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I went to the home of Raleigh and Kay Leseigne, 60-something residents of Grand Isle who have both lived here their whole lives. Raleigh was a fisherman, a shrimper, a crabber, and an oyster man. His family has owned what he says is the best lease on an oyster bed in all of Bartaria Bay for more than 100 years.
Now he has nothing but oil. Raleigh estimates that, since the oil sinks into the soil where the oysters grow, it will be at least 10 years before Grand Isle fishermen can harvest oysters again.
Raleigh and Kay made a memorial to their last oysters, putting them up on a shelf in their home. Kay wrote on the memorial: "We love you, going to miss you."
I’ll have video of my conversation with Raleigh and Kay tonight. For now, here are some pictures from the home.
71 Comments
Someone ought to speak with them about all the bottles of water on the porch and how such contributes to pollution; not being unsympathetic BUT now that their environment has been totally screwed up, how such bottles screw up others environments ought to be mentioned.
N I C E. What do we know about the availability of clean drinking water? What do we know about their recycling habits? My house is made of glass, so I’m not casting any aspursions here, you betcha I’m not, but I think I’ll move.
There’s nothing in the world that tastes better than an Gulf oyster. Makes me want to cry.
This is not the time or the place. We do not slap people who are in mourning.
Nor do we do so without consideration for their personal situation. Have you thought at all about the fact they may have no potable water where they are now, may not have had potable water for some time?
Even my own family members who live in remote parts of the Hawaiian Islands don’t have access to water except if bottled. They also fish for a living. Mind your manners.
I grew up on shores of the Great Lakes and still remember the first warnings about PCB’s in the water, (@ WI DNR, they still have not been adequately dealt with) and the effluent from the formerly numerous paper mills that fouled the water that we swam in daily, not knowing how bad all this was.
Mercury from coal-fired generators still distills into the mix and fish consumption warnings have not, will not ever be lifted here. Many of my friends and relatives were involved in commercial fishing. This all rings so very sad to me. I recognize these people in my own community, though they are few and far between now. To see this woman still smiling and her husband looking so matter-of-fact, these are the real Americans that we should be proud of and looking out for, and helping in a way that they may desire to be helped.
“Mind your manners.”; WTF? Manners? Does a disaster provide an excuse for a lack of mindfulness? See the one large container and the cases of smaller bottled water? It is the smaller bottles of water to which I am referencing,Not the larger container.
And there has been NOTHING written or said about how the spill is affecting people’s domestic needs except for the impact upon their earnings, so the issue of potable water is being used in a context without any proof or logic to back such criticism up with.
And I am NOT ‘slapping people in mourning’; all I wrote was that such ought to be mentioned to them. The people I ‘mourn’ for are many and reflect a government that sends them off to die for complete bullshit (over 50,000 of my generation), that neglects the unemployed and foreclosed on, that will never have the chance to recoup their savings ,and on and on.
Yes, this IS an environmental disaster that is and WILL affect many more than what is currently being envisioned/reported on but that doesn’t mean ongoing education about environmental issues not necessarily associated with the drill leak should be ignored.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_mussel
Maybe we should introduce the species to the swamps of Louisiana?
Don’t worry, BP’s going to make it up to you. Just sign right here on the dotted line and we’ll give you a WHOLE MONTHS WAGES! You don’t really have to worry about all those words on page two, that’s just a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo. AND we’ve included some coupons for some subs and chips down at the local Sheetz store. How ’bout that!
Don’t mess with mother nature anymore please. Just leave her alone or she’s gonna get really pissed.
Mussels, Clams Oysters we need a species that lives in saltwater grows fast and filters a bunch of water but can tolerate oil.
I think its time for the Feds to start funding a study.
When I first moved here I lived behind a little beach bar called The Oyster Shucker. Used to shuck oysters for beer money. Fresh from Apalachicola, on the coast across from Tallahassee.
I’d rather do something organic than risk some more chemical dispersants. I’m just throwing ideas around I would like the lake’s experts to debate them.
yes, you pointed it out alright. You sure did, and it was an accurate comment, for what that’s worth. On the other hand, it’s about as classy as telling a homeless person he’d have a better shot at getting a job if he’d just take a fucking bath already.
