Those other defendants would include Transocean LTD., owner of the doomed Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and Halliburton Co., which performed cement work on the rig. 

According to Reuters, the proposal on the transfer of legal rights is part of a final set of rules being circulated by Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the BP oil spill compensation fund. If adopted, the rule would still offer victims the opportunity for full payment for documented damages, Reuters said. If it is adopted, the rule could help BP’s efforts to collect billions of dollars from its partners on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

According to the Reuters report:

“Language in the draft proposal requires that claimants transfer, or subrogate, their legal rights to BP. Claimants would sign over their right to sue those responsible for the spill in the same way a car owner might when accepting an insurance payment after being hit by a negligent driver.”

That would enable BP to pursue its partners for a portion of the claims it paid.

Feinberg circulated the proposed rules to lawmakers and attorneys for comment, but he has made clear the decision to implement the rules will be his, not BP’s, Reuters said.

Over the summer, BP agreed to set aside at least $20 billion to pay economic loss and physical damage claims stemming from the BP oil spill. Feinberg, who had previously administered the 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund, was tapped to oversee the BP fund.

Businesses, individuals and government entities who suffered economic losses or physical injury as a result of the BP oil spill are eligible to file two types of claims: Emergency Advance Payments and long-term final damage claims. They have until November 23, 2010 to file Emergency Advance Payment claims for up to 6 months of economic losses or physical injuries. Claims forms for final payments must be submitted by August 23, 2013.

Claimants may accept an Emergency Advance Payment without waiving any of their legal rights. Accepting a final payment of long-term damages requires that claimants waive their right to sue BP or any of the parties responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Any Emergency Advance Payments will be deducted from any final long-term damage payment a claimant receives. However, it is important to note that claimants may accept an Emergency Advance Payment and still reject the final payment if they find it to be unsatisfactory.

Help filing claims and other legal assistance for the victims of the BP oil spill is available at www.bigspill.com.

The two groups are examining the probable causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, fire, and oil spill at the request of the US Department of the Interior in order to identify measures for preventing similar harm in the future.
 
According to a report in The Washington Post, the committee of academic experts conducting the study appears to have been taken aback by the education and training levels of people on the rig.

“Personnel on the Deepwater Horizon were mostly trained on the job, and this training was supplemented with limited short courses,” the report said. “While this appears to be consistent with industry standard practice and current regulations it is not consistent with other safety-critical industries such as nuclear power or chemical manufacturing.”

The panel also takes issue with the cementing job on the BP well, The Washington Post said. It noted that the well design complicated the drilling operation, especially given that there were multiple hydrocarbon zones. It also criticized the failure to run one kind of cement test and the failure to pay any attention to bad results from another test of the cement. The rig workers’ failure to determine why a critical pressure test failed, “suggests a lack of onboard expertise and of clearly defined responsibilities” and “a lack of management discipline that is inconsistent with the stakes involved,” the report said.

The study does not address any issues associated with the subsequent fire and release of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico, such as the rescue and fire response, plans for the spill response, spill response and clean up, or the related consequences of the oil spill on the environment or human health.

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men on April 20. All attempts to staunch the gusher failed, until a cap was successfully deployed over the well on July 15. By that time roughly 4.4 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.

Help filing claims and other legal assistance for the victims of the BP oil spill is available at www.bigspill.com.

At the symposium, it was pointed out that five years after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the region’s herring fishery collapsed, at least in part because of the oil spill. The scientists hope that by planning now, similar collapses can be avoided in the Gulf of Mexico. 

To that end, the group is recommending the creation of a unified research and monitoring effort to detect the first signs of trouble with Gulf species and provide that information to management agencies in an effort head off disastrous effects.

“Right now there is no agency that pulls together and coordinates all the information we need about the Gulf,” marine biologist Michael Crosby, senior vice president for research at Mote Marine Laboratory, said at the end of the two-day gathering. “Scientists at different institutions might be collecting different pieces of data — but if we don’t put those together, we could miss the big picture until populations crash.”

The scientists expressed concerns about some changes already being observed in the Gulf. That includes dead and dying coral discovered near the site of BP’s ruptured well that we reported last week. The scientists who made that discovery noted that the coral was covered with a brown substance thought to be rotting tissue. Tests are needed to determine if the coral is being killed off because of the spill.

Some of the scientists expressed concerns that predatory species already endangered, including sharks or blue fin tuna, could be pushed closer to extinction because of the spill. Other wildlife that could face long-term impacts include shrimp, menhaden, blue crabs, various types of plankton, coral reefs, sargassum algae, seabirds, tuna, dolphins, sea turtles, and mackerel, tarpon and other sport fish. On Monday, researchers reported that non-toxic components of oil already have made it up the food chain from oil-eating microbes to plankton that are an important food source for fish.

The symposium plans to release a final report in January. In addition to recommending a unified research and monitoring effort, it will recommend the creation of science-based models of how oil could affect the Gulf, creation of long-term research sites to monitor for future oil spill effects and other environmental problems, and money to pay for the new research programs.

Bill Reilly, the commission’s Republican co-chair, said in his opening statements yesterday that each company was “responsible for one or more egregiously bad decision,” called them “safety laggards,” and said the firms were “in need of top-to-bottom reform.” Reilly, former Environmental Protection Agency chief under during the George H.W. Bush administration, also singled out BP for having “been notoriously challenged on matters of process safety.” 

BP owned the Gulf of Mexico oil well, Halliburton performed critical cement work on the well, and Transocean was the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

In making his remarks, Reilly pointed to the commissions’ staff reports that cited a host of decision made by the companies. These included “failed cement tests, premature removal of muds underbalancing the well, a negative pressure test that failed but was adjudged a success, apparent inattention, distraction or misreading of a key indicator that gas was rising toward the rig,” Reilly said.

Reilly and another co-chair, former Democratic Senator Bob Graham, also commented on statements by the commission’s chief investigator that his probe did not find any evidence that the companies cut corners on safety to save money.

“The problem here is that there was a culture that did not promote safety … leaders did not take risks seriously enough, didn’t identify risks that proved to be fatal,” Graham said.

Reilly noted that the investigators “didn’t rule out cost, just said they weren’t prepared to attribute mercenary motives to men who cannot speak for themselves because they are not alive.”

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men on April 20. All attempts to staunch the gusher failed, until a cap was successfully deployed over the well on July 15. By that time roughly 4.4 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.

Scientist aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) ship Ronald H. Brown, just returned Thursday from a three-week cruise studying coral reef in the northern Gulf of Mexico, according to Nola.com. The coral expedition was planned before the oil spill, so its purpose was not to assess the disaster's impacts, but it did give the researchers a good look at seafloor life near the spill zone.

They reported that soft coral in a 15-meter to 40-meter area was covered by what appeared to be a brown substance. Ninety percent of 40 large corals were heavily affected and showed dead and dying parts and discoloration, according to the scientists.

Another site 400 meters away had a colony of stony coral that showed the same symptoms. According to a press release issued by the team, they “observed dead and dying corals with sloughing tissue and discoloration.”

In addition to the NOAA, the cruise was co-sponsored by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Scientists from Penn State University, Louisiana State University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Temple University, Florida State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, PAST Foundation, T.D.I Brooks International and C&C Technologies participated in the cruise.

The scientist did not reach any conclusions about what may be causing the problems with coral at the two sites where they were observed. They await tests that will tell them whethe the brown substance is oil, and whether it came from the ruptured well.

The ship stopped at several locations in a triangular area along the deep slope of the Gulf about 200 miles off the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama and westernmost Florida before returning to port in Pensacola. It should be noted, the team observed no changes at most other coral locations this year.

This development is raising a lot of eyebrows, because up until now, Halliburton has been able to avoid most of the blame for the BP oil spill disaster. Halliburton previously blamed BP for failing to heed its advice on the design of the well and failing to do all the necessary tests. BP has pointed the finger at the cement mixture Halliburton used. 

According to a report on MSNBC, BP at the last-minute increased the amount of a critical ingredient in that cement mixture. While an earlier test showed the cement was stable, the company never performed a stability test on the new blend. According to Halliburton, a successful test was performed on a cement mix different than the one that was eventually used. Tests that were performed on the mixture used did not include a foam stability test, MSNBC said.

Halliburton’s admission followed the issuance of a letter to the president’s oil spill commission from its chief investigative counsel Fred H. Bartlit Jr. The letter said BP and Halliburton knew weeks before the Deepwater Horizon explosion that the cement mixture they planned to use to seal the new well was unstable but still completed the work, according to MSNBC.

The letter also placed some blame on Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig:

“The oil industry has developed tests, such as the negative pressure test and cement evaluation logs, to identify cementing failures” the letter said, but “BP and/or Transocean personnel misinterpreted or chose not to conduct such tests at the Macondo well.”

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the letter cautioned that the new findings don’t absolve BP of responsibility for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It notes that cement failures are relatively common, and points out that the well owner – BP – is responsible for testing the cement and fixing any problems.

However, BP could still benefit if investigators determine that Halliburton’s cement design was at fault, the Journal said. Such a development would make it less likely that BP would be found grossly negligent in the disaster, which would reduce its penalties under federal pollution laws.

At a news conference yesterday to mark the end of a three-month expedition by the group’s Arctic Sunrise vessel, Greenpeace microbiologist John Hocevar said that test results from a single oiled sediment sample taken in late September from 1 mile deep and about 4 1/2 miles from the spill site confirmed that the oil was from the BP spill.

The Arctic Sunrise spent three months looking for oil and marine life in trouble after it arrived in the Gulf following the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Greenpeace is working with scientists from over a dozen institutions and the Gulf Restoration Network to try and get a better understanding of the true impacts of BP’s oil spill.

Federal agencies have said that most of the oil spilled into the Gulf has evaporated, dissipated, been dispersed or been burned and skimmed. Government scientists also say they have not found any visible oil on the sea floor so far.

“One of the things that has been important about this is that it was independent scientists, so we don’t take corporate or government money. It’s independent,” said Captain Pater Willcox, who has been with Greenpeace for over 30 years, and brought the Arctic Sun to the Gulf after the BP oil spill.

At yesterday’s news conference, Hocevar said the White House should have waited before lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf because so much about the spill remains unknown.

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men on April 20. All attempts to staunch the gusher failed, until a cap was successfully deployed over the well on July 15. By that time roughly 4.4 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the largest offshore oil disaster in US history.

BP released the results of its internal investigation last month. While it cited BP workers for failing to correctly evaluate negative-pressure tests the day of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, it also maintained that its well design was not to blame for the catastrophe. BP also placed much of the onus on contractors for Transocean Ltd., which owned the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig, as well as Halliburton Co., which cemented the well.

According to an ABC News report, BP’s design for its well included a number of cheaper options, including the use of a single tube from the surface to the reservoir, rather than two overlapping tubes.

“Shell clearly would have drilled this well in a different way and would have had more options to prevent the accident,” Voser said while speaking at the Oil and Money conference in London. Shell generally includes more barriers to hydrocarbon leaks in its well designs, ABC News noted.

Voser also said that BP’s investigation should have looked more closely at the design chosen for the blown well.

However, Voser also acknowledged that the entire oil industry has failed to prepare properly for a major accident, and added that he expects more regulation as a result of the BP disaster. Finally, he said Shell would be more selective about who it would partner with on projects in the Gulf of Mexico, in order to make sure contractors have the necessary technical skills and the financial ability to handle their part when accidents do occur.

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men on April 20. All attempts to staunch the gusher failed, until a cap was successfully deployed over the well on July 15. By that time roughly 4.4 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the largest offshore oil disaster in US history.

