foia request: crew: department of the interior: regarding bp oil spill: 5/19/10

8/7/2019 FOIA Request: CREW: Department of the Interior: Regarding BP Oil Spill: 5/19/10

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702 H Stree t, NW, Sui te 300Washington, DC 20001

Tel: 202-462 -1177 Fax: 202-462-4507

C RE ' V T Icitizens.for, r e s p o n ~ i b i l, Wa n d ethics m washmgton1400 I Street , NW, Suite 450

Washington, DC 20005Tel: 202-408-5565 Fax: 202-588-5020

May 19 ,2010

By Email: alexandramallus W>ios.doi .gov

U.S . Department of the InteriorAttn : Alexandra MallusDepartmental FOIA Officer (MS-7438 MIB)Office of the Chief Information Officer1849 C Street, N .W.Washington , D.C . 20240

Re: Freedom of Information Act Request

Dear Ms . Mallus :

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Greenpeace makethis request for records , regardless of format, medium , or physical characteristics , andincluding electronic records and information , pursuant to the Freedom ofInformation Act ,U .S.C. 552 , and U.S. Department ofInterior (Interior) FOIA Regulations , 43 C.F .R. Part 2 .

Specificall y, CREW and Greenpeace seek:

(1) copies of any and all video feeds that capture in whole or in part an y aspect of theBritish Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Me xico (BP oil spill)including , but not limited to , the ongoing live video feed of the BP oil spill provided by BP ,as referenced in Brian Ross , BP Releases Oil Spill Video After Pressure From White Houseand Media , AB C News, May 12 ,2010 , available at http: //abcn ews.go.com/Blotter/bp-releasesoil- spill-video-pressure-white-house/story?id=1 06 29165 ; and

(2) all documents that mention , refer , or relate to Interior communications concerningthe use of dispersants in the course of any efforts to mitigate or clean up the BP oil spill ,including , but not limited to , all internal Interior communications as well as allcommunications to , by, or from Interior to the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration , the Environmental Protection Agency , BP , Halliburton , or Transoceanregarding the use of dispersants in the course of any efforts to mitigate or clean up the BP oilspill.

Please search for responsive records regardless of format , medium , or physicalcharacteristics. We seek records of any kind , including electronic records , audiotapes ,videotapes , photographs , and back-up tapes. Our request includes an y telephone messages ,voice mail messages , daily agenda and calendars , information about scheduled meetingsand/or discussions , whether in-person or over the telephone , agendas for those meetingsand/or discussions , participants included in those meetings and/or discussions , minutes of an y


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Alexandra MallusMay 19,2010Page Two

such meetings and/or discussions, the topics discussed at those meetings and/or discussions,email regarding meetings and/or discussions, email or facsimiles sent as a result of thosemeetings and/or discussions, and transcripts and notes of any such meetings and/ordiscussions to the extent they relate to the aforementioned requested information.

If it is your position that any portion of the requested records is exempt fromdisclosure, we request that you provide an index of those documents as required underVaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820 (D.C. Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 977 (1972). As youare aware, a Vaughn index must describe each document claimed as exempt with sufficientspecificity "to permit a reasoned judgment as to whether the material is actually exempt underFOIA." Founding Church o f Scientology v. Bell, 603 F.2d 945,959 (D.C. Cir. 1979).Moreover, the Vaughn index must "describe each document or portion thereof withheld, andfor each withholding it must discuss the consequences of supplying the sought-afterinformation." King v. u.s. Dep 't o f Justice, 830 F.2d 210,223-24 (D.C. Cir. 1987),(emphasis added). Further, "the withholding agency must supply 'a relatively detailedjustification, specifically identifying the reasons why a particular exemption is relevant andcorrelating those claims with the particular part of a withheld document to which they apply."Id. at 224, citing Mead Data Central v. u.s. Dep 't o f the Air Force, 566 F.2d 242,251 (D.C.Cir. 1977).