Next idea put windmills on every offshore oil platform use the power to pump air to deeper lower oxygen, carbon dioxide waters and introduce oil eating bacteria. The extra air should help them grow.
Thanks. I’m afraid to drink the water too far south of here now. I understand it’s farther up the Mississippi than BP is reporting. Frankly, I’m bringing water when I head out of the city and I’m even considering stopping use of the city water until they figure out where that damn dispersant is going.
listen dude, would you want to drink the water down there right now?
firedogs – anyone got a working BP Live feed – mine is glitchy as shit and FB folks are reporting tons of oil not mud gushing from it again
The BP lawyers in shark skin suits are going to make quick work of these unfortunate victims of the greatest environmental crime perpetrated on the U.S.. Whose going to stop them? Obama’s DOJ, headed by a former attorney for big oil?
You only see when they want you to see.
Does anyone have the link for Oil Drum?
CNN is streaming a live feed. Looks as if the ROV is close to the leaks and they’re really blowin’.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6518
was just over there :D
The OilDrum
Worried about clean water here is an idea.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/7/739941/-Energy-COOL:Snap-Into-Place-Dew-Collection-for-Agricultural-Irrigation
Is the dew water near the ocean safe if not my idea is crap:(
Lots of rain catchers out there.
That they have that much bottled water should tell you something. Let me guess that much of the area near NOLA, the water table is so high that wells aren’t appropriate; the water may be contaminated, too. In my family’s case, they live in a remote area where there is no ground water, rainfall is very limited although plenty of salt water and no money for reverse osmosis filtration. Big swaths of rural America also has naturally occurring salts/contaminants which prevent them from using well water for drinking — arsenic being one such contaminant.
Think about the fact these folks have been fishermen — what do they take on their boats with them for water? And what do you think they do for emergency preparedness in case of hurricanes?
For some people bottled water is a necessity, not a nicety. You want to bitch at somebody, go after people who live in cities with plenty of cheap and clean tap water who insist on drinking bottled water, and then can’t be bothered with recycling the bottles, either. And if you really want to go off on a bender about access to water, do it in your own post about it. Just try walking in somebody else’s shoes for a while and think it through before lecturing. That’s been a critical problem with this disaster: far too many people in comfortable digs like those in the Beltway don’t give any thought to what it’s like for their fellow human beings and imagine what it must take to live in their shoes.
I think we maybe needing them.
This looks live.
See they won’t know if it works for a couple of day, the middle of a holiday weekend. If they aren’t able to contain this anybody want to bet that BP just walks away pulling up stakes and abandoning the U.S. market? They’ll let their attorneys settle it in the courts over the next generation or two.
Who needs the gulf anyway when you’ve got Iraqi oil wells to tap?
Thanks America for the enabling invasion! Coallition of the willing!
You can build a solar oven from a beer cooler there are plans on the net put salt water in it have a hose above the water to collect evaporated water that runs to a bucket with a lid covered in shade the greater the temperature difference between the solar oven and the collector bucket should help boost clean water creation.
How many or how big the ovens should be to provide water for a family?
No clue but the more sun the better it works.
They can always convince the CIA to stage a coup in Venezuela.
Screw the CIA, those guys are starting to get uppity. They’d use XE and maybe some South African racist force to do their bidding.
More salt water to fresh water ideas granted getting rid of the chemicals in the water is important maybe Kevin Costner’s idea can help with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW3C1RRulmg
They tried that once with Chavez. Didn’t work out too well for them.
I am sure they are already planning that.
Simple, if ya wanna build the type of evaporator Navy ships use, on a smaller scale of course.
The CIA is stretched to thin in Iraq and Afghanistan I bet they talk Columbia into declaring war.
Do they use the sun or engine heat to evaporate the water?
BP has suspended their second attempt of a “top-kill.” “Junk shots also failed.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/us/29spill.html?src=tptw
A hurricane storm surge could push oil and oil dispersant contaminated water how far inland and would that be enough to contaminate the water table?
Who, the U.S. or BP?
Ok time for some new ideas because the relief wells might work.
I heard speculation that when the storms hit the Gulf they could actually carry rain laden with oil to the WH.
heh machinery is in the engine room. Everything on a vessel is steam driven. Super-heated, but still steam. Water for the boilers is produced by the evaps.