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men on April 20. All attempts to staunch the gusher failed, until a cap was successfully deployed over the well on July 15. By that time roughly 4.4 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the largest offshore oil disaster in US history.

The end of the moratorium was hinted at this morning by White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs. That was followed by an email to reporters from the Interior Department announcing a 1:00 p.m. conference call to discuss the end of the deepwater drilling ban.

“I have decided that it is now appropriate to lift the suspension on deepwater drilling for those operators that are able to clear the higher bar that we have set,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said during today’s media conference call.

According to The New York Times, the Obama administration is lifting the moratorium following the imposition of new rules governing areas like well casing and cementing, blowout preventers, safety certification, emergency response and worker training. Michael Bromwich, head of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said yesterday that have lessened the risks associated with drilling.

“We think things have advanced and we’ve raised the bar substantially and that drilling can now proceed more safely than it has in the past,” he said.

Despite the economic and environmental devastation the BP oil spill brought to the Gulf Coast, the moratorium angered many who complained that it cost jobs and hurt the economy further. Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, for example, has said she will block Senate action on the President’s nominee to lead the White House budget office until the moratorium is lifted.

Though the moratorium is now officially history, drilling is unlikely to resume quickly because of the need for more inspections and compliance with new regulations, the Interior Department said.

According to those documents, unnamed officials told the commission that in late April or early May, the White House budget office denied a request from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to release the worst-case models. According to a report in the Associated Press, BP estimated the worse scenario to be a leak of 2.5 million gallons per day, but at the time, the administration told the public it amounted to 210,000 gallons per day. It wasn’t until August that the government’s estimates came close to the worst-case models.

In response to the commission’s allegations, Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said the budget office had concerns about the reliability of the NOAA estimates.

“The issue was the modeling, the science and the assumptions they were using to come up with their analysis. Not public relations or presentation,” he told the Associated Press. “We offered NOAA suggestions of ways to improve their analysis, and they happily accepted it.”

According to the Associated Press, the report also faults the director of the White
House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, Carol Browner, for claiming during various TV appearances in August that as much as 75 percent of the oil released from the spill was gone. According to the report, the analysis cited by Browner never actually said that. Instead, it said the oil had dispersed, dissolved or evaporated — meaning it could still be there.

“By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf, the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem,” investigators for the commission wrote in their report.

Failing to get flow estimate right early on in the disaster also appears to have slowed the federal response to the spill, the commission said. The investigators write that “for the first ten days of the spill, it appears that a sense of over optimism affected responders.” The commission staff said it is “possible that inaccurate flow-rate figures may have hindered the sub-sea efforts to stop and to contain the flow of oil at the wellhead.”

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men on April 20. All attempts to staunch the gusher failed, until a cap was successfully deployed over the well on July 15. By that time roughly 4.4 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.

Transocean was the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which it leased to BP. The rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 men and spawning the worst oil spill in US history.

The joint investigative panel is holding its fifth week of hearings into the disaster. During a hearing in Metairie, Louisiana yesterday, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Hung Nguyen complained that he had been trying to get copies of the safety audits for two months. Transocean refused both an August 4 request and a September 2 request.

“Transocean has not been responsive to the requests of this joint board,” Nguyen said. “I have significant concerns with the safety-culture aspect” related to the disaster.

Nguyen said the panel also has been unable to get a specific Transocean manager to come in and testify about safety. Another panel member, Captain Mark Higgins, also complained that Transocean had “thwarted” access to some witnesses.

In an emailed statement to Bloomberg News, Transocean disputed those charges. “Transocean has produced more witnesses than any other party involved in this investigation and significant volumes of documentary evidence, including audit records of the Deepwater Horizon,” the statement said. “Any assertion to the contrary is simply not correct.”

During yesterday’s hearing, Transocean’s attorney said the company has acted in good faith and produced everything it believes it should, adding that the panel could go to court to enforce the subpoenas it issued for the documents.

As to witnesses testifying, the attorney said their availability was not in Transocean’s control.

BP agreed over the summer to fund the $20 billion compensation account. In addition to submitting claims for emergency payments for six month of losses, people and businesses impacted economically by the spill can also apply for final payment of long term damages. While claimants don’t have to surrender their right to sue BP and other responsible parties if they accept emergency payments, they will have to give up that right to collect final damages.

Ken Feinberg, the Washington D.C. lawyer tapped by the White House to administer the fund, took charge of the claims process in August. At the time, he promised the claims process would be faster than it had been when BP was handling claims.

So far, Feinberg has had problems keeping that promise. While it’s still taking longer to resolve claims than Feinberg had hoped, some who have received emergency payments have complained that they are far lower than what was requested. According to the Associated Press, the fund has so far paid out nearly $1 billion to about 50,000 claimants. However, claims officials would not provide a total amount actually requested by those claimants.

While Feinberg said he had heard complaints about low payouts and was planning to address the problem, he also told the Associated Press that claimants share some of the blame given the volume of claims filed with no proof of losses, inflated requests and fraudulent ones. Of the nearly 98,000 claims filed as of Oct. 2, about 35,000 require additional documentation and remain on hold, the Associated Press said.

In an interview with the Associated Press last week, Feinberg promised that problems would be fixed and more generous payments would come. The fund is also re-evaluating some previously paid claims and contacting claimants who believe they were short changed. In addition, Feinberg has decided that proximity to affected areas will no longer play a role in compensation approval, something that resulted in denied claims.

Some progress has been reported, according the Associated Press. In the past week, denied claims dropped from 528 to 116, as claims were paid to people and businesses initially told they would get no help.

Gallup’s findings are based on 2,598 interviews conducted from Jan. 2-Aug. 6, 2010, with residents of 25 Gulf Coast-facing counties from the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas. Of these interviews, 1,239 occurred after the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. During the same period, 30,657 interviews were conducted with residents of inland counties of Gulf Coast states and 179,435 in non-Gulf states as a part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, again split roughly equally on either side of April 20.

Residents of Gulf Coast-facing counties reported 25.6 percent more clinical diagnoses of depression in the period after the oil spill compared with before it. Gallup noted that this question was posed as a diagnosis occurring at any point in the respondent’s life, and it does not necessarily imply that the oil spill itself created new depression incidences. However, the increase in diagnoses reveals that clinical depression along the Gulf coastline was climbing at a time when it was flat throughout the remainder of the country, Gallup’s statement said.

The Well-Being Index also measures daily mood in terms of stress, worry, and sadness experienced “a lot of the day yesterday.” Across each of these daily mood metrics, Gallup’s survey found that residents of Gulf Coast-facing counties experienced measurable increases in these negative emotions that their inland counterparts and residents of non-Gulf Coast states did not.

In addition to a decline in emotional wellbeing, Gulf coast residents’ views of their communities also suffered, according to the survey. Satisfaction with the “city or area where you live” also declined modestly after the oil spill in the Gulf Coast-facing states, as did the percentage of people who believe that their city or area is “getting better as a place to live.” Again, Gallup said it did not find the same declines in emotional wellbeing among respondents who live further inland.

According to an Associated Press report, the level of mental illness seen in the Gallup survey was similar to that seen six months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the coast five years ago, and experts aren’t yet seeing any improvement in mental health five months after the oil crisis began.

Gallup’s statement asserted that its findings provide supporting evidence of the need for enhanced psychological assistance for residents of Gulf Coast counties, and for the targeting of these efforts to residents living along the coastline itself rather than all residents living in the affected states.

BP has provided $52 million for mental health care in the Gulf region, with $15 million going to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals; $12 million each to the states of Alabama and Mississippi; $3 million to Florida; and $10 million to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Associated Press said.

The April 20 explosion aboard The Deepwater Horizon oil rig spawned what now ranks as the worst oil spill in US history. In addition to killing 11 men aboard the rig, the explosion caused more than 4 million barrels of oil to spew into the Gulf of Mexico until the well was finally contained on July 15.

BP had already announced the departure of CEO Tony Hayward in July, effective October 1. He will be replaced by American Bob Dudley, who has been overseeing BP’s spill response. In announcing the restructuring, BP said it was designed to improve safety and rebuild confidence in the company after the disaster.

“These are the first and most urgent steps in a program I am putting in place to rebuild trust in BP,” Dudley said in a statement. “That trust is vital to the restoration of shareholder value which has been so adversely affected by recent events.”

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, a BP spokesperson said the restructuring will give Dudley a more direct and detailed view of safety and operations in the company’s upstream division than his predecessors had. The Exploration and Production division, formerly headed by Inglis, will be split into three divisions – Exploration, Development, and Production. The three executives running those divisions will report directly to Dudley, the Journal said.

The restructuring will create a new Safety and Operational Risk division, with staff assigned to every business unit who will have the power to intervene if safety standards are breached, the company said in a statement. The staff assigned to monitor safety will report through their own shorter chain of command, rather than through existing business lines where other operational concerns in addition to safety are a factor, the spokesperson said. No word yet, though, on the number of safety staff nor where they will be assigned, the Journal said.

BP will also conduct two reviews into some of the fundamental ways it does business that have been linked to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The company will examine how it manages relationships with third-party contractors, and it will review how its business incentives affect safety and risk management, the Journal said.

This is not the first time a disaster has caused a major restructuring at BP. It did so after a fatal 2005 accident at its Texas City refinery. And in 2007, then-incoming CEO Hayward promised to focus “like a laser” on safety.

To measure the flow, two scientists from Columbia University used high-resolution video from underwater cameras to track the motion of turbulent billows and flows in the water. The images were then broken down into pixels. According to a USA Today report, the scientists’ calculations are based on just a few short clips of high-resolution video because that is all BP has released so far. The true figures could still be higher.

“This is not the last word. It is the first peer-reviewed word. But we think it’s a really good ballpark,” one of the researchers told USA Today.

Though higher, the new number isn’t that far off from government estimates of 172 million gallons. But many people were suspicious of that figure, mainly because prior estimates were revised so many times. Federal officials first used BP’s estimate that 42,000 gallons a day were leaking, and then upped it to 210,000 gallons a day. In mid-June, they said the well could be leaking as much as 2.4 million gallons a day.

The BP oils spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men on April 20. All attempts to staunch the gusher failed, until a cap was successfully deployed over the well on July 15. The well wasn’t declared officially dead until this past Sunday.

The BP oil spill now ranks as the worst oil disaster in US history.

Researchers hope to enroll 27,000 people who participated in oil spill cleanup. Recruitment of volunteers will begin next month. The expert committee formed by the Institute of Medicine met in Tampa, Florida yesterday to discuss how to conduct the study.

Crude oil contains components, such as benzene, napthalene and toluene, which are toxic to humans. Benzene is known to cause leukemia, while napthalene is a suspected human carcinogen. Benzene and toluene, along with xylene, another component of oil, can also cause respiratory irritation and affect the central nervous system.

Oil also releases hydrogen sulfide gas, which can damage the brain and central nervous system as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are considered likely carcinogens.

In the early months of the spill, more than 300 individuals, three-fourths of whom were cleanup workers, sought medical care for constitutional symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, cough, respiratory distress, and chest pain in Louisiana alone. These symptoms are typical of acute exposure to hydrocarbons or hydrogen sulfide.

Despite these hazards, little research has been done on the health consequences of oil spills. According to the Associated Press, of the 38 large oil tanker spills in past 50 years, only 8 were studied for human health effects.

Following the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men and set off the worst oil spill in US history, about 2,000 commercial fishing vessels and charter boats participated in spill cleanup via BP’s “Vessels of Opportunity” program. The program provided some commercial fisherman whose businesses were shut down by the spill with a chance to earn income.

