[StBernard] Alarmist editorial wrong on post-hurricane oil spill

[Westley Annis]

Alarmist editorial wrong on post-hurricane oil spill
Palm Beach Post Letters to the Editor

Friday, July 25, 2008

Do your editorial writers even bother to read the "data" that you cite when
trying to support your opinions with "facts"?

In your editorial condemning expanded offshore drilling. you said, " ... the
Houston Chronicle reported in November 2005 that (hurricanes) Katrina and
Rita caused 595 spills. The worst involved nearly 1 million gallons of oil,
just off the Louisiana coast." The Chronicle said, "Hurricane Katrina's
floodwaters unleashed 1 million gallons of oil from one of the massive
storage tanks at Murphy Oil's nearby refinery. The spill spread over 1
square mile and stained 1,700 homes, making it one of the largest
environmental spills to occur in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita."

Where does it mention being "just off the Louisiana coast?" This was a
land-based spill, as were practically all of the spills in the total of 595.
Some of them were vegetable oil spills. The Chronicle also noted, "In the
week after Katrina and Rita, 114 unknown sheens - rainbow, silver and
dark-brown slicks with no clear origin - were reported, the records show.
The spills are so thin and evaporate so easily that they likely disappeared
before anyone could reach them." As to the validity of the 595 number, the
Chronicle said, "All spills directly and indirectly caused by either storm
on any of those days were downloaded (from a National Response Center
database) and entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. In some cases, it
was unclear whether a spill actually occurred, though it was reported. It
also is possible that some incidents were reported more than once. However,
the newspaper was unable in all cases to determine which were
double-reported, so all reports were included."

Your editorial would have the reader believe that there were 595 oil spills
in the Gulf of Mexico due to hurricane damage of offshore oil drilling
facilities, some amounting to millions of gallons "just off the coast." That
is untrue.

PHIL SEXTON

Wellington