“Yes things have got bad, but they’ll probly get worse, if you can’t drink the oil, you might, you might die of thirst…
Cause it’s oil, oil
and it creeped into the sea
oil, oil
oh don’t buy it at the station, you can have it now for free, just come on down the shoreline where the water used to be.”
Steve Forbert 1979 (or thereabouts)
That was fast, they said earlier today it might take a couple of days to determine whether or not it would work. Maybe it’s just a smoke break.
Ok thats scary but fitting.
Are the two mutually exclusive?
I assume they are still filling the Gulf with the dispersant corexit.
The colour of the blow has changed. Plume on the left is darker now.
The spill is getting to big lots of states might be having the same problem soon.
Let’s see. The U.S. has 1 Death Valley, and soon 1 Dead Gulf. The rest of the world? The Dead Sea. Still number 1. USA, USA, USA.
Hard for me to tell. Wonder if this is being produced in a large tank in Houston.
Language reflects culture priorities and I do believe we have more words for death than any other culture.
What a calamity. This is huge.
Gotta bug out before a thunderstorm hits… no wipers on the bike.
Happy Memorial Day
Good talk:)
You to hotdog. Be safe.
If you haven’t seen it here’s a site work taking a look at. The cost of war. It’s staggering the military money volcano has even greater pressure than the Deepwater Horizon.
http://costofwar.com/
I very much agree with this statement and I’m very ashamed for FDL where the opening pc punk ‘ubetchcans’ demeaning words opened comments and apologize to any and all Gulf locals should they be reading.
Just FYI ubetcha:
1) Coastal residents often stock water in plastic bottles, and these ones in particular have a vivid memory of why: I believe its name was “Katrina.”
2) Coastal water systems are often catch as catch can, literally: Even municipal water systems cannot always adequately treat the naturally occurring elements (notably phosphate) endemic in coastal wells, so some, rather than incurring a municipal water bill, catch rain water in cisterns, the water from which is not potable.
While you idiots are carrying on about bottles of water, you’re missing the point of the article. We’ve already polluted vast stretches of ocean in addition to the Gulf. You eat sea food at your peril. But at this rate there will be no sea food and, as a result, perhaps no people. Unless you’re prepared to eat weeds.
My dear friends,
Welcome to the wonderful world of rapacious capitalism, commonly referred to in the U.S.A. as “freedom.” The oil (chemical, manufacturing, et al.) companies get to use the shared environment as they wish. They mine, make and steal what they want from the environment in order make a profit. Of course, other less powerful users of the environment suffer economic and health reversals. This is called free enterprise. That is commercial enterprise takes resources (e.g., air, water, etc.) from the people of the planet for the benefit of their enterprises for free. They keep the profits and the ordinary people become homeless, unemployed, poisoned and sick. However, it is their own fault for not being born to well to do parents. This is called equal opportunity.
The blindness of otherwise intelligent people to perceive the root cause of their misery astounds me.
I hope you wake up soon. Time is running out.
Yeah, they just lost their lives, a hundred years of a family tradition of livliehood, and you wanna lecture them about enviro shit?
That’s disgusting to even post.
You should be ashamed of yourself for doing such in their time of need and grief and devastation.
You have no heart, and no soul, it would seem.
Disgusting.
Rubbish.
I don’t know how many leases GP has in the Gulf, but they are already pumping and extracting oil daily from any number of rigs in shallow and deep waters.
Their profits are in the billions upon billions from their investments in The Gulf.
They are NOT gonna pull up and bail in any manner.
And, they have considerable ties to our national security apparatus.
They are protected by our own military, government, legislators and elected and appointed offals.
They ain’t goin no where.
It might destroy thousands of more square miles inland in regards to water quality.
Absolutely. Spot on, hoss.
I never knew about evaporators on Navy ships . . . I never served, either.
Fascinating field!!! Hmmmm . . . . so why aren’t those used for public service to people in areas where it would be feasible? Such as, shoreline! Cost?
For practical purposes, they are one and the same.
Really appreciate your up close efforts. Thanks for showing us and talking to the people of the area up close and personal
Dumb question. Can you move Oyster beds? Can we transplant them somehow and save them? Or is that so Epcot Center World of Tomorrow?