Reportedly, BP claims representatives had told participating fishermen that the income earned from the program would not be deducted from their loss of income claims, but when Feinberg took over the process in August, he made the opposite ruling. Fishermen in the region complained that they felt misled, and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La, wrote Feinberg last week urging him to reverse course.

While Feinberg’s reversal will make thousands of commercial fishermen happy, it seems the BP oil spill claims process is still beset with problems. According to a report in the Press-Register, several business owners in Alabama are complaining that emergency payments issued by Feinberg are only a fraction of the amount requested. One wedding planner who specializes in beach weddings – a business that pretty much shut down this summer because of the spill – told the Press-Register that she requested $240,000 to cover six months’ worth of lost business, but received just $7,700. The decision on the emergency claim, which can’t be appealed, has left the business with no choice but to file for bankruptcy.

There are similar cases, according to the Press-Register. In one instance, the operator of a seafood restaurant received a check for $16,000 on a claim of $159,000. One accountant in Gulf Shores who has assisted hundreds of people with claims said not a single client has received their full request. None of those interviewed by the Press-Register were given any information about why the checks differed so substantially from their submitted claims.

As we’ve reported previously, the Gulf Coast Claims Center has also been criticized for taking too long to resolve emergency claims. When Feinberg took over in August, he promised the claims process would be faster than it had been when BP was handling claims. But earlier this month, he backed away from that promise, telling ProPublica that the lengthy and complex supporting documentation claimants are required to submit “requires careful scrutiny and attention to assure that each claimant will be afforded the benefit of the most generous payment.” Feinberg also told the New Orleans Time-Picayune that his staff was having trouble keeping up with fully documented claims. He said that he has 25 people working in shifts around the clock to review the claims, and they are able to get through an average of about 1,000 a day.

The Gulf Coast Claims Facility allows businesses and individuals to submit emergency claims for six months worth of losses. In addition, claimants can also apply for final payment of long term damages. While claimants don’t have to surrender their right to sue BP and other responsible parties if they accept emergency payments, they will have to give up that right to collect final damages. Decisions on emergency claims can’t be appealed.

According to information released by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, it has so far approved 13,462 claims and denied one. It has sent 3,420 back to the claimants with a request for more paperwork. The remaining 38,481 are waiting to be reviewed.

The BP oil spill began on April 20, when a massive explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 men. More than 4 million barrels of oil gushed into the ocean before BP was able to cap the well from above on July 15. Hundreds of miles of US coastline were fouled by oil, and the Gulf Coast’s vital seafood and tourism industries were devastated in the aftermath.

In a statement released over the weekend, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen declared BP’s well was “effectively dead” and said tests verified the strength of a cement plug placed at its bottom. “Additional regulatory steps will be undertaken, but we can now state, definitively, that the Macondo well poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.

A relief well that BP had been drilling since May finally intersected the ruptured well on Thursday. Over the weekend, the well was killed by pumping mud up through its bottom, and then it was sealed with the cement plug.

There’s still no consensus on how much damage the BP oil spill actually caused, as the cleanup is still ongoing. As we’ve reportedly previously, a government report released in August maintained that 3/4 of the oil was already gone, or was being broken down by bacteria. However, other scientists disagree. Last month, for example, we reported that scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution had discovered an underwater plume of hydrocarbons 22 miles long deep beneath the surface of the ocean, casting doubts on the government’s optimistic claims.

Thousands of people and businesses along the Gulf Coast are still waiting for their compensation claims to be paid, and lawsuits stemming from the disaster will take years to resolve. BP and its partners on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig face numerous investigations, some of them criminal. Finally, the oil industry as a whole is facing greater scrutiny, and the specter of more government oversight and regulation.

The BP oil spill began on April 20, when a massive explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 men. More than 4 million barrels of oil gushed into the ocean before BP was able to cap the well from above on July 15. Hundreds of miles of US coastline were fouled by oil, and the Gulf Coast’s vital seafood and tourism industries were devastated in the aftermath. BP has already spent more than $8 billion responding to the spill.

A statement from BP did not say when the final operation will begin. However, the oil company said it should be completed sometime Saturday.

According to BP’s statement, tests showed there was no cement or oil and gas in the annulus -the space between the well’s metal casing and the surrounding rock – at the point where it was intercepted by the relief well. As a result, BP said there is no need to perform a “bottom kill”, a procedure where heavy drilling mud would be pumped into the annulus through the relief well. Instead, crews will pump only cement into the annulus for the final seal.

Of course, the disaster is far from over. The environmental cleanup could take years, and no one knows how long it will take the delicate Gulf Coast ecosystem to recover. And of course, there are still thousand of people whose incomes were destroyed by the spill waiting for their compensation claims to be paid.

Finally, BP and its partners on the Deepwater Horizon rig face a number of civil and criminal investigations, and the litigation surrounding the oil spill is likely to continue for years.

Existing regulations already require wells to be plugged and platforms to be dismantled within one year after a lease is terminated. But under the new rules, companies must decommission unused equipment even if the leases are still active.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, there are 3,500 non-producing wells in the Gulf of Mexico, and 650 oil and gas platforms that are no longer in use. When they are finished with a well, gas and oil producers often seal them temporarily, in case they want to reopen it a later time. Permanently sealing a well, as the government is demanding, makes it nearly impossible to reopen it.

But the Interior Department and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement say plugging the idle wells is necessary.

“As infrastructure continues to age, the risk of damage increases. That risk increases substantially during storm season,” Michael R. Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, said in a statement. “This initiative is the product of careful thought and analysis and requires that these wells, platforms and pipelines are plugged and dismantled correctly and in a timely manner to substantially reduce such hazards.”

According to the statement, oil and gas firms will have 120 days to submit a company-wide plan for decommissioning affected facilities and wells. The plans must contain details for each individual well and facility, including specific dates for the submission of related permits and for commencing and completing decommissioning work. After the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has approved a company’s decommissioning plan, bureau officials will track the progress of each company and of the industry as a whole.

Producers, of course, are crying foul over this new initiative. One expert told The Wall Street Journal that the cost to plug idle wells and remove unused structures could total $1.4 billion to $3.5 billion. Producers also could potentially give up as much as $18 billion in revenue from future production.

But, the same Journal article also points out that the initiative is likely to increase employment in the area. Yesterday’s announcement boosted the stock prices of some oil-field service and offshore drilling companies, as investors bet the companies could profit from new government-mandated work, the Journal said.

BP agreed over the summer to fund the $20 billion compensation account. In addition to submitting claims for emergency payments for six month of losses, people and businesses impacted economically by the spill can also apply for final payment of long term damages. While claimants don’t have to surrender their right to sue BP and other responsible parties if they accept emergency payments, they will have to give up that right to collect final damages.

Ken Feinberg, the Washington D.C. lawyer tapped by the White House to administer the fund, took charge of the claims process last month. At the time, he promised the claims process would be faster than it had been when BP was handling claims.

According to the Miami-Herald, the vast majority of Florida claims remain unresolved. Of the 17,105 emergency claims submitted by the state’s residents and businesses so far, 5,134 have been settled by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. None of the state’s 1,360 “final” claims have been resolved. Floridians have so far received less than $40 million.

Yesterday, Gov. Charlie Crist criticized the claims process.

“I think it would be more than appropriate for us (the governor and Cabinet) to co-sign a letter encouraging increased urgency,” Crist said. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for (some businesses) to be able to hang on. Twenty billion is no small sum of change, but it’s no good unless it’s utilized.”

Feinberg had said previously that claims from business not in the immediate proximity and without clear documentation that they lost money will not be paid. That’s been difficult for many Florida businesses, because the entire tourism industry in the state took a huge hit this summer because of perceptions about the spill, even though many of the state’s beaches remained oil free.

Yesterday, speaking before the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, Feinberg did indicate he might be willing to be a little more flexible.

“I was skeptical of the eligibility of lodging and restaurants far from the spill. I still am skeptical,” Feinberg said. “But I must say, that having spent a good deal of time chatting … I’m trying to help. I’m walking a tight rope.”

But he also cautioned he was making “no promises” and pointed out that if proximity to the spill was not given relevance, the claims center would “be inundated with claims from 50 states.”

In court papers, BP and its partners in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, including Transocean Ltd and Halliburton Co, argued that any lawsuits should be delayed until the “bedrock issue of whether a large number of the plaintiffs should even be before the court’’ is resolved.

The $20 bilion BP-funded Gulf Coast Claims Facility is being administered by Kenneth Feinberg. It has so far approved 13,462 claims and denied one.

More than 300 oil spill damage lawsuits have been consolidated before Judge Carl Barbier in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana. If the judge goes along with BP's wishes, the litigtion will be delayed by months.

Understandably, plaintiffs oppose the move, and urged the court to begin expanded discovery next month. The plaintiffs want test trials to start in March.

The Claims Facility was set up to expedite payments to oil spill victims, but many complain that is not happening.  In fact, many claims seem to be in limbo. According to the Claims Facility's own numbers, 3,420 clims have been retuned  to the claimants with a request for more paperwork. The remaining 38,481 are waiting to be reviewed.

Feinberg has acknowledge that his staff is overwhelmed.  He said that he has 25 people working in shifts around the clock to review the claims, and they are able to get through an average of about 1,000 a day.

BP agreed over the summer to fund the $20 billion compensation account. In addition to submitting claims for emergency payments for six month of losses, people and businesses impacted economically by the spill can also apply for payment of long term damages. While claimants don’t have to surrender their right to sue BP and other responsible parties if they accept emergency payments, they will have to give up that right to collect for long term damages.

Ken Feinberg, the Washington D.C. lawyer tapped by the White House, took over the administration of the $20 billion BP oil spill compensation fund last month. At the time, he promised the claims process would be faster than it had been when BP was handling claims.

But it appears reality is falling short of that promise. One restaurant owner whose business lost $45,000 this summer, and only got $15,000 when BP was taking care of claims, told NPR that the process is still bogged down. The diner filed for $120,000 to stay afloat through January, but has only received $4,500 since the August takeover.

The new claims process does not allow appeals for the emergency payment, so the diner’s options are limited.

“We can file the final claim, give up all right to sue,” the business owner said. “Or we can retain an attorney. Or we can file bankruptcy and walk away from it all.”

Feinberg told NPR that he realizes now that he promised more than he has been able to deliver given the complexity and sheer volume of claims. The process, he said, has been made difficult by problems that include duplicate claims, or no proof of lost income.

“It’s taken longer than I thought,” Feinberg says. “And that criticism, the false expectations that have been raised, I think are justifiable.”

In an interview with USA Today, Feinberg promised a better response times as his staff weeds through old claims. “I’ve inherited a huge number of claims that have never been processed that need to be processed, especially business claims,” he said. Such claims, he said, were placed on a “side track” by BP when it was handling the process.

According to USA Today, more than 46,000 people have filed claims since Feinberg took charge. By September 8, his staff had paid 10,252 claims for nearly $80 million. Most claims paid are small, with payouts of $5,000 or less, USA Today said.

Transocean is the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which exploded on April 20 and spawned the massive BP oil spill. Halliburton cemented the undersea well.

BP’s report cited its own workers for failing to correctly evaluate negative-pressure tests the day of the blast, but the investigation also found that the oil company’s well design was not to blame for the catastrophe.

The study listed eight failures BP said caused the disaster. These included “weaknesses in cement design and testing, quality assurance and risk assessment” conducted by Halliburton. Transocean’s rig crew and BP well site leaders were cited for having “reached the incorrect view that the test [of cementing the well to close it] was successful and that well integrity had been established.” The report also said the Transocean crew “did not recognize the influx (of hydrocarbons) and did not act to control the well until hydrocarbons had passed” through the blowout preventer on the sea floor and into the riser pipe that went to the rig.