In the event some portions of the requested records are properly exempt fromdisclosure, please disclose any reasonably segregable non-exempt portions of the requestedrecords. See 5 U.S.C. 552(b). If it is your position that a document contains non-exemptsegments, but that those non-exempt segments are so dispersed throughout the document as to

make segregation impossible, please state what portion of the document is non-exempt andhow the material is dispersed throughout the documents. Mead Data Central, 566 F.2d at261. Claims of non-segregability must be made with the same degree of detail as required forclaims of exemption in a Vaughn index. If a request is denied in whole, please statespecifically it is not reasonable to segregate portions of the record for release.

Public Interest Fee Waiver Request

In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(4)(A)(iii), CREW and Greenpeace request awaiver of fees associated with processing this request for records. The subject of this requestconcerns the operations of the federal government and the disclosures likely will contributed

to a better understanding of relevant government procedures by CREW, Greenpeace, and thegeneral public in a significant way. Moreover the request primarily and fundamentally is fornon-commercial purposes. 5 U.S.C. 552(a) (4) (A)(iii). See, e.g., McClellan Ecological v.Carlucci, 835 F.2d 1282, 1285 (9 th Cir. 1987).

Specifically, the requested records will inform the public about the extent of thedanger to public safety and health that the BP oil spill poses, the steps the government hastaken to date and plans to take in the future to protect the public from those dangers, and theextent to which the government, including Interior, has prevented the public from knowing


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Alexandra MallusMay 19,2010Page Three

the full extent of the dangers the BP oil spill poses. In the nearly one month since the BP oilspill first occurred, there have been widely varying reports regarding the amount of oil that isspilling out into the Gulf of Mexico on a daily basis. Through this request, CREW andGreenpeace seek evidence that would help ascertain a more accurate estimate than that whichBP has been reporting publicly. Further, this material will inform the public of the amount ofoil spilling into the Gulf and the extent to which Interior and other federal agencies have beenin possession of this information.

CREW is a non-profit corporation, organized under section 501(c)(3) of the InternalRevenue Code. CREW is committed to protecting the public's right to be aware of theactivities of government officials and to ensuring the integrity of those officials. CREW isdedicated to empowering citizens for have an influential voice in government decisions and inthe government decision-making process. CREW uses a combination of research, litigation,

and advocacy to advance its mission. The release of information garnered through thisrequest is not in CREW's financial interest. In addition, CREW will disseminate anydocuments it acquires from this request to the public through its website,www.citizensforethics.org, which also contains links to thousands of other pages ofdocuments CREW acquired from multiple FOIA requests.

Greenpeace is also a non-profit corporation and has no commercial interest in any ofthe requested documents. Greenpeace makes this request entirely on behalf of the publicinterest.

Under these circumstances, CREW and Greenpeace satisfy fully the criteria for a fee

Waiver.

News Media Fee Waiver Request

CREW also asks that it not be charged search or review fees for this request becauseCREW qualifies as a "representative of the news media" pursuant to the FOIA and 43 C.F.R. 2.17(a)(3). In Nat'l Sec. Archive v. Us. Dep t o f Defense, 880 F.2d 1381,1386 (D.C. Cir.1989), the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found the National Security Archive was arepresentative of the news media under the FOIA, relying on the FOIA's legislative history,which indicates the phrase "representative of the news media" is to be interpreted broadly "ifthe act is to work as expected . . . In fact, any person or organization which regularlypublishes or disseminates information to the public . . . should qualify as a 'representative ofthe news media. " 132 Congo Rec. S14298 (daily ed. Sept. 30, 1986), cited in id.

CREW routinely and systematically disseminates information to the public in severalways. First, CREW maintains a frequently visited website, www.citizensforethics.org, thatreceived 87,479 visits in April 2010. The website reports the latest developments andcontains in-depth information about a variety of activities of government agencies andofficials.


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Alexandra MallusMay 19 ,2010Page Four

Second , since Ma y 2 007 , CREW has published an onlin e newsletter , CREWCuts , thatcurrentl y has 15 ,675 subscribers. CREWCuts provides subscribers with regular update sregarding CREW 's activities and information the organization has received from governmententities. A complete archive of past CREWCuts is available athttp: //www .citizen sforethics .org /newsletter .

