Latest Mississippi River Delta News: April 20, 2015

5 Years After BP Oil Spill, Focus on Restoration – Not Misinformation | Commentary
By Douglas Meffert, NAS, David Muth, NWF, Steve Cochran, EDF, Roll Call. April 20, 2015
“We all have an urgent calling to save the Mississippi River Delta, one of America’s greatest national treasures. Yet despite BP’s claims, five years later, we have a long way to go before the Gulf is back to normal and meaningful restoration is achieved.” (Read More)

Five years after spill, Gulf Coast waits for fine money
*features Brian Moore, NAS
By Deborah Barfield Berry & Ledyard King, USA Today. April 17, 2015
“It’s disappointing that this money has not flowed yet,” said Brian Moore, legislative director for the National Audubon Society. “It’s absolutely irresponsible for this company to reap massive, massive profits, have the largest environmental disaster in the United States history and not say, ‘It’s our fault. We’re going to fix it.” (Read More)

5 years later: Some worries, some triumphs reported
*features MRD statement
By Ken Stickney, The Courier-Journal. April 19, 2015
“Not so, says the National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society and the Environmental Defense Fund. Those organization issued a statement last week that said “there is no question that the damage unleased by the BP oil spill is serious, evident and ongoing.” (Read More)

5 Years After Recovery: A Long Road Ahead (Video)
*features Doug Meffert, NAS
Wake Up with Al, The Weather Channel. April 20, 2015
“Dr. Douglas Meffert, Environmental Scientist joins the show to talk about the status of the Gulf recovering from the BP oil spill that happened 5 years ago to date.” (Read More)

Has Gulf recovered 5 years after BP oil spill? Ahead (Video)
*features Collin O’Mara, NWF
The Today Show. April 20, 2015
“Five years ago, the worst oil spill in history began to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico. A well exploded, killing 11 workers and setting off 87 days of uncontrolled leaking. NBC’s Kerry Sanders looks at the Gulf five years later.” (Read More)

A million dead birds and five years later, scientists still struggling to assess BP spill’s impact
*features Doug Meffert, NAS
By Eileen Fleming, WWNO. April 20, 2015
“What wasn’t as easy to see was the damage done to bird populations closer to the blown-out well 60 miles off shore. Up to a million birds were killed in 2010 due to the oil spill, according to Peter Yaukey, geography professor at the University of New Orleans. And that huge number does not reflect what damage may develop as birds that survived start to age.” (Read More)

BP Oil Spill: Louisiana Wetland Loss is Speeding Up Due to Crude from Deepwater Horizon Disaster
*features Alisha Renfro, NWF, Simone Maloz, ROR
By Maria Gallucci, International Business Times. April 18, 2015
“Now, oil-soaked marshes and barrier islands that would’ve taken decades to erode have nearly vanished in just a few years, ecologists say. The Gulf’s dramatic advance is increasingly exposing millions of residents to hurricane-fueled storm surges and damaging floods.” (Read More)

Land building at Davis Pond studied, project was launched decades ago to help fisheries
*features Alisha Renfro, NWF, Lindsay Nakashima, NAS
By Amy Wold, The Advocate. April 20, 2015
“As a relatively small diversion taking water from the upper layers of the river without much sand, it wasn’t expected that much land would be built. Small deltas have built, though. Two research projects this spring are going to try to answer how much land has been built and how sediment from the river is moving through this system.” (Read More)

Island Disappears After Oil Spill (Video)
*features David Muth, NWF
The Weather Channel. April 18, 2015
“Five years after the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, splotches of oil still dot the seafloor and wads of tarry petroleum-smelling material hide in pockets in some marshes.” (Read More)

Louisiana five years after BP oil spill: ‘It’s not going back to normal no time soon’
*features Alisha Renfro, NWF
By Peter Moskowitz, The Guardian. April 18, 2015
“The Gulf is a big, complicated system that we struggle to understand in the best of times,” said Alisha Renfro, a staff scientist with the National Wildlife Federation in New Orleans. “Then we added 134 million gallons of oil to it.” (Read More)

Five Years After the BP Oil Disaster: A Barrier Island for Nesting Birds Devoid of Life
*Melanie Driscoll, NAS
By Julie Dermansky, Desmogblog.com. April 19, 2015
“Heavily-oiled marshes erode at double the rate of a non-oiled marsh,” said Melanie Driscoll, Director of Bird Conservation for the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi flyway for the Audubon Society, citing a scientific peer-reviewed study done after the BP spill.” (Read More)

