Latest Mississippi River Delta News: October 22, 2012
Make sure BP pays for all the damage it did
By Larry Schweiger and David Yarnold for The Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times. October 21, 2012.
“With news that an expected trial over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill is being delayed until January 2013 and reports of a settlement in the works, BP is again trying to avoid paying all it owes to the Gulf of Mexico, even while netting $25.7 billion in profits in 2011. It is time for BP to commit to restoring the entire ecosystem that was affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill. This would truly revitalize the economy of the gulf…” (Read more)
A Mississippi river diversion helped build Louisiana wetlands, geologists find
Phys.org. October 21, 2012.
“Reporting in Nature Geoscience, a team of University of Pennsylvania geologists and others used the Mississippi River flood of the spring of 2011 to observe how floodwaters deposited sediment in the Mississippi Delta. Their findings offer insight into how new diversions in the Mississippi River’s levees may help restore Louisiana’s wetlands…” (Read more)
Gov’t should keep hands off RESTORE Act dollars
Editorial, The News Chief (Winter Haven, Fla.). October 21, 2012.
“Until a few days ago, we thought the biggest challenge facing states that expect to receive RESTORE Act dollars would be spending the money in a transparent, aboveboard fashion. Then everything got more complicated…” (Read more)
Environmental groups oppose BP settlement
By Nikki Buskey, The Daily Comet (Lafourche Parish, La.). October 20, 2012.
“Environmental groups are crying foul after recent reports that BP has offered to settle environmental damage fines related to the 2010 Gulf oil spill for $16 billion to $18 billion…” (Read more)
Mystery in Gulf of Mexico: Why is oil leaking from Deepwater disaster site?
By Mark Guarino, The Christian Science Monitor. October 19, 2012.
“Oil is leaking into the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of about 100 gallons per day near the Macondo wellhead, the site of the oil spill over two years ago that became the worst environmental disaster in US history…” (Read more)
BP’s future hinges on outcome of Russian oil-venture deal, charges in gulf oil spill
By Steve Mufson, The Washington Post. October 20, 2012.
“First, this weekend its board is weighing an offer to sell one of its crown jewels — a 50 percent stake in a lucrative Russian oil joint venture — to Rosneft, the Russian oil company that is mostly state-owned. The structure of the roughly $26 billion deal, however, could leave BP and Rosneft closely entwined…” (Read more)
VIMS study confirms sea levels are rising on the East Coast
The Virginia Gazette. October 15, 2012.
“GLOUCESTER—
A new study by emeritus professor John Boon of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, shows that the rate of sea-level rise is increasing at tidal stations along the Atlantic coast of North America, including those in Norfolk, Baltimore, New York, and Boston…” (Read more)
Extreme highs and lows: Climate change and the Missouri River
Editorial, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. October 16, 2012.
“Since the end of the last ice age, the Missouri River has experienced extreme fluctuations in volume. The Missouri has always bounced up and down because the weather across the Great Plains quickly shifts between hot and cold and between bone dry and monsoonal…” (Read more)
Officials say sinkhole numbers not adding up
By David J. Mitchell, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.). October 21, 2012.
“The math isn’t adding up in Assumption Parish, and some parish officials are worried about what that might mean is happening underground near a Bayou Corne area sinkhole…” (Read more)