Third , CREW publishes a blog , Citi zens bloggingfor responsibility and ethics inWashington , that reports on and analyzes newsworthy developments regarding governmentethics and corruption. The blog , located at http: //www.citizensforethics.org/blog , alsoprovides links that direct readers to other news articles and commentar y on these issues.CREW 's blog had 3 ,131 hits in April 2010.

Finally , CREW has published numerous reports to educate the public aboutgovernment ethics and corruption , including agencies ' and agenc y officials ' failure to compl ywith their legal responsibilities. See Record Chao s, which examines agency compliance withelectronic record keeping responsibilities ; The Revolving Door , a comprehensive look into thepost-government activities of24 former members of President Bush 's cabinet ; and Those WhoDared : 30 Officials Who Stood Up For Our Countr y . These and all other CREW 's reportsare available at http: //www.citizensforethics.org/reports .

Based on these extensi ve publication acti vities, CREW qualifies for a fee waive r as a"representative of the news media " under the FOIA.

Request for Expedition

Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(6)(E)(i) and 43 C.F .R. 2.14 , CREW and Greenpeacerequest that Interior expedite the processing of this request in light of the urgency to informthe public about the full extent of the BP oil spill and the government reaction to that spill.As e xplained above , CREW is engaged primaril y in the dissemination of information itgathers from a variety of sources , including the FOIA , and seeks the information requested inthis FOIA request for the express purpose of disseminating it to the public . CREW ' s website ,www.citizensforethics.org , contains links to thousands of pages of documents CREWacquired from multiple FOIA requests , as well as documents related to CREW 's FOIAlitigation and other complaints.

There is a particular urgency to inform the public about the true circumstancessurrounding the BP oil spill in light of the widel y v arying reports about the extent of the spilland the catastrophic effects it is predicated to have. A recent article in the Washington Postcalled the challenge of cleaning up the BP oil spill " unprecedented," and noted the leak ma ybe as much as five to ten times greater than the initial estimate of 5,000 barrels per da y.David A . Fahrenhold and Juliet Eilperin , Challenge of Cleaning Up Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill' Unprecedented" at Such Depths , The Washington Po st, May 15 ,2010 (attached as Exhibit


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Alexandra MallusMay 19, 2010Page Five

A). That same article noted that no less than six probes are currently underway examining,, among other things, the extent to which "officials might have vastly

underestimated the seriousness of the spill's impact." Id. BP has admitted to Congress in aclosed-door briefing that the oil spill "could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a dayo f oil, more than 10 times the estimate of the current flow." John M. Broder, Campbell,Clifford Krauss, Amount of Spill Could Escalate, Company Admits, The New York Times,May 4, 2010 (attached as Exhibit B). .At the same time, however, the public has not yet beengranted access to evidence, .including the videotape feeds requested herein, that would moreaccurately confirm the amount o f the spill, This evidence quite obviously bears on the extento f damage the BP oi l spill will cause, a matter of great urgency and enormous public interest.See Richard Harris, Gulf Spill May Far Exceed Official Estimates, NPR, May 14,2010

(transcript attached as Exhibit C) (reporting on findings that resulted from experts'examination of a short segment of the video feed BP released last week). Current estimatesare that the BP oil spill will reach the Florida Keys,by this Sunday, expanding exponentiallythe anticipated damage it will cause. Gulf Oil Spill Could Reach Florida Keys By Sunday,AssociatedPress, May 18, 2010 (attached as Exhibit D).

Under these circumstances, CREW and Greenpeace clearly meet the requirements forexpedition set out in the FOIA and Interior regulations.

Pursuant to 43 C.F.R. 2.14(c), the undersigned hereby certifies that the basis for thisrequest for expedition is true and correct to the best of their knowledge and belief.

