By Mickey Walker-July 25, 2010
It was a tranquil morning on April 16, 1947 in Port Arthur,
Texas. In the soft morning light I was sharing a glass of orange juice
with a neighbor, who just took her first sip of coffee, on her back porch
steps. Then a sudden, deafening Babooom! resounded in the west. It
startled us with instant fear. Her back windows shattered like a thousand
small diamonds, glass falling on both sides of us. It must have been the
Gulf or the Texas Company refineries about 6 miles to the west. And
surely, from the sound that shook the very ground, the whole refinery complex
must have blown up. It was the loudest boom I ever heard. People wandered
about the neighborhood, crying and filled with despair. Everyone in the
community worked for the refineries, and many loved ones most certainly had
been killed. I was 7 years old, and my mother told me with teary eyes as
she attempted to smile and reassure me that she was praying that Dad would be okay.
He had reported to work as usual to the Gulf Oil Refinery that morning at 7:30
am. He called to say he was okay,
and simultaneously, we sighed a deep relief.
The radio told us that the blast was not near us. What
a relief! It was over 150 miles to the west where many ships and oil
storage tanks at refineries had blown up. 150 miles away!
Impossible, I thought. But it was true. Texas City, Texas had
blown up, over 550 dead, and the rest is the history of the greatest industrial
accident in the history of America. Texas City, Texas Disaster
1947
Five years ago, another major accident occurred in this ill-fated
little city on the Texas Coast, just north and across the bay from
Galveston. It was at the British Petroleum Refinery accident of March 23,
2005, and this time 15 were killed and over 170 injured. BP was
charged with criminal violations of federal environmental laws and has been
subject to ongoing lawsuits from the victim's families. Later an $87 million
fine was imposed by the US Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, which claimed that BP had failed
to implement safety improvements following the disaster. Texas City, Texas BP
Disaster 2005
The infractions BP had, before and after the 2005 Texas City
Refinery accident show that BP blatantly disregarded safety rules and
implementing practices that would help avoid accidents, injury and death. Compared to other oil companies, BP’s
record was disgraceful. BP's Horrible Safety Record:
It's Got 760 OSHA Fines, Exxon Has Just 1
Almost 3 months ago, BP was involved in yet another major
accident off the coast of Louisiana, the Oil Spill of 2010. A BP offshore deepwater drilling rig,
the Deep Water Horizon, exploded on April 20 and caught fire. 11 men are missing and presumed dead
and several more are injured. The
rig collapsed and sank, and crude oil has been gushing from seabed a mile below
sea level since then. As of July
14, 2010 almost 91 million gallons have been released into the Gulf at the rate
of about 10 gallons per second. The crude oil has reached across the Gulf like dark fingers and has
destroyed much of the fishing industries in Louisiana and some other coastal
states. The tourist industry has
been hit hard. Loss of business stacks
up in the billions of dollars. The
lives of many Americans have been ruined. Livelihoods and 10s of thousands of jobs have been destroyed.
The particulars of how and why the accident happened are
complex and many. A comparison of
BP’s deficient safety practices is best illustrated in the following: What BP did wrong
It is obvious that BP has been cutting corners in compliance
with Oil Industry safety measures for years. The reprimands and fines BP has incurred are in the billions
of dollars. Accidents seem to
follow this company. Why BP falls
so far behind the Oil Industry standards in infractions, fines, and accidents
is obvious. Apparently BP just
does not spend the money necessary nor put forth a conscious effort to insure the
safety of people, wildlife, resources, and the planet. Imagine the death of the seafood
industry in much of the Gulf. It
is heartbreaking to see the struggling birds, soaked in oil, gasping their last
breath, doomed to death. Or the
sea turtles, overcome by the oil in their home, their world, washed up on the
beach, still and lifeless and dead. Think of the destruction of all the nesting grounds for birds, turtles,
destroyed. Imagine all the life
affected by such a toxic black goo that permeates every living creature and
every shell, every blade of grass, and every grain of sand for hundreds of
miles. Try to imagine how long
this dark fingerprint on the planet will remain for all the wildlife, all the
food fish and oysters, and all the humans who live on the Gulf Coast and who
had depended on the Gulf Coast for a living and a place to live. Think of how the oil reaches down a
mile deep and is not just contaminating the surface of the ocean.
It is not the Oil Industry who is to blame. It is BP. The moratorium on deep water drilling should be lifted. Those oil companies whose safety records
are impeccable compared to BP should not have to pay for BP’s lack of caring
and incompetence. Americans whose
jobs have been shut down due to the moratorium on drilling should not be
punished for the sins of a few. Offshore
drilling is a gigantic portion of the oil business in America, and thousands of
jobs and human lives are at stake. The multitude of innocents should not be punished for BP’s incompetent
performance that will affect the lives of all Americans for years to come. Just because one of your bird dogs in
starts to sucking eggs, you don’t shoot all your dogs to keep it from happening
again.
Imagine how long it will take to clean up the marshes of the
Gulf Coast states that are affected by the ongoing release of crude oil on our shores. But we must recover and we will. And the first step is to reinstate deep
water drilling rights to those companies whose safety records deserve it. Our best step now is to promote
income, jobs, and safe drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. As we continue to clean up, survive,
and recover.