I guess it’s time for the East Coast to pay a price for our international obsession with oil. According to this video, the oil will come up the East Coast rapidly, arriving sometime in late summer. It will probably kill our beaches (just my speculation, but would you want to swim in water with a slick of oil on it?) so if you want to swim in the ocean this summer, best go early. You’ll be up against more than jellyfish later on.
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Kmareka.com 
And there is no end in sight! Why was there no contingency plan for this eventuality?
From Yahoo News here’s helpful first aid advice for oil exposure–
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_he_me/us_med_oil_spill_beach_advice
I’ve never been to your neck o’ the woods, but having been to New York City, I think the oil would be an improvement on the water there!
Actually, three of the major culprits for drinking water contamination are lead, bacteria, and disinfectants or disinfectant byproducts. New York City stacks up pretty well in terms of each of them and can be found here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/index.shtml. I believe Pete Seeger, Grassroots activist (one of my hero’s) and he started this movement to clean the NY River…http://watchingthewatchers.org/article/20876/clearwater-legacy. He did succeed and to this day the water has kept up it’s success…as he has kept up still walking and cleaning the area.
I agree with Mary. Environmental disaster is what my written work is about, but I have never seen such a case of corporate criminality as with BP. Canada requires “relief” wells to be dug at the same time as the original drilling; why didn’t we?
Hey Sekanblogger. I was in NYC yesterday and in Central Park they have this radical new invention. It’s called– public water fountains. Think of all the oil we could save if we used a few gazillion less plastic bottles.
Sekanblogger: there’s a big difference between NE and NY; don’t mean that as snark, just passing on some information. And people still go in the water at Coney Island, don’t they?
Ninjanurse, you just don’t get it. How can one show one’s taste and discretion by drinking from a public fountain? I mean, our sort just doesn’t do such things….
And Shelley, we didn’t require this, and the Canadians did because our gov’t is almost a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corporate America.
Plus, the Canadians understand the concept of “Pulic Good.” There are things that benefit the public as a whole that the market simple will not provide b/c they detract from Corporate Profits. Hence, stuff like pollution.
As to why there was no back-up plan, it’s for the same reason that the airlines refused to harden and lock cockpit doors prior to 9/11. It cost too much, and no one could have predicted that such a thing could happen. Or, if they did conceive it, it was still too expensive to be put in place.
This is what gov’t is for: to do the things that the public cannot do for itself (to paraphrase A Lincoln.)
This is also disturbing and has been a fact since 2007. excert from 80% of our fish is imported: “Retail giant Wal-Mart, for one, says it is working directly with shrimp farms in Thailand to clean them up and ensure imported shrimp in its stores are safe.” see full article:
http://fooddemocracy.wordpress.com/2007/11/06/80-of-us-fish-imported-less-than-1-inspected-most-loaded-with-anitbiotics/
I really wish I could have faith in Wal-Mart, but 2/2010 they had yet another class action suit for their Equate line which they were putting one BANNED ingredient on their Baby shampoo line – WTH!
So, where are we going to be after this disaster. I think my coy pond will be converted to a trout pond for me to eat out of – LOL!
I bought some Dr.Bronner’s soap. It brought me back to my youthful days and works as shampoo, body wash or even toothbrushing if you don’t mind a soapy taste.
I’m really pretty ignorant on the subject. All I saw was the water around Manhattan island.
Nothing beats the water on the Buffalo River. My father was canoe floating here in the early 60’s before the locals there ever saw a canoe.
http://www.google.com/images?q=buffalo+river+arkansas&rlz=1I7DKUS_en&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=t38NTIb1JsndnAfb8bGhDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CD4QsAQwAw
If you plan right, you can take a hot air balloon over the area. I prefer canoe, but if the water is up, it’s not for beginners.