During the coarse of the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster, various articles where published mentioning concerns that the general news overlooked. Impact on Cultural resources. Here are some archived references and links to them. Important stuff to know and disseminate.
What’s the Gulf oil spill destroying now?
http://boingboing.net/2010/07/07/whats-the-gulf-oil-s.htm * Maggie Koerth-Baker at 1:03 PM Wednesday, Jul 7, 2010
* Maggie Koerth-Baker at 1:03 PM Wednesday, Jul 7, 2010 *
Apparently, dead things are not safe from the oil spill’s onslaught. Archaeologists are worried about damage the oil could inflict on shipwrecks—both 19th century and WWII U-Boat flavors—and important coastal historic sites.
Oil contamination could damage the artifacts, itself, but there’s also concerns about how risk of human exposure could keep sites from being properly researched. What’s more, archaeologists say that, during past spills like the Exxon Valdez, cleanup efforts led to accidental destruction of sites, and intentional looting.
“We learned from Exxon Valdez that there were incidents of looting by cleanup workers, equipment being brought in, destroying the ground,” said John Rawls, marine archaeologist with Earth Search Inc., a firm hired by BP to do archaeological surveys. In one incident, cleanup workers stumbled across a prehistoric Chugachmiut burial cave containing wooden artifacts. “Cleanup workers found the cave, which was unknown to archaeologists, and removed some of the bones and then called a supervisor,” McMahan said. He said Exxon security collected more of the bones and state troopers raked remains into a body bag and carted them away. “The site was pretty much trashed,” he said. [see web site for full article, photos, links, and references. Link/reference copied for personal reference/archiving. ]
Oil spill threatens archaeological sites along Gulf Coast
http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2010/05/oil_spill_threatens_archaeological_sites_along_gulf_coast.html * By Harlan Kirgan, Mississippi Press * Thursday, May 13, 2010, 6:21 AM * * By Harlan Kirgan, Mississippi Press * Thursday, May 13, 2010, 6:21 AM *
GAUTIER,Miss. — The oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon and possible cleanup activity threaten prehistoric sites along the Gulf Coast, said the retired archaeology laboratory director at the University of Southern Alabama.
Noel Stowe,retired director of the archaeological research laboratory at the University of South Alabama, hold an oyster shell at a shell midden in Gautier. The shell midden is where prehistoric inhabitants on the coast ate and left shells and other remains of their daily life, said Stowe. Stowe, who taught archaeology and anthropology, said the sites are threatened by by the oil spill and cleanup activities. Noel Stowe said there are about 1,000 sites on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, many of which have never been explored. Similar sites are in other Gulf Coast states, he said.
The sites, called shell middens, are where prehistoric Gulf Coast residents lived and left the remains of their meals such as oyster shells and other daily items, he said. At a site in Gautier, Stowe readily found pottery chards and a rock with a sharpened edge. “Biological resources can recover and archaeological resources cannot,” said Stowe. “We are looking at shell middens that are right in the littoral drift along the coast and once oil gets in them they are destroyed,” he said. “They become toxic dumps and they can’t be carbon-14 dated.” Archaeological artifacts are dated based on amount of the carbon found in them.
“These middens are made up of shell interspersed with artifacts,” he said. “A midden is like a book from 10,000 B.C. until the Spanish came in the 1500s. Nothing was written down about any of the inhabitants of North America. The only record, the only history we have of went on during that 10,000-year period is in these archaeological sites.” Stowe said another concern is that should oil make landfall, cleanup operations could damage the sites based on what happened following the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. “There was a lot of looting of sites by cleanup crews and they brought heavy equipment,” said Stowe. “You can imagine what a bulldozer or some kind of machine would do to one of these fragile shell middens.” The sites are protected by federal and state laws. “Everything we do every day, all day long, is based on what we’ve known in the past. It is based on our history,” he said. “These shell middens can provide us with history or prehistory about what went on for 10,000 years in this county.” [see web site for full article, photos, links, and references. Link/reference copied for personal reference/archiving. ]
http://archaeology.about.com/b/2010/07/11/archaeology-and-the-oil-spill.htm * Kris’s Archaeology Blog * By K. Kris Hirst, About.com Guide since 1997 * According to a news report making a very faint splash last week, concern has been raised about the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the historic shipwrecks and other off- and near-shore archaeological ruins. The potential for damage to wrecks (and the general environment) is of course enormous, based on this alarming simulation from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. •Sinking oil threatens historic Gulf shipwrecks, Cain Burdeau for the Associated Press; * MMS/BOEMRE: Historic Gulf Shipwrecks; •BP Oil spill heading for New York, simulation finds, PC Magazine, with a video; •University of Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology; Last month, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) was renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement, but the website still seems to work; lots of cultural resource management projects free for the downloading there. [see web site for full article, photos, links, and references. Link/reference copied for personal reference/archiving. ]
OnEarth; A Survival Guide for the Planet: What BP Won’t Be Paying For — and How You Can Help
http://www.onearth.org/node/2224 * By Penny Fujiko Willgerodt * June 11, 2010 * * By Penny Fujiko Willgerodt * June 11, 2010 *
Editor’s note: NRDC is asking its supporters to help victims of the BP oil spill by donating to the Gulf Coast Fund. In this guest post for OnEarth, Penny Fujiko Willgerodt, advisor to the Gulf Coast Fund, explains why it’s needed and how the money will help. You can donate here.