I f you have any questions about this request or foresee any problems in releasing fullythe requested records on an expedited basis, please contact Anne Weismann at (202) 4085565. Also, if CREW's and Greenpeace's request for a fee waiver is not granted in full, 'please contact Ms. Weismann immediately upon making such determination. Please send the _requested records to Damon Moglen, Global Warming Campaign Director, Greenpeace, 702H Street, N.W., Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20001. '

. S l n rl ; , ) ~

~ ~ ~ m a n nChief Counsel

~ 2 ~Damon MoglenGlobal Warming Campaign DirectorGreenpeace

Enclosures


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Challenge of cleaning up Gulf of Mexico oil spill 'unprecedented' at such depths Page 1 of 4

itbt ttl 1)ington JlOiltChallenge of cleaning up Gulf ofMexico oil spill 'unprecedented' atsuch depths

By David A. Fahrenthold and Juliet EilperinWashington Post Staff WriterSaturday, May 15,2010; AOI

ELMERS ISLAND, LA. -- The oil spill in the Gulf of]Y1exico has not yet caused coastal damage on the scaleof the Exxon Valdez disaster. But scientists say it isbecoming something different and potentially muchmore troubling: the first massive U.S. oil spill whoseeffects so far are largely hidden underwater.

Three weeks after crude oil began billowing into the gulf, the spill has threatened the long-termlivelihoods of thousands o f gulf residents, enmeshed three major global companies in litigation andcould destroy parts o f Louisiana's ecologically valuable marshes.

The 1989 Valdez accident looks simple by comparison. No one questioned the cause -- an Exxon tankerthat ran aground -- and the oil was released in one enormous but finite swoop into Alaska's pristine andremote Prince William Sound.

Now there seems to be much more blame to spread around, whether it's aimed at oil company BP, rigsoperator Transocean, cementing company Halliburton or the Obama administration, which has comeunder fire for failing to prevent the spill and for its response to what National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration Administrator Jane Lubchenco calls "an unprecedented, dynamic challenge."

Because the accident happened in the gulfs crowded commercial corridor, the impact could be muchmore costly and damaging.

With a half-dozen probes underway, lawmakers and outside groups are questioning who in the corporateand federal world is at fault and to what extent these officials might have vastly underestimated theseriousness of the spill's impact.

Because of the leak's extreme depth, and the effects of dispersants, the spill is breaking the maxim thatoil floats. Instead, scientists fear it is settling on sensitive corals or poisoning ecosystems that produceshrimp, snapper and sport fish, all too deep for scientists to watch or help.

"This monster's turned invisible," said Plaquemines Parish President William "Billy" Nungesser onThursday. "How do you fight that monster when it's invisible?"

The spill's impacts on underwater creatures might not be fully understood for years, said Ronald J.Kendall, a professor at Texas Tech University. "It's a massive eco-toxicological experiment underway."

The unusual behavior of the spill has left the Gulf Coast in limbo since April 22, when the burningDeepwater Horizon oil rig finally sank more than 40 miles of f Venice, La. The oil, squeezed by intense

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geologic pressure, has been spewing out of the broken-off drill pipe at a rate that has defied estimation.

The leak appears to be growing far faster than the original estimate of 5,000 barrels a day. Some expertssay the rate could be as much as five or 10 times that.

So every day, the threat hanging over Louisiana's coast gets bigger. But every day, the punch doesn'tcome.

This island, on an end-of-the-Earth stretch of Louisiana's coast, is one of the few places where oil haswashed up. Dime-size wads of goo called "tar balls" are almost lost in a beach littered with shells, crabcarcasses and garbage. Larger tar balls, some eight inches across, washed up on the beach nearby at PortFourchon.

The reason for the oil's delayed appearance, scientists say, begins with the oil itself.

The Valdez dumped its crude at the water's surface. But this oil is flowing out nearly a mile underwaterand takes, by one estimate, three hours to reach the surface. That trip changes the oil, mixes it with waterand forms it into something that looks like molasses or chocolate mousse.

"There's no black tide out there," said Ed Overton, a professor of environmental science at LouisianaState University. He said that some of the most toxic compounds in the oil from this spill had weatheredaway after spending time at sea, giving the oil a less eye-watering scent and the color and consistency ofcold fudge sauce.

That consistency, he said, means the gulf oil doesn't float on the water, but down in it. So it is less likelyto be pushed toward shore by wind and more likely to be held offshore by the swirling water currentswhere the Mississippi River pours into the gulf.

"I think we lucked out," Overton said. "Ifwe could stop the spill, time would be on our side."

