Ben Raines of the Mobile Press-Register tells a different story: Oil penetrates previously pristine Mississippi marsh, weeks after well cap

HORN ISLAND, Miss. — Weeks after BP capped its runaway well, a greasy band of oil appeared on the grasses fringing Garden Pond, a previously pristine interior marsh.

Glops of deep brown oil floated on the surface of the saltwater pond Saturday and appeared to be scarcely weathered, compared to much of the oil that has come ashore. The oil penetrated deep into the green marsh grass, coating the stalks from the mud to about 18 inches up.

The stain on the grass around the pond looked like a dirty black ring that one might see in a bathtub, although the grass still seemed vigorous.
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Marsh periwinkles, the small snails found in coastal marshes by the thousands, could be seen clinging to the grass stems, bits of sticky oil present on their shells. Hermit crabs prowled the water’s edge, their shells also stained.

Clumps of oysters in the creek were smeared with a goopy layer of oil. A large blue crab encountered by the Press-Register raised its claws in defense of a small pool of water when approached but didn’t attempt to flee or bury itself.

Encountered again about 30 minutes later, the crab had expired, its claws hanging limp, small clumps of oil clinging to the mouth parts used for breathing and eating.

That blue crab wasn’t covered in oil, it just had small clumps on it. There were booms protecting the island, but they weren’t stained because the oil came in below the surface, something that has been noticed all along the coast. This oil is not all rising to the surface, it is coming in along the bottom.

Ben Raines in the environment reporter for the Press-Register and he gives a pretty detailed description of what was found. This wasn’t tar balls, this was oil. It isn’t rising to the surface, so it isn’t weathering.

Geoff Pender of the Biloxi Sun-Herald tells us that according to Mississippi leaders: Spill’s environmental impact overhyped

Gov. Haley Barbour, and the chiefs of the state’s two main environmental agencies — the Departments of Marine Resources and Environmental Quality — have proposed that this natural cleanup, along with some relatively minor scouring of tar off the beaches by BP workers, can be handled in a matter of weeks or a few months, not years.

“That oil might be degraded all the way to CO2 and water in a matter of weeks,” said DMR Director Bill Walker. “It might be six weeks, might be 10 weeks, but we are not talking about years.”

The it’s-not-so-bad crowd says the media and environmentalists have overhyped the environmental impact of the BP disaster, especially for Mississippi. The Magnolia State, thanks to geography, weather and tides, has been spared heavier oiling seen by its sister Gulf states.
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