Yesterday, I contacted a friend of mine, C.S. Muncy, who is a photojournalist currently raising all kinds of hell down in southern Louisiana.
C.S.'s original goal was to gain access to some of the areas being guarded by BP contractors and deemed "off limits" to reporters, but yesterday he, along with Save Our Shores's Judson Parker, made an unexpected discovery.
They believe that BP has been dumping sand on the beaches in order to cover up oil. You can view some video Judson shot of the beach over here.
I called C.S. to ask him about the alleged cover-up.
AK: Is it true that BP has been covering some of the oil on the beach with sand?CM: Yeah. Yeah, this is interesting...We went down onto the beaches, and we started inspecting them. There were tar balls, tar residue, and there was some oil on the beach. Apparently, the day before there was a lot of tar balls, and BP was working in the area pretty heavily, and we started noticing there was a different consistency in the sand.
Closer to shore, there was this grainy, very rough shell-filled sand, and then you could see almost like a border where it just spilled over onto the beach sand, which is a very fine-grained sand. And it looked as if it was dumped. I mean, you could dig a few inches down, and you could see that it was a different type of sand beneath that, you know, without all the shell and grit, and what not. It looked very much like that. Our first assumption was, yeah, that they were dumping sand to cover up the tar balls.
You know, when I first said that...to me, it sounded conspiratorial - more so than I usually think. But then, soon after, we were stopped by some local sheriffs - actually, scratch that, they weren't local sheriff - they were working for the local sheriff, but these guys were bussed in from... (C.S. asks Judson if he remembers where they were bussed in from) ...from Jefferson Parish - from way up north - he was a city guy, and there were two of them that stopped us, and they weren't unpleasant about it - they weren't mean - but we could hear them talking on the radio, and their job was to run us off. So they told us, no more pictures - at least no more pictures of them. In fact, they stopped me from going out onto the beach a little bit further, and taking more pictures. But, you know, we got to talking with the guy, one of them, and he said, 'Yeah, they came here, and just dumped a bunch of sand on the beach.' They were just shoveling it on.
We could see the erosion and where the tar still was, and there was a total separate point from where the sand was dumped on.
Update 2: If you would like to support C.S.'s work, you can send him cash through PayPal to OilSpillStory@gmail.com - Click the link here.
Correction: An earlier version of this article linked to saveourshores.org, which is a separate group in California. Judson Parker is a representative from www.sosfla.org.
Cross-posted from Allison Kilkenny's blog
Follow Allison Kilkenny on Twitter: www.twitter.com/allisonkilkenny
Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins: Our Fight for American Independence
This weekend, we celebrate America's independence. But as BP's oil spill reminds us, a force just as powerful has our country under its thumb: dependence on fossil fuels. Once again, we must fight for independence.
Nic Adler: Gulf Coast Benefits July 1st Unite Us in Gulf Coast Recovery
We cannot just sit, watch the news from the Gulf of Mexico and continue to say, "This is horrible!" and, "How could this happen?" without some action to back it up.
Robert Koehler: Restraining the Profit Itch
The gap between the diffuse human yearning for a decent world and the organized agenda of the corporatocracy has never, in my lifetime, been wider.
Josh Nelson: The Public is Ready for Clean Energy Legislation, Is the Senate?
Jonathan Cohn, writing at his new must-read blog, has a fascinating piece on the policy implications of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of...
It's just too easy and too juicy. They will sell lots of expensive ad time.
----------
Where's an Edison Carter and Network 23 when you need 'em!
I've been calling to encourage NIGHT CLEANING: 1. oil comes in with tide at night 2. blobs melt and soak in during heat of day 3. too hot to work during day for more than 10-20 MINUTES per hour rule Florida seems to be listening.
Locals should do cleanup, not outside contractors. I need reimbursement for OIL-stress from Maui. :(
Yeah, EASILY believeable.
I would not be upset at this if it were done later in the game when it would be a lot less likely just to get re-soiled.
http://www
http://www
i mean... why should i even pay taxes? why should i support a body that clearly doesn't care about the people who is funding it. i'm serious... why are any of us even paying taxes? we can't elect a single person to be responsible in any town, county, or state in this entire nation.
i'd love to put out the challenge to find just ONE honest public worker. just one. they all may as well work for BP in this game.
We're not talking about a "foreign company" here. We're talking about a corporation so large it basically transcends boundaries, like, for example, P&G.;
The rig was owned by Transocean (US, based in Switzerland for tax reasons) and the blow-out preventer built by Halliburton (US, based in Dubai for tax reasons).
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
floodberg 2 hours ago (11:27 PM)BP has gone beyond a corporation - it is now the only effective government in the gulf spill multistate region, with approval of every decision. On the web, you can find videos of gulf 'town meetings,' with legislators saying 'but BP won't let us' and citizens saying 'isn't the US still the govt?' The local legislators don't argue the point. I saw one that literally had the legislator in tears, but I didn't bookmark it, sorry. Here's a multiparter for confronting BP http://www
They're also burning dolphins and turtles alive as well as the dead ones to cover their behinds.
http://www
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Kenneth Braxton 13 hours ago (1:15 PM)HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Todd Behrmann 8 hours ago (5:42 PM)HUFFPOST SUPER USER
krayoncolorz 13 hours ago (1:11 PM)you people need a few lessons in logic, because you obviously dont understand what it means.
you people need a few lessons in logic, because you obviously dont understand what it means...."
Really? REALLY???? So, if you DO know what it means, tell it to these 'ignorant' readers, please!
It is dated March 31st, the day everyone sold their BP stock, but the oil spill didnt happen yet.....
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Todd Behrmann 8 hours ago (5:45 PM)HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Judson Parker 01:47 AM on 7/03/2010Notice the Commissioner states that "the sand being brought in is gritty...o