Roughly 476,000 gallons of dispersant applied to the slick helped break it up and prevent it frombecoming a major tide washing ashore. But that doesn't mean that the oil has disintegrated instantly.

The fact that the oil has not hit the shoreline with any force has led many, including executives at BP -which was leasing the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded and sank -- to declare that they havemanaged to mitigate the spill's impact. The methods they have used to disperse the spill, they said, makeit more likely that it will dissipate and be consumed by natural oil-eating bacteria.

But some scientists say they're troubled by how little they know about this spill. Oil on the surface canbe spotted by planes and satellite images. But there is relatively little equipment in the gulf region thatcan tell where oil has traveled below the surface.

On Friday, Sen. Bill Nelson CD-Fla.) asked BP to bring "any and all" additional video it might have toWashington on Tuesday, when BP America's president, Lamar McKay, is scheduled to testify before theSenate commerce committee.

"By dispersing the stuff at depth, it creates essentially smaller globules of oil [and] it makes the oil morelikely to be affected by even slow-moving currents," said James H. Cowan Jr., a professor ofoceanography and coastal sciences at Louisiana State University. "We just don't know where it is, andwe don't know where it's going."

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They fear it could be settling on underwater formations far out on the gulf floor, places with suchfanciful names as the Alabama Alps and the Flower Gardens. These include coral formations that canlook like standing forests of trees and support populations offish such as red snapper.

Or, they worry, the underwater oil might be absorbed or eaten by the small animals and plants at thebase o f the gulf food chain.

To the fishermen of south Louisiana, the enormous, indecisive, largely unseen slick is bad enoughalready. Many have been idled as fishing grounds are declared off-limits or closed of f with floatingbooms meant to hold back the oil. On Thursday night in Cut Off, La., shrimper Clifton Billiot, 55, saidthere was little he could do to protect his livelihood.

This was all: "Pray that it don't come," he said. "And that you can stop that [expletive]" from spreadingonto land.

English-speaking shrimpers usually call what's happening in the gulf "the oil spill." Billiot said Cajunscall it deshonneur, which, he said, means "disaster."

Eilperin reportedfrom Washington.

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Amount of Spilling Oil Could Soar, BP Admits - NYTimes.com

ebe New Ilork ~ h n c s. . . . . . . . ReprintsThis copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only You can order presentation-readycopies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" toolthat appears next to any article, Visit www.nvtreprints.corn for samples and additionalInformation, Order a reprint of this article now,

May 4,2010

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Amount o f Spill Could Escalate,Company AdmitsBy ,JOHN IVI. BRODER, CAIVIPBELL ROBERTSON and CLIFFORD KRAUSS

This article is by John M. Broder, Campbe l l Robertson and Clifford Krauss.

WASHINGTON - In a closed-door briefing for members of Congress, a senior BP executiveconceded Tuesday that the ruptured oil well in th e Gulf of Mexico could conceivably spill asmuch as 6 0 , 0 0 0 barrels a day of oil, more than 10 times th e estimate of th e current flow.

The scope of th e problem has grown drastically since th e Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodedan d sank into th e gulf. Now, th e discussion with BP on Capitol Hill is certain to intensifypressure on th e company, which is facing a crisis similar to what the Toyota Motor Companyhad with uncontrolled acceleration - despite its efforts to control th e damage to its

reputation as a corporate citizen, th e problem may be worsening.

Amid growing uncertainty about the extent of th e leak, and when it might be stanched,pressure on BP intensified on multiple fronts Tuesday, from increasingly frustratedresidents of th e Gulf Coast to federal, state an d local officials demanding more from thecompany.

The company considered a broad advertising campaign, bu t to p BP executives rejected theidea before planning even started. "In our view, th e big glossy expressions of regret don'thave a lot of credibility," said Andrew Gowers, a BP spokesman.

Instead, the company has dispatched executives to hold town meetings in th e affectedregion, and it has turned to lower-profile social media outlets to trumpet its cleanup effortsan d moves to organize volunteers.