5 Years After Gulf Oil Spill, BP Spokesman Tells Public Not to Worry About Tar Balls in the Water
*features Alisha Renfro, NWF
By Josh Israel, Think Progress. April 19, 2015
“Alisha Renfro, the Mississippi River Delta Campaign staff scientist for the National Wildlife Federation told a This Week reporter that while you no longer see oil slicked islands today: “You see tar balls that are washing up. And what it points to is the fact that oil is still in the system and, just because we can’t always see it everywhere we go, it’s still out there.” (Read More)

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, 5 Years Later
*features Alisha Renfro, NWF
By Mary Alice Parks, ABC News. April 20, 2015
“Clean-up isn’t restoration,” argued Alisha Renfro, a staff scientist for National Wildlife Federation’s Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign. “You don’t get a cookie for doing what you are required to do by law. Clean-up is absolutely essential and it is the first step, but this continues and will continue to be a problem for years to come.” (Read More)

It’s been five years since the BP oil spill and problems still persist (Video)
*features David Muth, NWF, Natalie Peyronnin, EDF
By Jonathan Martin. Al Jazeera America. April 16, 2015
“The cleanup is done but the debate over the spill’s lasting effects is far from finished.” (Read More)

5 years after spill, effects of oil on Gulf still uncertain
*David Muth, NWF
By Matthew Tresaugue, Houston Chronicle. April 19, 2015
“There is no way you can dump that much oil into the ecosystem and not have long-term effects,” said David Muth, the New Orleans-based director of the Gulf restoration effort for the National Wildlife Federation, an advocacy group.” (Read More)

Five years later, oil spill’s environmental impact debated
*David Muth, NWF
By Jacob Batte, Houma Courrier. April 18, 2015
“Some uncollected oil has broken down into invisible compounds, said David Muth, state director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Louisiana Coastal Campaign. In some cases, that oil can be even more toxic than what originally soiled the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida five years ago.” (Read More)

Editorial: Five years after oil disaster, coastal health still in doubt
Tampa Bay Times. April 16, 2015
“Scientists, though, warn it will take years to measure the spill’s impact on dolphins, fisheries, coral, marshes and other marine life and habitat. Trustees for the federal-state environmental study were so incensed that BP used this anniversary to claim that the gulf was “returning to its baseline condition” that the group issued a press release last month blasting the statement as misleading, inappropriate and premature.” (Read More)

On BP oil spill anniversary, trustees and BP announce $134M in proposed early restoration projects
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times Picayune. April 20, 2015
“Federal and state trustees and BP announced tentative approval of 10 more natural resource early restoration projects, totaling $134 million, on Monday (Apr. 20), the 5th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon accident that killed 11 workers and resulted in the release of 3.19 million barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.” (Read More)

5 years after Deepwater Horizon: How the secrets were spilled
By Ben Raines, AL.com. April 17, 2015
“For me, the BP oil spill of 2010 began with the words, “The following is not public…” (Read More)

5 Years After BP Oil Spill, Effects Linger and Recovery is Slow
By Debbie Elliott, NPR. April 20, 2015
“Louisiana was already losing land at an alarming rate, but scientists confirm that the oil spill accelerated the pace. Barataria Bay has lost key bird nesting islands, and federal government studies indicate that dolphins here in the bay are sick and dying at a higher rate than normal and show signs of oil poisoning.” (Read More)

BP Oil Spill Anniversary: Four Innovative Projects to Restore Louisiana’s Sinking Coastlines
By Marie Gallucci, International Business Times. April 20, 2015
“Now Louisianians are racing to halt the destruction and rebuild what they’ve lost. Without wetlands, coastal residents lose natural defenses against hurricane-fueled storm surges and sea level rise. Wildlife and shellfish lose habitats, in turn threatening the livelihood and culinary culture of millions of people.” (Read More)

Five years on, Gulf still paying price for BP oil spill
By Michael Casey, CBS News. April 20, 2015
“Scientists have concluded the spill damaged the health of scores of species in the Gulf, from algae to birds to sea turtles to coral reefs. And while many have recovered, the effects on some species could last for generations.” (Read More)