Both Transocean and Halliburton are taking exception to BP’s findings. Transocean, in particular, disputed BP’s contention that its well design did not play a role in the blowout.

“This is a self-serving report that attempts to conceal the critical factor that set the stage for the Macondo incident: BP’s fatally flawed well design. In both its design and construction, BP made a series of cost-saving decisions that risk – in some cases, severely,” Transocean said in a statement.

Halliburton maintained that BP, as the owner of the well, signed off on every step of its work.

“Deepwater operations are inherently complex and a number of contractors are involved which routinely make recommendations to a single point of contact, the well owner,” Halliburton said in a statement. “The well owner is responsible for designing the well program and any testing related to the well. Contractors do not specify well design or make decisions regarding testing procedures as that responsibility lies with the well owner.”

The BP report was criticized by others as well. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee, dismissed the report, and said he was waiting for the “real story.”

“Just as the environmental damage did not end with the capping of BP’s well, this company-run investigation is not the end of the inquiries into the BP oil spill,” Markey said in a statement. “This report is not BP’s mea culpa. Of their own eight key findings, they only explicitly take responsibility for half of one.”

Some environmental groups were also less than impressed.

“This report is more concerned with calming BP’s shareholders than taking responsibility for its actions,” Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Houston Chronicle.

The report is based on a four-month investigation led by Mark Bly, BP’s Head of Safety and Operations. Its key findings include:

• The cement and shoe track barriers – and in particular the cement slurry that was used – at the bottom of the Macondo well failed to contain hydrocarbons within the reservoir, as they were designed to do, and allowed gas and liquids to flow up the production casing;

• The results of the negative pressure test were incorrectly accepted by BP and Transocean, although well integrity had not been established;

• Over a 40-minute period, the Transocean rig crew failed to recognize and act on the influx of hydrocarbons into the well until the hydrocarbons were in the riser and rapidly flowing to the surface;

• After the well-flow reached the rig it was routed to a mud-gas separator, causing gas to be vented directly on to the rig rather than being diverted overboard;

• The flow of gas into the engine rooms through the ventilation system created a potential for ignition which the rig’s fire and gas system did not prevent;

• Even after explosion and fire had disabled its crew-operated controls, the rig’s blow-out preventer on the sea-bed should have activated automatically to seal the well. But it failed to operate, probably because critical components were not working.

Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Cementing work on the platform was performed by Halliburton Co.

In a statement released this morning, outgoing BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward maintained that the investigation found that “it would appear unlikely that the well design contributed to the incident.” However, according to a report in The Washington Post, other oil company executives have said BP used a well design that was cheaper and easier to implement instead of a safer but more expensive design.

The BP report is just the first of several addressing the Deepwater Horizon disaster that is expected to be released in the coming months. The catastrophe is being investigated by several federal agencies, including the Justice Department, Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

The Post report also noted that the other parties cited in the BP report have yet to give their version of events. Transocean, in particular, recently complained that BP hasn’t turned over data that would help with its own internal investigation.

According to the Times, the legislation would also bar permits if a company had been penalized with fines of $10 million or more under the Clean Air or Clean Water Acts within a seven-year period. BP is the only company that meets the criteria for a drilling permit ban under the proposed bill.

The company said that if the legislation were adopted, it would cripple its Gulf of Mexico operations, which the Times said generate $5 billion to $7 billion in profits annually. The Gulf accounts for 11 percent of BP’s global production.

BP insists its threat doesn’t mean it is backing away from its promise to set aside $20 billion for a compensation fund to pay damage claims. But officials from both state and federal governments and others are seeking additional funds beyond the company’s legal obligations, which is what BP says would be placed in jeopardy by drilling limits. This includes Gulf Coast restoration efforts that officials want the company to voluntarily support, the Times said.

“I am not going to make a direct linkage to the $20 billion, but our ability to fund these assets and the cash coming from these assets that are securing these funds would be lost” if the House bill were enacted by Congress, a BP spokesperson told the Times.

Daniel Weiss, Chief of Staff for Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and one of the authors of the amendment, dismissed BP’s threat. “BP has substantial assets, whether they develop them or sell them,” he told the Times. “If BP needs to sell assets to meet its financial obligations, that’s a decision they have to make.”

BP said today it has spent $8 billion so far in response to the oil spill. The company also said that about 28,400 personnel, more than 4,050 vessels and dozens of aircraft were still engaged in the response effort

According to the House Energy Committee, BP spent $93.4 million – about $5 million per week – on newspaper advertisements and TV spots between April and the end of July. The ad campaign targeted mostly national and local newspapers, magazines, and national and local television stations.

BP claims that the advertising campaign was needed to inform the public about clean-up efforts and the compensation claims process. A spokesperson for the company also told The Los Angeles Times that the $93.4 million spent on advertising was a relatively small portion of BP’s total expenditures of about $6.1 billion on the oil spill to date.

But not everyone is convinced that information dissemination was BP’s true objective. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who asked for the information on advertising, accused the company of spending the money to burnish its image.

“While BP’s advertising campaign ramped up, businesses and the gulf communities struggled to deal with the costs of the disaster,” Castor said. “While BP certainly has the right to advertise, its approach has been insensitive to the taxpayers and business owners harmed by the Deepwater Horizon blowout.”

Castor called on BP to divert “a significant portion of its advertising dollars” to help tourism-dependent small businesses.

According to the Ecopsychology article, Winter was a professor of psychology at Whitman College and has written extensively on the psychological dimensions of environmental damage, war, sense of place, and mindfulness. She recently co-authored the third edition of The Psychology of Environmental Problems.

While Winter predicted that symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will surface in the wake of the spill, she also said that because the disaster has played out over several months, a bigger problem will be long-range, chronic widespread depression, which will build among the people impacted as the disaster progresses.

In her interview, Winter predicted a great deal of chronic depression, withdrawal, and lack of functioning among not only people directly affected by the events in the Gulf, but also people nationwide and globally who identify or empathize with their circumstances. In a press release detailing the Ecopsychology interview, Winter characterized the anger being expressed over the BP oil spill as s “a way of masking the really unfathomable and profound despair that is just under the surface as we watch this catastrophe unfold.”

Winter’s concerns have been echoed by some recent studies. Earlier this month, for example, a survey conducted by Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, in corroboration with the Children’s Health Fund and The Marist Poll of Poughkeepsie, NY, found evidence that the BP oil spill was having significant and potentially lasting impacts on the health, mental health, and economic fortunes of Gulf Coast residents and their children and on the way they live their everyday lives. The survey also found a dramatic relationship between economic vulnerability and health effects. Adults with household incomes under $25,000 were by far the most likely to report physical and mental health effects for themselves and also among their children.

The researchers who conducted that survey called on BP to provide funds to state and local agencies involved with providing assessment and care to affected families.

A person familiar with the internal BP report told Bloomberg that pressure data from that test indicated a blowout was imminent. But because it was misinterpreted, workers aboard the rig began replacing drilling fluid in the well with seawater, a substance that was too light to prevent natural gas that was already leaking into the well from shooting up the well pipe to the rig. The gas then exploded, killing 11 workers and spawning the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

According to Bloomberg, the 200-page internal BP report was compiled by a team of BP investigators led by the company’s head of safety and operations. It concludes that the oil giant bears “partial responsibility” for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. However, it also places some blame on Transocean Ltd., the owner of the doomed rig, Bloomberg said. The findings are to be released in the next 10 days.

According to Bloomberg, one of the managers in charge of interpreting the test data on the well was put on administrative leave pending the results of BP’s internal investigation. Other workers also have been put on leave.

An eight-member investigation team from Coast Guard and the Interior Department has asked BP to turn over a copy of the report as soon as possible, Bloomberg said. That panel’s investigation is focusing on how BP employees aboard the rig and in Houston failed to detect signals that the well was about to erupt.

Meanwhile, BP’s plans to permanently kill its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico have been delayed once again, according to The Washington Post. Engineers were supposed to begin removing a temporary containment cap put in place last month in order to remove the well’s failed blowout preventer and replace it with a new piece of equipment. After that, engineers are to finish drilling a relief well that will be used to permanently plug the well with cement and mud.

According to the Post report, BP announced the postponement in a Twitter posting this morning. It did not say how long the delay will be.

According to government estimates, 4.9 million barrels of oil escaped from the well between the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the deployment of the temporary containment cap that finally stopped the flow on July 15.

“These results indicate that efforts to book keep where the oil went must now include this plume,” Christopher Reddy, a WHOI marine geochemist and oil spill expert and one of the authors of the study, said in the statement.

The findings are based on some 57,000 discrete chemical analyses measured in real time during a June 19-28 scientific cruise aboard the R/V Endeavor. The oil droplets that make up the plume are too small for the eye to see, but samples of the plume analyzed by the scientists confirmed the existence of benzene, toluene, ethybenzene, and total xylenes.

They plume was coming from the gushing well, and followed an invisible underwater channel just over a mile wide and 650 feet thick, the team said. The scientists haven’t been able to track the plume since June, when they were interrupted by Hurricane Alex, so it is not known what state it is in now.

The plume has shown that the oil already “is persisting for longer periods than we would have expected,” Camilli said. The team saw no signs that microorganism were degrading the oil in the plume, meaning it could persist for some time.

Contrary to previous predictions by other scientists, the team found no “dead zones,” regions of significant oxygen depletion within the plume where almost no fish or other marine animals could survive. However, that doesn’t mean that other marine life is not at risk. According to a report in The Washington Post, the depths where the plume was discovered are a habitat for small fish and crustaceans. Small fish go from deep water to more shallow areas, taking nutrients from the ocean depths up to the large fish and mammals. Such sea life could be harmed traveling through the oil.

The new report is raising more questions about the federal government’s assertion that much of the crude from the BP oil spill has already disappeared. According to government estimates, 4.9 million barrels of oil escaped from the well between the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the deployment of a containment cap that finally stopped the flow on July 15. Earlier this month, a scientific team led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report purporting nearly 75 percent of the oil had been captured, burned off, evaporated or broken down in the Gulf.

In other news, Transocean Ltd., the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, is accusing BP of withholding data from both the rig and the spill. According to a letter from Transocean to the oil company’s lawyers obtained by the Associated Press, BP has refused to turn over documents key to identifying the cause “of the tragic loss of eleven lives and the pollution in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Transocean said that BP released limited records only after the company agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement at BP’s request. According to the Associated Press, copies of the letter were also sent to government agencies, commissions and lawmakers investigating the spill’s cause. Transocean claims BP has rebuffed at least seven of its requests for information. The letter demands a long list of technical documents and lab tests.

According to a Washington Post report, BP’s lawyers are calling the Transocean letter a “publicity stunt.” and said it was “designed to draw attention away from Transocean’s potential role in the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.”

As the Post points out, both companies are targets of a Justice Department criminal probe, and face myriad investigations and lawsuits over the oil spill. It’s not surprising that each would try to deflect blame for the disaster on the other.

No oil has leaked from the well since it was capped with a static kill procedure last month. But the bottom kill is needed to make sure the well stays sealed. Before the well was capped on July 15, 4.9 barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf. The worst oil spill in US history was set off by an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20.

The bottom kill procedure involves pumping mud and cement into the bottom of the well through a relief well that crews have been drilling since May. According to a Bloomberg report, the relief well still has about 50 feet to go before it is completed. There is concern that 1,000 barrels of oil trapped in the blown well may leak out when the bottom kill is attempted, and BP and the Obama administration haven’t decided yet how to complete the relief well.

Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is heading up the federal response to the spill, has ordered BP to bring in another blowout preventer to replace existing equipment either before or after the bottom kill, Bloomberg said. The equipment will be mounted to the top of the well near the seafloor to cut off any new surge of oil or natural gas.

Allen would not say when the federal government will direct BP to go ahead with the top kill.

In other news, the mediator set to take over the BP oil spill compensation fund on Monday is still traveling the Gulf Coast, trying to reassure individuals and businesses impacted economically by the spill that their damage claims will be paid. BP reached an agreement with the Obama administration earlier this summer to fund a $20 billion compensation pool. The fund is to be administered by Ken Feinberg, the Washington, D.C. lawyer who oversaw the 9/11 victims compensation fund.

BP has paid out $376 million to individuals and businesses damaged by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but its claims process has been criticized for being too slow. At a meeting yesterday in Houma, Louisiana, Feinberg promised better results.

“I will be extremely lenient in documentation,” Feinberg said. “I don’t need reams and reams of stuff. I don’t need a tax return. Do you have something you can show me? Well, the ship captain will vouch for me — fine. Well, my priest will — fine.”

He promised claims from individuals for up to six months of lost income will be paid within 48 hours. Business claims will be addressed within seven days.

As we’ve reported previously, later lump sum settlements for long-term damages will require income statements from the last two or three year. New businesses can be reimbursed for costs associated with opening and for losses in anticipated income, as long as claimants have something to back up their estimates.

Accepting the six-month emergency payment from the compensation fund won’t require claimants to give up any legal rights. However, accepting a settlement for long-term losses will require claimants to waive their right to file a lawsuit, Feinberg said.

According to the authors, crude oil contains components, such as benzene, napthalene and toluene, which are toxic to humans. Benzene is known to cause leukemia, while napthalene is a suspected human carcinogen. Benzene and toluene, along with xylene, another component of oil, can also cause respiratory irritation and affect the central nervous system. Skin contact with oil and dispersants may cause dermatitis and increase the risk of skin infections.

The commentary notes that in the early months of the spill, more than 300 individuals, three-fourths of whom were cleanup workers, sought medical care for constitutional symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, cough, respiratory distress, and chest pain in Louisiana alone. These symptoms, the authors write, are typical of acute exposure to hydrocarbons or hydrogen sulfide.

The commentary also warns that oil releases dangerous chemicals, including hydrogen sulfide gas and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Hydrogen sulfide gas can damage the brain and central nervous system, they said, while polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, considered likely carcinogens, will accumulate for years in oysters, shrimp and crabs.

Other components of oil, such as mercury, cadmium and lead, can accumulate over time in fish tissues, potentially increasing future health hazards from consumption of large fin fish such as tuna and mackerel.

Other large oil spills have resulted in long-term health problems in many people, the authors write. For example, following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, a total of 1811 workers’ compensation claims were filed by cleanup workers; most were for acute injuries but 15 percent were for respiratory problems and 2 percent for dermatitis. A survey of the health status of workers 14 years after the cleanup found a greater prevalence of symptoms of chronic airway disease among workers with high oil exposures, as well as self-reports of neurological impairment and multiple chemical sensitivity

Mental health issues could also plague victims of the Gulf oil spill later on, according to the commentary. A mental health survey of 599 local residents 1 year after the Exxon Valdez spill found that exposed individuals were 3.6 times more likely to have anxiety disorder, 2.9 times more likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder, and 2.1 times more likely to score high on a depression index. Adverse mental health effects were observed up to 6 years after the oil spill. Likewise, studies following major spills in Spain, Korea, and Wales have documented elevated rates of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and psychological stress, according to the commentary.

According to the Journal, the crew aboard that rig – Sedco 711 – heard a loud noise just before dark liquid started shooting out of the well. Explosive gas began to surround the rig, and crews began to prepare for an evacuation. Fortunately, they were able to bring the well under control before anything catastrophic happened.

Transocean officials were so disturbed by the incident that they held conference calls with all managers aboard their 170 offshore rigs and issued two safety memos, the Journal said. They concluded that the crew of Sedco 711 had put too much faith in tests that showed the well was secure and stopped watching for signs of trouble. “The drill crew did not consider [a loss of] well control as a realistic event,” because of a successful valve test, Transocean wrote in an April 14 memo.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the investigation into the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion has suggested that crews on that Gulf of Mexico rig also relied to much on such tests, and missed important warnings that something was amiss with the well. Prior to the both the Sedco 711 incident and the Deepwater Horizon explosion, workers had been removing heavy mud from the wells, and both had been sealed off with cement. In each case, crews had run a series of tests that they believed showed the wells were secure, the Journal said.

The Journal also points out that in both cases, workers were pumping fluid into and out of the well in a way that made it difficult to monitor volumes precisely. An increase in fluid flowing out of a well is a critical sign that gas is forcing its way in. Federal investigators have identified the way workers pumped fluid on the Deepwater Horizon as one of 20 “anomalies” that may have contributed to the disaster, the Journal said.

In other news, some scientists are criticizing a government report claiming that nearly 75 percent of the oil released as a result of the BP oil spill has already disappeared. According to government estimates, 4.9 million barrels of oil escaped from the well between the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the deployment of a containment cap that finally stopped the flow on July 15. Earlier this month, a scientific team led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report purporting that most of the oil had been captured, burned off, evaporated or broken down in the Gulf.

Now, researchers from the University of Georgia are calling that figure “inaccurate,” saying nearly 79% of the oil still remains in the Gulf of Mexico in some form. According to The Wall Street Journal, the University of Georgia research team has been investigating the underwater oil plumes created by the leaking well.

“One major misconception is that oil that has dissolved into water is gone and, therefore, harmless,” marine scientist Charles Hopkinson, the senior investigator in the effort, told the Journal. “The oil is still out there, and it will likely take years to completely degrade.

A second research team from the University of South Florida said dispersants used to break up the massive spill has pushed much of the oil to the bottom of the sea.

“The dispersant is moving the oil down out of the surface and into the deeper waters, where it can affect phytoplankton and other marine life,” John Paul, a USF marine microbiologist told CNN.

According to the CNN report, the USF researchers also believe oil may have settled to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico further east than previously suspected. Some of it has turned up at the bottom of an undersea canyon within 40 miles of the Florida Panhandle.

As we’ve reported in the past, BP had been using a line of chemical dispersants called Corexit in unprecedented amounts to break up the Gulf oil spill. According to a report on MSNBC, more than 1.8 million gallons of the dispersants were either pumped into the sea or sprayed on the surface during the disaster. This despite the fact that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told BP to find a less-toxic alternative in June. In fact, the company did not stop using the chemicals until July 18, when it was finally able to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf.

The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has maintained that Gulf seafood is safe to eat. But that assessment was based on the results of so-called “smell tests.” That testing, which relied on professional seafood assessor to detect odors in seafood, was not focused on dispersants because the FDA had concluded that the chemicals did not pose a health risk, MSNBC said. In reaching that conclusion, the agency pointed to studies that showed poisons found in oil and dispersants do not accumulate in the tissue of fish and other sea life.

But not everyone is convinced. Because of this, the FDA and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has decided to devise a lab test to detect traces of the chemical dispersant in seafood. It is unclear however, when the test will be available, MSNBC said.

While some scientists have praised the move to develop a more conclusive tests, they criticized the FDA for not moving to do so before fishing grounds closed due to the oil spill were reopened.

“It’s very late (to start this testing), and it’s premature to open those fishing grounds while they are still developing the test,” Susan Shaw, a toxicologist at the Maine Environmental Research Institute told MSNBC “I know that they are trying to inspire confidence in the seafood and some scientists actually do think that is OK, but I am not one of those scientists.”

Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 men and spawning the worst oil spill in US history. Halliburton was a contractor aboard the rig.

The lawsuits accuse the defendants of damaging Alabama’s coast and economy through “negligent or wanton failure to adhere to recognized industry standards.” According to the Associated Press, Attorney General Troy King filed the complaints against the wishes of the state’s Republican governor, who had wanted to give BP and the other companies the opportunity to settle claims out of court.

But King, also a Republican, says BP has already broken too many promises. “As Alabama’s lawyer, I say that, if anything, based on BP’s broken promises, their history of saying one thing and doing another, and now, new information that they have been secretly working to gain a legal advance, further delay can only further damage our people,” he told the Associated Press.

King charged that BP is lining up the best expert witnesses to keep plaintiffs from using them in litigation. According to the Associated Press, he also said BP’s recent moves to sell some asset could be a tactic to prevent an American court from reaching them to satisfy a judgment.

The lawsuits, which were filed in federal court in Montgomery, seek both punitive and economic damages, but do not state a dollar figure. A spokesperson for the governor’s office told the Associated Press the state is still compiling a list of economic damages that it will submit to BP soon.

The Alabama lawsuits are just the latest to be filed against BP and other companies involved in the Gulf oil spill. More than 300 personal injury, wrongful death, economic loss and environmental damage lawsuits stemming from the BP oil spill have been consolidated in a multidistrict litigation in US District Court in New Orleans. The BP oil spill lawsuits will be presided over by U.S District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier of the Eastern District of Louisiana. The judge has already scheduled an initial conference for organizing the lawsuits in his court for September 17.

Separately, securities lawsuits stemming from the spill have been consolidated in under U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison in Houston. Those suits include civil securities fraud claims, shareholder derivative actions, and claims by employees over losses in company retirement savings plans.

According to a fact sheet detailing the 40-page-agreement that was released by the White House yesterday, the $20 billion compensation fund will be used to pay damage claims filed by businesses and individuals who suffered economically because of the spill through the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, as well as judgments and settlements reached with those who decide to file damage claims with the courts. It will also be used cover natural resource damage costs and state and local response reimbursement. However, BP will not be able to use the fund to pay any fines the federal government assesses to it over the spill.

According to a report on NOLA.com, some critics raised concerns that the fund would be diminished quickly because it will cover natural resource damage and response reimbursement, as well as economic loss claims.

“While BP should absolutely pay these costs to restore our valuable natural resources they should make those payments separate from this fund which is intended to compensate Gulf Coast families and small businesses impacted by this disaster,” Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, told NOLA.com.

The Obama administration has said that if the fund is depleted before all claim are paid, BP would add to it.

As we reported earlier this week, BP has already deposited $2 billion into the trust fund. According to an Associated Press report, under the agreement it negotiated with the US Justice Department, the company will pay $2 billion more this year and continue in installments of $1.25 billion. The trust requires that a collateral fund be established to ensure that all the necessary money will be available if something happens to the BP subsidiary that established the trust. Details still have to be worked out, the Associated Press said, but unless another agreement is reached, the trust will be given first priority to production payments from the BP’s US oil and gas production as collateral.

That’s not sitting well with environmentalists. “The proposed arrangement is wildly inappropriate, as it will make the government and BP virtual partners in Gulf oil production,” said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said in a statement released yesterday. “It will give the government a financial incentive to become an even bigger booster of offshore oil drilling in the Gulf – which was the fatal flaw of the Minerals Management Service at the time of the BP disaster.”

“The proposal would inhibit the government’s ongoing criminal probes of the company,” the group wrote in a letter to President Obama “The government would be reluctant to mete out harsh sanctions to BP – such as banning the company from federal leases in the Gulf – if the victims’ fund relies on BP revenue from the Gulf.”

David Pettit of the Natural Resources Defense Council told NOLA.com that he dependence on continued BP drilling operations “casts a shadow on the legitimacy of future regulatory authority.”