The Senate energy committee has summoned executives from BP an d Transocean Ltd., therig operator, as well as a number of oil industry technical experts to a hearing next week The

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Amount of Spilling Oil Could Soar, BP Admits - NYTimes.com Page 2 of 4

next day, the oversight an d investigations subcommittee of the House Energy an dCommerce Committee will hold a hearing, to which top executives of BP, Transocean andHalliburton have been asked to appear, a committee spokeswoman said.

That panel, which will look at the possible problems leading to explosions on the rig as wellas the adequacy of containment and cleanup measures, would probably be the first ofseveral, Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan, the subcommittee chairman,said in a statement.

A separate federal investigation into the explosion is under way by the Coast Guard and theMinerals Management Service.

At Tuesday's briefing, David Rainey, th e BP vice president for Gulf of Mexico production,said the company was employing a variety of untried techniques to stanch the oil gushingfrom the well 5 , 0 0 0 feet below the surface.

At the briefing, Mr. Rainey an d officials from Transocean and from Halliburton, which wasproviding cementing services on the platform, also acknowledged that they did no t knowhow likely it was that oil from the spill would be caught up in the so-called loop currents inthe gulf and be carried through the Florida Keys into the Atlantic Ocean. "What we heardtoday from BP, Halliburton and Transocean were a lot of worst-case scenarios without anybest-case solutions," said Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts,who leads the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House energy panel.

Federal officials have raised the possibility of a leak of more than 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 barrels a day ifthe well were to flow unchecked, bu t the chances of that situation occurring were unclear.

Also on Tuesday, the company's chief executive, Tony Hayward, told Senator Bill Nelson,Democrat of Florida, that the spill would clearly cause more than $75 million in economicdamage, the current cap on liability for drilling accidents.

Mr. Nelson and the two Democratic senators from New Jersey, Frank R. Lautenberg an dRobert Menendez, have introduced legislation to raise that cap to $10 billion, an d to make

sure that the new limit applies to this spill.

While BP continues to acknowledge its responsibility to shut off an d clean up the oil, it isbeing barraged by government officials and civil lawyers who are redoubling efforts toensure that th e company's legal obligations are clearly defined an d strictly enforced.

Attorneys general from the five Gulf Coast states have been draft ing a let ter to BP that willlayout demands. In the letter, they are expected to urge BP specifically to define what is

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Amount of Spilling Oil Could Soar, BP Admits - NY'I'imes.com Page 3 of 4

meant by its repeated statement that it intends to pay "legitimate" claims, a term AttorneyGeneral Troy King of Alabama said was unacceptably nebulous.

They are also expected to press for a fund to begin paying ou t claims to state an d localgovernments and to residents.

The attorneys general asked for the creation of such a fund in a meeting with BP officials onSunday, an d th e next day BP announced that $25 million block grants were going to the fourstates most likely to be affected to help begin their efforts to prepare. But, Mr. King said,"that's no t going to be enough."

Fo r now, weather patterns seem to be holding th e giant oil slick offshore, and are expected todo so for several more days, temporarily sparing the coast - an d sparing BP th e renewedcriticism that would surely come with oil landfall. A containment dome is being readied todrop over th e worst of th e leaks.

BP ha s significantly stepped up its lobbying on Capitol Hill, spending nearly $16 million in2 0 0 9 , more than triple what it spent just two years before, according to data compiled by th eCenter for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.

But that money does no t sway public opinion.

The company's to p crisis managers have been dispatched to th e gulf. Mr. Gowers, th e BPspokesman, said the company was no w "considering some targeted advertising in th eaffected states" to publicize ho w to make claims an d ho w to sign up to help with th e cleanup.

Mr. Hayward also gave a briefing on Tuesday for reporters from Gulf Coast newspapers andThe Associated Press in which h e s ai d h e wanted to "win the hearts and minds" of th epeople.

Mr. Hayward has been a frequent guest on th e morning news shows, with a consistentmessage: "It wasn ' t ou r accident, but we ar e absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it

"up.

It is a mixed message, advertising experts say.

