"BP Mole Tells All About Forbidden Island"

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http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/06/BP-spill-worker-elmers-island
— By Mac McClelland

BP's got a mole working on its cleanup team. The company might be able to keep the press from getting to oiled-up Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge, but as long as people have cell phones, it's going to have a hell of a time keeping Elmer's Island from getting to the press.

snip-

BP's got good reason for wanting to keep insiders like Elmer away from reporters. Elmer says that last Thursday, when the Coast Guard was announcing that the top kill seemed to be working, the cleanup supervisors on Grand Isle had already been informed it was a failure—which, of course, was not publicly announced until several days later.

And as more and more oil continues to deluge Louisiana shores, the cleanup efforts are slowing down. Workers have spent inordinate amounts of time sitting around waiting to be utilized, a frustration echoed by other workers who talked to friends of mine who were on a day trip to the beach. The workers are also upset because last Friday, many of them weren't paid as scheduled. According to Elmer, the mostly white foremen (whom he welcomed me to picture as stereotypical gristly union-boss types) told their mostly black subordinates that they didn't want to hear any bitching about it and that if they had a problem they could go home. Such unpleasant work in such an unpleasant environment and for such low pay (as little as $10 an hour) is, not surprisingly, leading to superhigh attrition. Last week, there were 110 workers on Elmer's Island. Right now, there are only 60 cleaning up the 1,700-acre home to fish, shrimp, and crab nurseries. (I called ES&H, the subcontractor running the cleanup show, for comment, but it only has one person who talks to the media, and that person was not available today.)

Elmer's Island was already in bad shape when I was there two weeks ago, but the fire chief of nearby Grand Isle told me yesterday that a massive slick of concentrated oil had been seen just offshore. This morning, Elmer emailed me an update about the forbidden island. "I thought you might be interested to know," he wrote, "there's a LOT more oil out on the beach now."

[laughingliberal]

1. Rec nt

[Overseas]

2. K&R. //nt

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3. Mac McClelland has been interesting to follow on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/MacMcClelland

[Electric Monk]

4. k&r

[BrklynLiberal]

5. There can be no good news about this situation....

[lob1]

6. Why aren't we hearing this from our own government?

Why do we have to rely on a mole? Our own government is keeping the truth from us just as much as BP. I don't expect Obama is plug the hole himself, but I did expect him to tell us the truth.

[gateley]

9. There is so much going on, and changing daily, nobody can be aware of everything.

We need to make them aware. I'm forwarding this to Rachel, Ed, Keith and AC, and hopefully it will get some air time.

It seems that when the government is made aware of a problem, it has been addressing it quickly.

[defendandprotect]

7. THIS isn't the kind of control over the situation we need . . . it's the reverse ... !!!

[earcandle]

8. Sometimes I wondered why Seinfeld said "do the opposite" on his last show.. and then I noticed...

[donheld]

10. k & R

[HCE SuiGeneris]

11. Heads need to roll.

Yeah, you Dick, and George and Tony. On a f'n platter covered in your excrement that coats our shores.

[Liberty Belle]

12. 60 more cleanup workers from San Diego are going on the 13th;

soon as they complete a Haz-Mat training course. Our publisher's consulting firm got the grant for the training. There may soon be 500 to 600 cleanup workers coming; too bad it couldn't have been sooner. They will get $12 an hour plus per diem to start with, and if they last 3 weeks, it goes up to $17 an hour.

Many of these are inner-city kids; others are ex-war contractors, handyman, a hairdresser, and even an ex-con who want to pitch in and help clean up the gulf.

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14. Good to know that there will be more help.

As time passes, there will be more oil to clean up, so maybe the timing is just right. I hope that they will have the proper protective gear to keep them safe. The EPA needs to step it up in a big way.

[proud patriot]

13. k and r