BP’s largest single-producing region in the US is the Gulf of Mexico, the site of its massive oil spill. It operates 89 producing wells there and has a share in 60 others. Since the disaster began, some have questioned whether or not BP should be allowed to drill in the Gulf at all. But for this collateral agreement to work, it would seem the US government would have no choice but to allow BP to continue operations in the Gulf.

New Orleans is the largest city near the BP oil spill, and Louisiana was hardest hit by the disaster. Attorneys representing plaintiffs in the lawsuits had sought the New Orleans venue. For its part, BP had wanted the cases to be heard in Houston, where it has its US headquarters.

In a decision released yesterday designating New Orleans, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation cited Barbier’s “considerable” experience with multidistrict litigation. “Without discounting the spill’s effects on other states, if there is a geographic and psychological ‘center of gravity’ in this docket, then the Eastern District of Louisiana is closest to it,” the panel said.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation of the United States Courts was created in 1968. Since then, it has consolidated hundreds of thousands of lawsuits that involved high numbers of plaintiffs, including litigation over asbestos, breast implants and other matters. A multidistrict litigation allows all cases to be coordinated under one judge for pretrial litigation to avoid duplicative discovery, inconsistent rulings and to conserve the resources of the parties, witnesses and the court. When lawsuits are consolidated as a multidistrict litigation, each retains its own identity. If the multidistrict litigation process does not resolve the cases, they are transferred back to the court where they originated for trial.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Judge Barbier will also oversee Transocean Ltd.’s efforts to limit its liability. Transocean was the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 men and spawning the worst oil spill in US history.

Some defendants had tried to keep Judge Barbier off oil spill lawsuits, the Journal said, because he sold off bonds in companies involved in the disaster about a month after cases came before him, but he refused to recuse himself. According to a Bloomberg report, at least six judges in the New Orleans district have recused themselves from such cases because of oil industry ties.

In other news, BP has suspended efforts to finish a relief well in the Gulf of Mexico due to rough weather. The relief well, which could be used to put a permanent underground plug in the stricken oil well, was 30 feet from intersecting it. According to The Wall Street Journal, the procedure, known as a bottom kill, would complement a mud and cement plug injected into the top of the well last week.

The National Hurricane Center has predicted that thunderstorms off southern Florida could strengthen in the next two days into a tropical disturbance that could head out over the Gulf. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the completion of the relief well could be delayed by two or three days. Crews will seal the relief well with a temporary plug until the weather clears, however, unlike in past tropical storms, workers will not be sent back to shore, the Journal said.

It still isn’t a certainty if BP will perform the bottom kill. According to the Journal, federal officials have pushed for the bottom kill, even though the top plug completed last week is holding. Allen said yesterday that testing still needs to be done on the well before a final decision on the bottom kill is made.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, BP and the Obama administration are also close to a deal to use future revenues from the company’s Gulf of Mexico operations to guarantee the $20 billion fund.

Under an agreement it reached with the Obama administration earlier this summer, BP is supposed to put $5 billion a year over the next four years into an account to pay for spill-related costs, such as claims, environmental restoration and cleanup costs. The fund is to be administered by Ken Feinberg, the Washington, D.C. lawyer who oversaw the 9/11 victims compensation fund.

BP was supposed to make an initial deposit to the fund by September 30. But according to the Journal, the company chose to make an early deposit to “show its commitment to restoring the livelihoods of people affected by the worst offshore oil spill in history.”

On Monday, the company and the Justice Department announced they had completed talks to establish the fund, according to the Journal. Discussions continue, however, on how BP will guarantee its remaining obligation of $17 billion. The administration is seeking security in the form of collateral in the event that BP couldn’t meet its obligation due to financial or legal problems.

Currently under discussion is a deal whereby BP would use production payments from its producing Gulf wells as collateral for the fund, and would provide quarterly production updates to the government. The collateral requirements would be reduced as BP pays money into the fund.

According to The Wall Street Journal, BP currently is the operator of 89 producing wells in the Gulf and a stakeholder in 60 other wells operated by other companies. It is not drilling any new wells there at this time.

Yesterday, BP said it has received 145,000 claims from Gulf Coast residents and business owners citing lost income because of the massive spill. The company also boasted that it had paid out $324 million without denying a claim.

However, a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram pointed out that 39,000 claims remain in limbo, and other claims have only been partially paid. In that article, Mississippi’s Attorney General Jim Hood speculated that BP would rather wait for Feinberg to take over the claims process this month. If a claim is denied, “he’s the bad guy” instead of BP, Hood said.

Darryl Willis, BP’s claims director, said the company isn’t deliberately delaying, and that pending claims are either still being evaluated or need more documentation. However, a BP spokesperson told the Star-Telegram that BP does defer “questionable” claims to Feinberg, including “restaurants and tourist claims from areas that haven’t been impacted by an oiled beach.”

BP has taken a drubbing the past couple of months for a claims process many say is too slow. Earlier this week, BP said it has received 145,000 claims from Gulf Coast residents and business owners citing lost income because of the massive spill. The company also boasted that it had paid out $324 million without denying a claim. However, a report published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram pointed out that 39,000 claims remain in limbo, and other claims have only been partially paid.

During a public meeting yesterday at the University of West Florida, Feinberg promised that claimants who have been waiting the longest will be paid first once he takes over the process, the Palm Beach Post said. Unlike BP’s process, claimants will not have to deal with multiple adjusters once he takes over, Feinberg said. Instead, Feinberg’s protocol will call for a single adjuster and an electronic system in which claimants can track the progress of their claim at all times.

Anyone who has already filed a claim with BP will have to re-file with the Gulf Coast Claims facility, the Palm Beach Post said. They will be able to do this on line or at one of 35 claims centers set up along the Gulf Coast. They won’t need to submit new supporting documentation, however.

Feinberg also said he will make six-month lump sum emergency payments to businesses, rather than the month-to-month payments BP has been making.

According to the Web site NewsHerald.com, Feinberg promised an easier process. He also said he would “be more generous and will declare more people eligible” than BP’s process. Feinberg said BP’s current claims criteria would be scrapped because it would result in too many unpaid claims.

The new criteria will make money available to people and businesses ineligible for compensation thus far, NewsHerald.com said. This includes real estate agents, nonprofits and business owners who argued they lost money not because of oil, but because of the perception of oil. In short, Feinberg said that the presence of oil on a beach would not be required to file a claim. Eligibility will be determined by proximity to a beach, what industry a claimant is in and how dependant a claimant was on natural resources impacted by the spill.

According to NewsHerald.com, Feinberg said he will require minimal document for the six-month emergency payment. Later lump sum settlements for long-term damages will require income statements from the last two or three year. New businesses can be reimbursed for costs associated with opening and for losses in anticipated income, as long as claimants have something to back up their estimates, NewsHerald.com said.

Accepting the six-month emergency payment won’t require claimants to give up any legal rights. However, accepting a settlement for long-term losses will require claimants to waive their right to file a lawsuit, Feinberg said.

According to the Palm Beach Post, some claims that won’t be eligible for compensation include those for a or lowered credit rating filed by businesses that are having difficulty getting loans because of the spill. Claimants also won’t be reimbursed for accountants or lawyers they paid to get their financial documents in order for their claims.

The company finished cementing the well late last week, and said today that pressure testing has shown that there was an effective cement plug in the casing. BP still plans to complete relief well that would intersect the damaged and pump in more mud and cement from the bottom if necessary. The relief well will be finished in about 10 days.

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20. According to government estimates, 4.9 million barrels of crude escaped from the well before a containment device was placed over it on July 15. Though oil is no longer pouring into the Gulf, cleanup is nowhere near finished and could last for years.

So far, the oil spill has cost BP $6.1 billion. That total includes $319 million in compensation payments to businesses and individuals affected by the spill. About 145,000 claims had been submitted as of August 7, and 103,900 payments have been made, according to the company.

BP, Transocean Ltd., Halliburton and other companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon endeavor face multiple investigations over the disaster that have the potential to last years. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal probe into the spill that could involve more than BP. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the federal offshore regulator, is conducting hearings into the industry’s preparedness for another spill and is expected to issue rules governing offshore drilling. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is continuing its probe of the spill and committee leaders hope to issue a report in December, the Journal said.

The US Coast Guard, an independent commission appointed by President Obama and the federal Chemical Safety Board are also probing the incident. In addition, BP and the other firms face scores of civil lawsuits stemming from the spill.

BP could also face some pretty hefty fines from the US government. Under the Clean Water Act, BP could be levied a fine of $1.1 million for every barrel of oil spilled. If the spill is determined to be the result of gross negligence, the fine could increase to $4.3 million per barrel.

While the oil spill is costing BP big, the company has not given up on the oil located in the area where the blowout occurred. “There’s lots of oil and gas here,” Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer said Friday. “We’re going to have to think about what to do with that at some point.”

According to the Associated Press, the oil in the reservoir could be worth as much as $4 billion.

As for the blown-out well that caused the disaster, the Interior Department says BP will not be allowed to ever use it again.

“Under no circumstances are we going to allow them to reopen the well to extract oil and gas,” department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said on Friday.

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon on April 20. According to government estimates, 4.9 million barrels of crude escaped from the well before a containment device was placed over it on July 15. Though oil is no longer pouring into the Gulf, cleanup is nowhere near finished.

It’s not entirely clear what the next step will be. According to the Associated Press, federal officials have said crews will shove mud and cement through the 18,000-foot relief well, which should be completed within weeks. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is overseeing the federal response to the spill, has said crews can’t be sure the area between the inner piping and outer casing has been plugged until the relief well is complete.

But in recent days, BP has refused to commit to pumping cement down the relief well, the Associated Press said, saying only that it will be used in some fashion. In the end, it could simply be used to test that the well is plugged.

The Associated Press points out that the well could still be worth a fortune to BP. Though the company has said it wouldn’t use the relief wells to produce oil, it would not comment on the possibility of drilling there again or selling rights to the well to another company.

Regardless of what happens, the fact still remains that the Gulf Coast faces a massive cleanup, and experts believe it will be years before the environment recovers. Earlier this week, the government touted a report which purported that 75 percent of the oil that gushed into the sea had already disappeared, saying most of it had been captured, burned off, evaporated or broken down in the Gulf. However, those claims were met by skepticism in many quarters.

Even if that figure is correct, it means 53 million gallons of oil remain. That’s five times more oil than what was spilled during the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

According to the Associated Press, crews are still finding a lot of oil along the shore. Much of it is getting trapped in marshes, making it extremely difficult to clean up.

“The good news is people are seeing less oil, but the bad news is the oil trapped in the marshes is moving out with the tides and sticking on the marsh cane,” Maura Wood, an oceanographer with the National Wildlife Foundation, told the Associated Press. “And that could kill it.”

Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft, the government’s on-scene coordinator, told the Associated Press that Coast Guard responders are not seeing much crude on the waters surface surface. But he added: “We can’t turn a blind eye … If we don’t see oil, I’m not assuming it doesn’t exist.”

The report was touted yesterday by White House energy adviser Carol Browner as she made the rounds of morning talk shows. She claimed that most of the oil had been captured, burned off, evaporated or broken down in the Gulf.

According to the government report, which was prepared by a scientific team led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 17 percent of the oil gushing from the well was captured by containment devices deployed by BP; 25 percent of the oil either evaporated from the hot ocean surface or dissolved in the water into individual molecules of hydrocarbon; and 16 percent of the oil had dispersed naturally. The report also found that certain percentages of the oil had been burned off, skimmed from the ocean surface, or chemically dispersed.

