VIDEO: Toxic sludge, tar balls, Gulf waste “guarded by the police??”

[ensho]

http://www.thepoliticalcarnival.net/2010/07/video-toxic-sludge-tar-balls-gulf-waste-guarded-by-the-police/


this is about a 5 min. video reporting by a private citizen couple.

I'm wondering how toxic that awful smell is they talk about? are there neighbors breathing this most likely toxic air too?

and the shot of the tar balls on the sand shows more balls then I've seen in any other report.

and as noted the doubly bagged bags were not even half full, maybe 1/4 full. the bag manfg. is making bucks. all that plastic in the collection place is a hazard.

(this is real news - of the kind that could go in a disaster forum for those in the disaster area. we could ask this couple to do more on site reporting for example.)

[blondeatlast]

1. Or they can just sign up and post in GD.

Just a thought.

[Cetacea]

5. There might be less snark in a devoted forum though.

Just a thought.

[CoffeeCat]

2. Is this stuff just going into landfills?

I'd like some answers.

I watch these videos and I feel so sorry for these workers. Most of the workers
are minorities, probably very vulnerable and poor people who are out of work. I
feel like handling this tar and oil is a death sentence.

We all know they're going to come down with serious illnesses, and BP and our
government will drag their feet and say there is no direct correlation between
working the oil cleanup and their ailments. Then, they'll study for a while and
after most of them have suffered needlessly--they'll admit there is a connection.

It's just awful. Just horrible.

And why are the police guarding this waste?

[Poll_Blind]

4. Here's the deal...(I think)

The EPA, it appears, defines crude oil as non-hazardous waste. There's actually a special exemption for it. However, I'm pretty sure anything crude oil is refined into...anything...becomes hazardous waste. In fact, much if not all of the shit used to actually extract crude is labeled by the EPA as hazardous waste.

Now, is crude oil hazardous waste in reality? Yes, of course it is. But if you look at the EPA website and use Google to search their site for "crude" and "hazardous" you'll come across some PDF's showing what they consider "exempt". If you type:
site:epa.gov "crude" AND "hazardous"
into Google search you'll come up with a bunch of interesting links which actually (if you skim 'em) give a good profile of how they play this little game. If crude oil was defined as hazardous it would make transporting crude, refining crude, etc. much more expensive.

Don't be fooled: It's not that these people just aren't clued-in. They are. The money just made them look the other way.

Are the cleanup workers going to get sick and possibly die from cleaning up this shit? Yeah, probably. Especially with the concentrations we're talking about. I don't think Rachel Maddow was bullshitting one bit when she talked about how sick it made her to go out into the oiled waters of the Gulf.

As to why police are guarding the waste, I dunno. Waste Management is probably a big deal in a town so small so the fuzz has got their back.

PB

[Poll_Blind]

3. Turns out CNN did a piece of Waste Management possibly being responsible for birth defects among...

...children in a small California town.

CLICK HERE

PB