We at the Gulf Coast Fund have noticed people asking why they should support nonprofit organizations responding to the BP oil drilling disaster when, as they say “Isn’t BP supposed to be paying for this mess?” Yes. BP should and will pay. There is no way of knowing when and how (Exxon-Valdez is a case in point. Exxon/Mobil has still paid only a fraction of what they had promised.) But one thing we do know is that what BP will eventually pay will in no way address the full costs of this disaster.
First, BP is not funding organizations. BP is addressing individual small claims with checks. BP is hiring individual fishermen to do clean-up tasks. BP is not providing doctors to help those fishermen coming back to their houses coughing up blood. BP is not giving out respirators because BP does not want to acknowledge the toxic quality of the dispersants and the oil. BP needs to minimize the financial impact for its shareholders. For whose interest does BP work? Therein lies the problem.
An independent source of income is necessary to ensure that independent voices are supported. How do we know that the clean up is being conducted in a way that is safe for residents in living in the affected areas all along the Gulf Coast? How can we be sure that the materials being used are safe? How can we be sure that BP is providing safety gear and respirators to the clean-up workers? Is BP funding the watchdogs? Is BP funding small community groups that have a vested interest in a healthy gulf? Is BP funding monitoring activities of BP’s own efforts to address the disaster? It is inherently impossible for the perpetrator to monitor itself. It is inherently impossible for government to monitor itself.
That’s why we need to support NGOs and independent advocacy organizations. That’s why we need to support community-based organizations on the ground in the Gulf made up of people who have lived there for generations and even centuries, and thus know their physical environment better than anyone else, even BP, possibly could. In order to ensure that information is accurate, best practice dictates that independently-verified and substantiated data be used. That can only be made possible with independent private dollars. Of course BP should be held accountable to the greatest degree possible. Of course BP should pay. How can you commence class-action litigation to cover the full impacts of this disaster which have YET to unfold and will unfold for generations? And, if past history is any indication, settlement funds no matter how big will never cover the full cost.
The federal government must also be held accountable for the weakened regulations that caused the disaster and forced to strengthen oversight of the oil industry. Federal clean-up responses must also be carefully monitored by independent sources. BP will not pay for this advocacy or monitoring. We have seen that BP is willing to invest millions on full-page ads and PR campaigns. They are even willing to attempt to buy control of information available to the public. There seems to be no limit to what they will pay to try to cover up this disaster and reduce their own costs. What BP will not pay for is ensuring that the Gulf ecosystem is restored. BP will not pay to ensure that communities are defended and made whole again. BP will not pay for advocacy and organizing to lessen our dependence on oil. BP will not pay for work to move us toward a clean energy future, pass climate change legislations and advocate greater public and private investments in renewable energy to ensure this never happens again. None of these are in BP’s self-interest. The money that NRDC and the Gulf Coast Fund are raising is not going to pay individual fishermen to wipe marsh grass or lay down boom. The money that NRDC raises is going to go to groups that have a long-term vested interest in the affected communities and that will be working on the human (economic, cultural, psychological, emotional) AND environmental consequences of this disaster for LONG after BP leaves the Gulf. The money that we are raising now will ensure that groups in Gulf Coast communities have the financial and moral support to not despair and continue to monitor, advocate, protect, speak up and not give up hope. Follow OnEarth’s continuing coverage of the Gulf Coast oil disaster. [see web site for full article, photos, links, and references. Link/reference copied for personal reference/archiving. ]
