estimate the total spill volume.

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., asked Camilli and the other scientists who testified if knowing the amount was important.

"Absolutely," Camilli said. "It's like balancing your checkbook. You have to know where the oil has gone, where the gas has gone, and what the eventual fate will be."

Wereley said it's crucial to know the rate of the flow of oil to figure out what could stop it.

Frank Muller-Karger, a professor of biological oceanography and remote sensing at the University of South Florida, said it's important to know the real amount of the spill.

In another hearing on Wednesday, the chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship pressed officials from the Small Business Administration and the Government Accountability Office to streamline the loan process for business owners in the wake of the spill.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said she's concerned that small business will fail while waiting for financial relief.

James Rivera, an associate administrator in the Small Business Administration, said his office made strides, streamlining the process for applicants and allowing existing borrowers to deter loan payments.

This article was written by Renee Schoof and Lauren French of McClatchy Newspapers

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/19/94489/gulf-oil-spill-may-be-19-times.html#ixzz0qxITRelw

If you or someone you love is dealing with the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, contact us at Murphy Law Firm to learn more about your rights to compensation. Schedule a free initial consultation with an attorney by calling us at 225-928-8800 or toll free at 800-734-6545. We work on a contingency basis, which means we do not receive any attorney fees unless we recover damages for you.

Heavy oil reaches Louisiana marshland; tar balls found in Key West

VENICE, LA. -- A tide of sludgy oil has begun washing into the fringes of Louisiana's coastal marshes, officials said Tuesday, as BP continued to siphon some of the oil gushing from a damaged well on the gulf floor but remained days away from trying to cap the leak.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told Senate committees Tuesday that the company would attempt a "dynamic kill" of the oil well Saturday. That procedure involves pumping thick mud into the well in hopes of blocking the oil.

And hundreds of miles from the Louisiana coast, there was a worrisome discovery: Tar balls, sticky clumps of decayed oil, were found Monday in Key West, Fla. Officials said they were being tested to determine whether they came from the leaking BP well.

But the most ominous news came from south Louisiana, where the Mississippi Delta peters out into the Gulf of Mexico. There, instead of the tar balls that had previously washed ashore from the spill, thick, brown oil was infiltrating the edges of the marshes.

"If I had been standing up, I would have fell to my knees," said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, La., about the moment that he heard the news. Nungesser, whose parish follows the Mississippi out to sea, said the oil had been spotted at places called South Pass and Pass-a-Loutre. "It's our greatest fear."

If these marshes are destroyed by oil, it could mean huge losses for the area's seafood industry and a reduction in Louisiana's already skimpy shield against a hurricane storm surge. "We're finished. We're out of business" if that happens, Nungesser said.

This news was not a huge surprise: For days, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had predicted that thick oil might make landfall near here. These marshes are the closest land to the spot where the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig sank April 22.

But Louisiana officials said the oil's arrival underscored the need for their radical-sounding solution: the construction of a chain of small offshore islands to block the oil from the coast.

"This is the first time we've seen this much heavy oil this far into our wetlands," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal(R) said at a news conference here in Venice, the last town before the coastal marshes begin. "We know there's a lot more heavy oil behind it that hasn't made it to shore yet."

Also Tuesday, BP said it was slowly increasing the amount of oil it was siphoning away from the leaking well, using a tube inserted into a broken-off pipe Sunday. BP said it was removing 2,000 barrels of oil a day from the leak, up from 1,000.

It's not clear how much of the spilling oil that represents: Officials had first estimated the leak at 5,000 barrels a day, but outside experts have said it appears much larger than that. Video of the leak, released by U.S.Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), showed oil continuing to billow out of the leaking pipe, even with the siphon pipe inserted into it.

The company's plan to stop the leak involves pumping heavy "kill mud" at 40 barrels a minute into openings in the blowout preventer, a mechanism that surrounds the drill pipe. If the influx of mud does not clog the drill pipe, a BP spokesman said, the company could still use a "junk shot" later -- pumping larger debris such as golf balls and pieces of tire into the mechanism.

Mark Proegler, a BP spokesman, said the company had not used the mud-pumping technique earlier because it had to first gather data about pressures inside the blowout preventer. "It takes a while to gather the information we need," he said.

So far, officials said, the oil has not caused catastrophic damage on shore: Just 23 "oiled" birds have been found dead, in contrast to the tens of thousands killed by the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. But scientists are worried about vast areas of oil floating underwater, unseen.

That worry was heightened by Monday's discovery in Key West. If the tar balls found there are determined to have come from the BP leak, that could mean some oil has made its way into the Inner Loop currents of the Gulf Stream. NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchencosaid that oil swept up in the current might take eight to 10 days to reach the Florida Keys.

Exxon Mobil, meanwhile, said it had delayed plans to start drilling an exploration well this week in the Gulf of Mexico.

This article was written by David A. Fahrenthold and Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/18/AR2010051801676.html?hpid=topnews

If you or someone you love is dealing with the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, contact us at Murphy Law Firm to learn more about your rights to compensation. Schedule a free initial consultation with an attorney by calling us at 225-928-8800 or toll free at 800-734-6545. We work on a contingency basis, which means we do not receive any attorney fees unless we recover damages for you.

http://www.batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/Louisiana-Residents-Affected-by-the-BP-Oil-Spill.shtml

Terrebonne Parish sues BP over oil leak

HOUMA — Terrebonne Parish District Attorney Joe Waitz has filed suit against oil giant BP, seeking money for wildlife killed or hurt by the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, is among the first in an expected series from prosecutors in coastal parishes. St. Tammany Parish’s district attorney also sued the company Monday. Lafourche Parish prosecutors are scheduled to meet Wednesday to determine if they will file a similar lawsuit.

Each lawsuit will be handled within its own parish. Sixty percent of awarded money — if any — would go to the State Conservation Fund. The rest would go the district attorney’s office.

Don Carmouche, a Gonzales attorney who is a part of a team of lawyers handling the Terrebonne suit, said significant impact from the oil leak to Terrebonne and other parishes along the coast is certain.

“It’s real,” he said. “It’s going to be horrible, ultimately, for the state.”

Rig operator BP PLC estimates that the blown-out well has leaked more than 5 million gallons.

To date, environmental damage in the Terrebonne area hasn’t been as great as initially feared following the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that killed 11 workers. Rig operator BP PLC estimates that the blown-out well has leaked more than 5 million gallons, sending tar balls onto barrier islands and impacting commercial and recreational fishing.

“We are not likely to know the extent of the damages to our people, our wildlife and aquatic life for some time,” Waitz said in a written statement. “We will not wait until the extent of the damage is known because we want all to be put on notice that dead or suffering wildlife and aquatic life are evidence and should not be destroyed.”

This article was written by The Associated Press

http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2010/05/18/terrebonne-parish-sues-bp-over-oil-leak/

If you or someone you love is dealing with the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, contact us at Murphy Law Firm to learn more about your rights to compensation. Schedule a free initial consultation with an attorney by calling us at 225-928-8800 or toll free at 800-734-6545. We work on a contingency basis, which means we do not receive any attorney fees unless we recover damages for you.

http://www.batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/Louisiana-Residents-Affected-by-the-BP-Oil-Spill.shtml