In the end, the report estimates that 26 percent of the oil remains in the Gulf. Of course, that’s still a lot of crude. According to government estimates, 4.9 million barrels of oil escaped from the well between the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the deployment of a containment cap on July 15. If all government estimates are correct, that means 53 million gallons of oil remain. That’s five times more oil than what was spilled during the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

But not everyone is convinced the government report is getting it right. According to The New York Times, some researchers attacked the findings and methodology, noting that research was still under way to shed light on some of the main scientific issues raised in the report.

“A lot of this is based on modeling and extrapolation and very generous assumptions,” Samantha Joye, a marine scientist at the University of Georgia who has led some of the most important research on the Deepwater Horizon spill, told the Times. “If an academic scientist put something like this out there, it would get torpedoed into a billion pieces.”

“This is a shaky report. The more I read it, the less satisfied I am with the thoroughness of the presentation,” Florida State University oceanographer Ian MacDonald told The Associated Press. “There are sweeping assumptions here.”

Others expressed concerns that the report’s optimistic tone would lead to complacency among the public, and lead them to believe the disaster was over.

“The government says that the oil is almost gone,” Stan Senner, director of conservation science for the Ocean Conservancy, told The Wall Street Journal. “Wow. What a sigh of relief. Let’s move on.”

But Senner, like many other environmentalists, pointed out that the ecological impact of the spill is still unclear, and will probably remain so for years to come.

The company is touting the development as a major milestone in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which has been going on for more than 100 days. A containment cap placed on the well in July has been keeping the oil bottled up inside over the past three weeks, but is considered only a temporary measure. According to government estimates, 4.9 million barrels of crude escaped from the well between the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the placing of that cap.

The static kill involved pumping mud down through the well’s blowout preventer in order to push the oil back to its source rock. According to MSNBC, workers stopped pumping mud in about eight hours into the static kill, and are now monitoring the well to make sure it stays stable. Next, BP must decide whether to cement the well.

BP has said the static kill alone might be enough to plug the well once and for all. However, engineers won’t know that for sure until a relief well intercepts it sometime next week and allows them to check the work. The relief well will then be used to execute a “bottom kill,” in which mud and cement will be injected into the bedrock 2½ miles below the ocean floor, MSNBC said. At that point, the well will be plugged from two directions, and should be permanently sealed.

Meanwhile, the White House is reporting that 75 percent of the oil released into the Gulf of Mexico by the stricken well is now gone. Making the rounds of morning talk shows today, the administration’s energy adviser Carol Browner said most of the oil had been captured, burned off, evaporated or broken down in the Gulf.

Despite the rosy picture being painted by BP and the government, scientists say the Gulf Coast still has a long way to go before it recovers from the disaster. “My prediction is that we will be dealing with the impacts of this spill for several decades to come and it will outlive me,” Dr. Ed Cake, a biological oceanographer, as well as a marine and oyster biologist, recently told Inter Press Service. “I won’t be here to see the recovery.”

Cake pointed out that 21 years after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, effects are still being felt there. He also said 31 years after the Ixtoc-1 oil spill, oyster beds along Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula have yet to recover. Both the Ixtoc-1 and Exxon Valdez spills were much smaller than the BP disaster.

The undersea oil well began gushing when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 men. On July 15, the well was capped with a containment device that has since allowed BP to siphon the oil up to ships on the surface.

Early in the disaster, BP released an estimate of a mere 1,000 barrels a day, then 5,000 a day. Then, the federal government assembled the a group of scientist to measure the flow rate, and in late May, it came up with an estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels per day. That number was revised upwards several times, and prior to yesterday’s announcement, the group had put the flow rate between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day.

This latest estimate is said to be the most precise so far, according to The New York Times. After BP capped the well on July 15, the scientists’ measurements could be reinforced by pressure readings within the well.

To put it in perspective, the 1979 oil spill spawned by a blowout aboard the Mexican rig Ixtoc I oil rig released 3.3 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Prior to the BP disaster, it had held the record for the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters.

Under the Clean Water Act, the US government could fine BP $1.1 million for every barrel of oil spilled. If the spill is determined to be the result of gross negligence, the fine could increase to $4.3 million per barrel.

Meanwhile, BP engineers yesterday delayed testing to determine whether or not they could begin an operation known as a “static kill” to put an end to the oil spill once and for all. According to the Associated Press, the testing was pushed back a day after a small leak was discovered in the blowout preventer’s hydraulic control system.

The test should start sometime today, and if successful, the static kill, which involves dumping the heavy mud down the well through the blowout preventer, could also start today. While the operation may kill the well for good, engineers said they may not know for sure until they finish a relief well in another week or so, according to the Associated Press.

In other news, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has declared Gulf seafood safe to eat. And now that the containment cap has kept the stricken well plugged for to weeks, state-controlled fishing areas in Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi have slowly begun to reopen.

According to the FDA, smell tests on dozens of specimens from the area revealed barely detectable traces of toxic substances. In Mississippi on Monday, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said the government is “confident all appropriate steps have been taken to ensure that seafood harvested from the waters being opened today is safe and that Gulf seafood lovers everywhere can be confident eating and enjoying the fish and shrimp that will be coming out of this area.”

According to the Associated Press, the FDA has declined repeated requests to provide information about the toxic substances that were found, but the agency is mostly looking for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which have been linked to cancer. However, some critics are concerned the smell tests used by the FDA won’t detect the presence of chemical disbersants, some of which have little detectable odor.

Those critics include some Gulf fisherman. “If I put fish in a barrel of water and poured oil and Dove detergent over that, and mixed it up, would you eat that fish?” Rusty Graybill, an oysterman and shrimp and crab fisherman from Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish, told the Associated Press. “I wouldn’t feed it to you or my family. I’m afraid someone’s going to get sick.”

Dawn Nunez, whose family operates a shrimp wholesale business in Louisiana, expressed skepticism when she learned of plans to reopen fishing grounds, the Associated Press said. “It’s nothing but a PR move,” she said. “It’s going to take years to know what damage they’ve done. It’s just killed us all.”

According to the Associated Press, Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday called on BP to fund a 20-year testing and certification program to restore confidence in seafood from the Gulf.

For the survey, phone interviews were conducted with over 1,200 adults living within 10 miles of the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi. The interviews occurred in July, after the Deepwater Horizon well was capped.

“Over the last few days we are seeing an effort by officials who are suggesting that, as the oil is less visible on the surface, the ‘crisis is over.’ Clearly, this is far from the case,” Irwin Redlener, MD, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and president of the Children’s Health Fund (CHF), said in a statement. “As shown by our survey, done after the well was capped, there is a significant and persistent public health crisis underscored by the large number of children with medical and psychological problems related to the oil disaster. These concerns will need to be assessed and managed in these coastal communities where there are few or no pediatricians and vastly insufficient mental health professional capacity.”

The survey found a dramatic relationship between economic vulnerability and health effects. Adults with household incomes under $25,000 were by far the most likely to report physical and mental health effects for themselves and also among their children.

The survey also found that:

• Over 40% of adults living within ten miles of the coast said they have experienced direct exposure to the oil spill or clean-up effort. Within this group, nearly 40% reported physical symptoms of skin irritations and respiratory problems, which they attributed to the oil spill.

• Over one-third of parents report that their children have experienced either physical symptoms or mental health distress as a consequence of the oil spill.

• One in five households report a drop in income since the oil spill, and 8% report job loss. These losses were most likely to hit those who were already economically vulnerable: households with incomes under $25,000 a year.

• More than one-quarter (26.6%) of coastal residents said they thought they might have to move away from the Gulf Coast. Among those earning less then $25,000, the figure was 36.3%. Children whose parents think they may move are almost three times more likely to have mental health distress than are children whose parents do not expect to move.

• More than 70% of parents report children spending less time swimming, boating and playing in the sand; 21% say their kids are spending less overall time playing outdoors.

• Coastal residents had more favorable assessments and trust in their local and state officials and in the U.S. Coast Guard than they did in BP or other Federal agencies.

• Slightly over half of all coastal residents felt that BP’s response was “poor,” and 41.3% said that the President’s response to the oil spill was poor.

Dr. Redlener, a pediatrician and professor at the Mailman School, outlined a number of implications for policymakers and others: “Guidelines need to be developed, with active participation of relevant federal agencies, with respect to the short- and long-term health risks of remaining in affected communities. This should include recommendations, based on known science, on when families would be advised to move out of the community entirely.”

Dr. Redlener also said BP should provide funds to state and local agencies involved with providing assessment and care to affected families. “Children are particularly susceptible to the consequences of this disaster and need to have special resources focused on their needs,” he said.

The first part of the process is called a “static kill”, the Post said. That process starts at the top, and involves firing mud and possibly cement into the blowout preventer that sits on the wellhead. BP says it will take up to two days to complete the static kill.

Five to seven days after that, engineers will attempt a “bottom kill”. In this process, more mud and cement will be pumped into the well through a relief well that BP has been working on since May.

The well has been spewing oil since the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 men. Though it has been capped with a containment device since July 15, the well is still a threat. And while BP is very optimistic that the static kill attempt will work, it is not guaranteed. According to The Washington Post, that is why the company will follow it up with bottom kill utilizing the relief well.

While Gulf Coast officials and residents are excited at the prospect that the oil spill might finally come to the end, they are wary too. According to the Post, some Louisiana officials are concerned that the government and BP will bail out prematurely in their response to the spill. Even once the well is permanently capped, the region still faces a massive cleanup, and it will take years for the environment to completely recover.

The 1,500 or so commercial fisherman employed by the “Vessels of Opportunity” program to clean up the spill could face unemployment after the well is plugged. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who has been overseeing the federal response to the spill, has said there will be a “resource leveling,” once the well is fully capped. According to the Post, Allen said the government has put together a plan to keep the fishermen employed at least through August.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, a controversy raged over the chemical dispersants BP has used to break up the spill. On Saturday, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., released a letter charging that: “BP often carpet bombed the ocean with these chemicals and the Coast Guard allowed them to do it.” This was allowed, Markey said, despite restrictions imposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the use of the chemicals.

In May, the EPA and the Coast Guard ordered BP on to cut the use of chemical dispersants by 75 percent. But according to Markey’s letter, the Coast Guard approved 74 waivers over a 48-day period after the EPA order.

As we’ve reported previously, long-term exposure to dispersants can cause central nervous system problems or damage blood, kidneys or livers. And while the chemicals do a good job of breaking up the oil into tiny droplets, scientists say this makes it easier for the oil and chemicals to be absorbed by much marine life, especially eggs and larvae.

According to the Associated Press, in response to Markey’s letter, Allen said the Coast Guard did not ignore the EPA directives, but that some field commanders had authority to allow more dispersants to be used on a case-by-case basis.

In a statement released over the weekend, the EPA said BP reduced the use of chemical dispersants by 72 percent through mid-July, when the containment cap was placed on the well

“While EPA may not have concurred with every individual waiver granted by the federal on-scene coordinator, the agency believes dispersant use has been an essential tool in mitigating this spill’s impact,” the agency said.

The estimate comes from CoreLogic Inc., which said that losses along the coast may total $648 million in 2010 and $3 billion over five years. This in an area where buyers have long been willing to pay a premium for waterfront property.

To reach its estimate, Bloomberg said CoreLogic examined records of 600,000 residential properties within 1,000 meters of the coast in 15 counties in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Potential losses were calculated by comparing the price differences of beachfront and inland home. Of note, the company said it had insufficient property data to analyze Louisiana’s coast

More than 600,000 properties from Alabama to Florida’s Atlantic coast could face devaluation, CoreLogic said. The hardest hit areas are expected to be in Gulfport, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida.