"It 's a situation laced with irony, and perceived hypocrisy," said Abbey Klaassen, executiveeditor of Advertising Age. "I t is a fine l ine between what they want to say for legal reasonsan d what consumers want to hear which is: 'Mea culpa. We accept responsibility, we willclean it up, an d this will never happen again.' "



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Amount of Spilling Oil Could Soar, BP Admits - NYTimes.com Page 4 of 4

BP is playing to a particularly skeptical an d vigilant audience in th e gulf, where people havebecome accustomed to frustrating clashes with insurance companies an d governmentagencies in the five years since Hurricane Katrina.

"We're preparing for th e worst," said J im Hood, the attorney general of Mississippi,referring both to th e spill itself and th e possibility of fierce legal struggles. The state has been

taking photos and video of coastal areas an d counting fish an d birds, he said, to have arecord of what exists before th e oil arrives.

Campbell Robertson reportedfrom New Orleans, John M. Broder from Washington, and

Clifford Kraussfrom Houston. Sewell Chan contributed reporting from Washington.



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lf Oil Spill May Far Exceed Government, BP Estimates: NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyld=1268095

Gulf Spill May Far Exceed Official Estimatesby RICHARD HARRIS

Source: BP video from May 11 showing oil and gas streamingfrom the Deepwater Horizon well.

May 14, 2010 text size A A A

6

The amount of oil spill ing into the Gulf of Mexico may be at least 10 times the size of official estimates,

according to an exclusive analysis conducted for NPR.

At NPR's request, experts examined video that BP released Wednesday. Their findings suggest the BPspill is already far larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident inAlaska, which spilled at least 250,000barrels of oil.

BP has said repeatedly that there is no reliable way to measure the oil spill inthe Gulf of Mexico by looking

at the oil gushing out of the pipe. But scientists say there are actually many proven techniques for doingjust that.

Steven Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, analyzedvideotape of the seafloor gusher using a technique called particle image velocimetry.

A computer program simply tracks particles andcalculates how fast they are moving. Wereley put

the BP video of the gusher into his computer. Hemade a few simple calculations and came up withan astonishing value for the rate of the oil spil l:

70,000 barrels a day - much higher than theofficial estimate of 5,000 barrels a day.

The method is accurate to a degree of plus or

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lf Oil Spill May Far Exceed Government, BP Estimates: NP R

Enlarge John rvbore/Getty ImagesContract workers load oil booms onto a boat to

protect marshlands from the massive oil slick in the Gulf ofMexico on May 13, 2010 in Hopedale, Louisiana. The BPDeepwater Horizon oil rig continues to leak what may be anunprecedented amount of oil and gas into U.S. waters.

http://www .npr.erg/templates/ story/story. php?storyld=I 268095

minus 20 percent.

Given that uncertainty, the amount of materialspewing from the pipe could range from 56,000barrels to 84,000 barrels a day. It is important tonote that it 's not all oil. The short video BP releasedstarts out with a shot of methane, but at the end it

seems to be mostly oil.

"There's potentially some fluctuation back and forth between methane and oil," Wereley said.

But assuming that the lion's share of the material coming out of the pipe is oil, Wereley's calculations showthat the official estimates are too low.

"We're talking more than a factor-of-1 0 difference between what I calculate and the number that's beingthrown around," he said.

At least two other calculations support him.

NPR's RichardHarris talks toMichele Norris on AllThings Considered

[3min45 sec]

Timothy Crone, an associate research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty EarthObservatory, used another well-accepted method to calculate fluid flows. Cronearrived at a similar figure, but he said he'd like better video from BP beforedrawing a firm conclusion.

f 6

Eugene Chiang, a professor of astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, also got a similaranswer, using just pencil and paper.

Without even having a sense of scale from the BP video, he correctly deduced that the diameter of thepipe was about 20 inches. And though his calculation is less precise than Wereley's, it is in the same

ballpark.

"I would peg it at around 20,000 to 100,000 barrels per day," he said.

Chiang called the current estimate of 5,000 barrels a day "almost certainly incorrect."

Given this flow rate, it seems this is a spill of unprecedented proportions in U.S. waters.

"It would just take a few days, at most a week, for it to exceed the Exxon Valdez's record," Chiang said.

BP disputed these figures.

"We've said all along that there's no way to estimate the flow coming out of the pipe accurately," said BillSalvin, a BP spokesman.

Instead, BP prefers to rely on measurements of oil on the sea surface made by the Coast Guard and theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Those are also contentious. Salvin also says theseanalyses should not assume that the oil is spewing from the 21-inch pipe, called a riser, shown in the video.

"The drill pipe, from which the oil is rising, is actually a 9-inch pipe that rests within the riser," Slavin said.

5/I8/2010


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l f Oil Spill May Far Exceed Government, BP Estimates: NP R http://www.npr.org/tempIates/ story/story.php?storyld= I268095

But Wereley says that fact doesn't skew his calculation. And though scientists say they hope BP will

eventually release more video and information so they can refine their estimates, what they have now is

good enough.

"It's possible to get a pretty decent number by looking at the video," Wereley said.

This new, much larger number suggests that capturing - and cleaning up - this oil may be a much bigger

challenge than anyone has let on.

Related NPR Stories

BP Chief Says Gulf Oil Spill IsRelatively Small May 14, 2010

Suit Challenging Shell's Arctic Drilling Plan Rejected May 13, 2010

Transocean Seeks To Limit Liability For Oil Rig Blast May 13, 2010

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Jerry McCutcheon (AKgasman) wrote:Why would the only blowout oil be through the 9" drill pipe? That would imply that BOPsuccessfully and completely closed around 21" casing which is not rational. I would guess thatthere is enough unclose space around the drill pipe to equal the drill pipe cross sectional area.

The 'suction' hose is only 4"; to say suction hose is picking up 1/5th oil from that portion of theblowout is wildly optimistic. Internally you would only have 3' diameter 5000 feet friction for N2gas lift to overcome. Sounds like the typical oil company lie. Lie get caught, retreat and lie

again.The Gulf floor blowout volume is grossly understated.BP deliberately sank the drilling platform under the guise putting out the fire. The fire wasconsuming the blowout oil on the drilling and in water around the drilling rig. BP could see thatplatform was listing and sinking thus BP knew the platform would sink if BP kept pouring wateron the platform.BP deliberately sank the platform and dump the blowout oil into the Gulf To destroy & secretethe drilling records the drilling records and logs that were not sent ashore.That kind of a platform is not that difficult raise to surface. It will come up upside down butdivers can still reTuesday, May 18,20104:39:59 PM

5/18/20105:07


19/21

EXHIBITD


20/21

ulf oil spill could reach Florida Keys by Sunday - CSMonitor.com

MONITOR

http://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/20 10/0518/Gulf-oil-

Gulf oil spill could reach Florida Keys by SundayUniversity scientists say a portion of the Gulf oil spill could reach KeyWest in the FloridaKeys next weekend.

Crews collect sand samples at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park beach in Key West Fla.,Tuesday May 17, 2010. Twenty tar balls were

found in Key West on Monday and are being analyzed to see if they came from the Deepwater oil spill . University scientists say oil from

the Gulf spill could reach the Florida Keys by Sunday.

AP Photoffhe Citizen, Rob O'Neal

By Associated Press I May 18, 2010

Tampa, Florida

University scientists are forecasting that oil from the spill off Louisiana could reach Florida's Key West by Sunday.

Photo Gallery

Louisiana oil spill

University of South Florida researchers said Tuesday the southern arm of the

massive spill has entered or is near the so-called loop current, which circulates in

the Gulf and takes water south to the Florida Keys and the Gulf Stream. The Gulf

Stream could eventually take the oil up Florida's Atlantic coast.

2

Twenty tar bal ls were found by the Coast Guard off Key West on Monday. They are

being tested by the Coast Guard to see if they came from the Louisiana spill or

elsewhere. Tar balls can occur naturally or come from other sources such as ships.

USF scientists use currents, wind forecasts and other elements to make their predictions.

Related:

Gulf oil spill: Has BP 'turned corner' with siphon success?

5/18/20105:


21/21

ulfoil spill could reach Florida Keys by Sunday - CSMonitor.com

Gulf spill oil driven by complex ocean currents and eddies

http://www.csmonitor.comiFrom-the-news-wires/20 I0/0518/Gulf-oi

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foia request: crew: department of the interior: regarding bp oil spill: 5/19/10

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