According to Bloomberg, it may not matter if the oil comes ashore in a particular area. The catastrophe alone is enough to scare off many buyers.

It’s happening already. The president of the Pensacola Association of Realtors told Bloomberg that that sales there were down 50 percent in May and June. The median single-family home price in Pensacola was $151,300 in June, down 14 percent from a peak of $175,600 in July 2005, according to Florida Association of Realtors data.

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 lays out a framework for compensating oil spill victims, including for property value losses, Bloomberg said. A spokesperson for BP said the company is reviewing each loss of property claim individually.

Kenneth Feinberg, who is overseeing the $20 billion BP oil spill compensation fund, has also said such claims will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

“There’s no question that the property value has diminished as a result of the spill,” he said during a June 30 congressional hearing. “That doesn’t mean that every property is entitled to compensation.”

In Florida, the governor has signed an executive order authorizing property appraisers in 26 counties to update assessments so owners can “substantiate claims against BP or other responsible parties.”

Scientists have raised yet another alarm about the dispersants BP has used in unprecedented amounts to break up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. According to GulfLive.com, researchers have found an oil and dispersant mix beneath the shells of post-larval blue crabs. The discovery is one of the first signs that the BP disaster is impacting the Gulf of Mexico food chain.

More than 1.8 million gallons of dispersant chemicals have been dumped into the Gulf of Mexico in attempts to break up the oil moving in from the Deepwater Horizon’s broken well. Concerns about the dispersant being used, Corexit 9500, prompted the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to mandate that BP switch to a less-toxic alternative, but BP never complied.

Ultimately, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson order the agency to conduct its own testing of Corexit, along with seven dispersants from its approved list. According to the EPA, those tests showed Corexit to be slightly less toxic than the manufacturer’s data had suggested, so BP was allowed to continue using it.

Now it appears that dispersants have broken the oil up into droplets tiny enough to easily enter the food chain. According to GulfLive.com, scientists fro the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory’s Center for Fisheries Research and Development said tiny droplets are visible under the transparent shells of 2-millimeter-sized post-larval blue crabs collected in Mississippi’s Davis Bayou.

To confirm their findings, the scientists sent some crabs to a testing firm in Pensacola, Florida, which also found evidence of hydrocarbons.

In addition to blue crabs, the droplets were also seen in fiddler crab larvae.

The post-larval blue crabs are vital to Gulf Coast fisheries, GulfLive said, as they serve as food for all types of fish and shore birds.

One of the scientists involved in the study also told GulfLive.com that there is a good chance that many young crabs will be lost because oil is covering so much of the ground 41 percent – where the larvae are.

According to a report on Huffington Post, other scientists involved in the study from Louisiana’s Tulane University used infrared spectrometry to determine the chemical makeup of the droplets. In doing so, they discovered the chemical marker for Corexit. Two independent tests are being run to confirm those findings.

“Corexit is in the water column, just as we thought, and it is entering the bodies of animals. And it’s probably having a lethal impact there,” Susan Shaw, director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute, told Huffington Post.

It is estimated that between 107 million gallons and 184 million gallons of crude spewed into the Gulf before a containment cap stopped the flow July 15. More than 600 miles of Gulf Coast beaches have been oiled. But as the slick – which once covered several thousands of square miles – shrinks, scientists are wondering were all that oil has gone.

According to The New York Times, they can account for some of it. For one thing, the Gulf of Mexico is filled with bacteria that can “eat” oil. Winds from two tropical storms that roared through the Gulf in recent weeks also helped to break up the slick. Some of the toxic compounds in the oil have naturally evaporated. Finally, cleanup crews were able to remove about 34.6 million gallons of oily water using skimmer boats and burned about 11.1 million gallons off the sea surface.

Still, the Times said many other components of the oil would have turned into tar balls. These will continue to wash up on Gulf Coast beaches for some time, and will present a continuing threat to sea life.

According to a report by the Associated Press, scientists are worried that much of the crude has been trapped below the surface after more than 770,000 gallons of chemical dispersant were used to break up the oil a mile deep. They have found evidence of massive clouds of oil suspended in the water.

“Less oil on the surface does not mean that there isn’t oil beneath the surface, however, or that our beaches and marshes are not still at risk,” Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a briefing on Tuesday. “We are extremely concerned about the short-term and long-term impacts to the gulf ecosystem.”

She went on to say that the oil was not sinking to the bottom. “As far as we can determine it is primarily in the water column itself, not sitting on the seafloor,” Lubchenco said.

There are serious concerns about what so much oil below the surface could be doing to sea life there. While two government studies have found levels of toxins in deep sea water to be low, uncertainties abound, especially regarding an apparent decline in oxygen levels in the water, the Times said. It will likely take scientists years to fully assess the impact of the oil spill.

Under an agreement it reached with the Obama administration, BP is supposed to put $5 billion a year over the next four years into an account to pay for spill-related costs, such as claims, environmental restoration and cleanup costs.

At last week’s meeting, Feinberg said he doesn’t have the authority to force BP to deposit the money, but that he expected the process to be finished in “the next week or so.”

A BP spokesperson told the Mobile Press-Register last week that the company’s agreement with the White House is still being finalized. “Funds will be made available immediately upon the conclusion of this process,” he said.

Today, the Press-Register is reporting that the White House expects to finalize the deal “soon.” Why it has yet to be finalized is not known.

Once the agreement is finalized, Feinberg has said he would take over the claims process from BP. Once that happens, he said he will distribute emergency payments worth six months of lost wages or business income to those with valid claims. According to the Press-Register, those payments will end once the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is permanently capped. Claimants will then have three years to ask for a lump sum payment to cover all of their damages.

However, once a lump sum is accepted, a claimant will give up the right to sue. Those not satisfied with a lump sum offer can turn it down and retain their rights under the law.

At the Bayou La Batre meeting, Feinberg also said he was considering giving partial payments to companies and people who are indirectly impacted by the spill, and would do something for property owners whose real estate values declined because of the disaster, the Press-Register said.

All of the uncertainty over the compensation fund has many worried. Last week, we reported that lawyers representing victims of the BP oil spill had filed a motion with U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans requesting that details on the fund be put in writing. The motion said that BP should produce “any and all trust documents, escrow agreements or other formation documents or agreements to which BP is a signatory’’ relating to $20 billion fund, as well as another set up to aid oilfield workers hurt by a U.S. offshore drilling moratorium imposed after the spill.

Gulf Oil Spill | Coast Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Explosion | Lawsuits, Lawyers | Injury, Damages, Losses | Fires, Exposure, Chemical Toxins, Business Interruption

The Louisiana Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion has produced a major oil spill, and has become a serious environmental catastrophe. Our oil rig explosion lawyers are aggressively investigating this disaster, and are planning to file lawsuits on behalf of anyone who suffered physical, economic or property damages because of this explosion and resulting oil spill. We are committed to holding BP PLC and Transocean LTD accountable for the damage caused by this tragic incident.

Our oil rig explosion lawyers are offering free case evaluations to individuals and businesses who suffered property damage, business interruption or any type of economic loss / hardship caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 allows individuals and entities impacted by oil spills to collect compensation for property loss, loss of income and other damages caused by such incidents. Parties deemed responsible for an oil spill are liable for such losses.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion now ranks among the worst offshore drilling disasters in recent U.S. history. After burning for more than 36 hours, the offshore rig sunk into the Gulf of Mexico. At the time of its collapse, 13,000 gallons of crude oil per hour was spilling into the sea. By the following day, an oil spill measuring 100 square miles was drifting northeast toward shore.

At the same time, hope was fading that 11 men missing since the explosion would be found alive. If the missing men are not found alive, the Deepwater Horizon disaster would go down as the deadliest U.S. offshore rig explosion since 1968.

Environmental Damage from Oil Spills

The oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion is raising serious environmental concerns, and could threaten the fragile ecosystem of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts. Those areas serve as nurseries for fish and shrimp and habitat for birds.

Oil spills are one of the worst environmental disasters, causing both short-term and long-term pollutant side effects. Consequences of oil spills include dead and dying wildlife, tarred beaches, damaged fisheries and contaminated water supplies. If oil waste reaches the shoreline or coast, it interacts with sediments such as beach sand and gravel, rocks and boulders, vegetation, and terrestrial habitats of both wildlife and humans, causing erosion as well as contamination.

Oil spills present the potential for enormous harm to deep ocean and coastal fishing and fisheries. The immediate effects of toxic and smothering oil waste may be mass mortality and contamination of fish and other food species, but long-term ecological effects may be worse. Oil waste poisons the sensitive marine and coastal organic substrate, interrupting the food chain on which fish and sea creatures depend, and on which their reproductive success is based. Commercial fishing enterprises may be affected permanently.

The Clean Water Act

Our oil rig spill lawyers are investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster to determine if either BP PLC or Transocean LTD violated the federal Clean Water Act. In 1973, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established regulations to address the oil spill prevention provisions contained in the Clean Water Act. The regulation forms the basis of EPA's oil spill prevention, control, and countermeasures, or SPCC, program, which seeks to prevent oil spills from certain aboveground and underground storage tanks.

The regulation requires each owner or operator of a regulated facility to prepare an SPCC Plan. The Plan is required to address the facility's design, operation, and maintenance procedures established to prevent spills from occurring, as well as countermeasures to control, contain, clean up, and mitigate the effects of an oil spill that could affect navigable waters.

The regulations were revised on two occasions, in 1991 and 1994. The revisions incorporated new requirements added by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 that direct facility owners or operators to prepare, and in some cases submit to the federal government, plans for responding to a worst-case discharge of oil.

The Oil Pollution Act

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) was implemented in response to the Exxon Valdez disaster. It created a comprehensive prevention, response, liability, and compensation regime to deal with vessel- and facility-caused oil pollution to U.S. navigable waters. The oil rig explosion lawyers at our firm have represented hundreds of people negatively impacted by such incidents, and our knowledge of OPA liability provisions and other applicable laws has allowed us to obtain the greatest possible compensation for our clients.

Under federal law, all of the owners or other parties responsible for a vessel or a facility which causes an oil spill are liable for the removal costs and damages caused by the spill. Federal law also provides for liability of third parties if it is shown that the act or omission on the part of the third party caused an oil spill.

Under federal law, individuals can make the following oil spill damage claims:

Property Damage: Injury to or economic loss resulting from destruction of real property (land or buildings) or other personal property. Property damage claims can be made by people or entities that own or lease the damaged property. The costs of removing oil from your own property can also be included in property damage claims. Boat damage is included as a subset of property damage.

Loss of Profit and Earnings Capacity: Damages equal to the loss of profits or impairment of earning capacity due to the injury, destruction, or loss of property or natural resources. Anyone with loss of profits or income may make such a claim. You do not have to own the damaged property or resources to submit a claim under this category.

Loss of Subsistence Use of Natural Resources: These claims may be filed by individuals if natural resources you depend on for subsistence use purposes have been injured, destroyed, or lost by an oil spill incident. Again, you do not have to own or manage the natural resource to submit a claim under this category.

Legal Help for Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Claims

Individuals who suffered damages from the oil spill resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion need to obtain legal counsel with experience in the area of oil spill liability as soon as possible. The oil rig explosion lawyers at our firm have helped hundreds of people affected by such catastrophes, and we will work hard to make sure that your rights under the OPA and other federal laws are protected. Please fill out our online form or call 1-800 LAW INFO (1-800-529-4636) to discuss your case with an experienced oil rig explosion lawyer today.