Clean Economy News
Most Viewed Stories
Oil Spill Troubles Multiply Within Vietnamese Fishing Community
BAYOU LA BATRE, AL. -- Cua Huynh sits on the living room floor of her trailer and cries. The 72-year-old Vietnamese woman relied on income from shucking oysters at a nearby seafood processor, but she has been unemployed for nearly four months since the Gulf oil spill shut down the industry.
“I don’t know how to do anything else,” Huynh says through a translator. “Without the oysters, it is going to be hard.”
Checks for $300 a month from the BP claims office haven’t been enough to make ends meet, so Huynh has been visiting the local food bank, walking the streets to collect aluminum cans, and selling the chickens that she raises in her back yard.
Part of the reason she is crying, she says, is from gratitude – friends and neighbors bring her food, and sometimes local stores will buy pumpkins from the sprawling vine in front of her house.
While all people who rely on the region’s seafood industry are suffering as a result of the oil spill, the Vietnamese community faces additional challenges because of the language barrier.
“A lot of information doesn’t get communicated because a lot of service providers only speak English,” says John Nguyen, a coordinator with the Vietnamese American Young Leadership Association (VAYLA) of New Orleans. “There are some interpreters but they are trying to get the information out to a population of about 40,000.”
This large community of Vietnamese immigrants trickled into America in the wake of the Vietnam War. Many, such as Huynh, came under the AmerAsian Act. She says she was one of those seeking a better life for herself and her daughter, who had been persecuted since birth because her father was a US military man.
“A lot of people were treated like they weren’t even human because they were mixed,” explains David Pham, a counselor with the nonprofit group Boat People SOS. “They were called names, spat on, not allowed to go to school.”
After arriving in America, Huynh and thousands of other immigrants were attracted to the gulf coast because they already have the skills to work in the seafood industry – as boat owners, as deckhands, or processing the catch. Roughly one third of all fishing boats along the gulf coast are owned or operated by Vietnamese immigrants or their descendants, and almost all Vietnamese-American families in the area are affected in some way by the spill.
“We don’t know how many months we’re not working,” says Loi Le, a Bayou La Batre man who also works in a seafood processing plant. “We just stay home. You go outside, you come back in. That’s all.”
Non-profit organizations such as Boat People SOS (BPSOS) are working overtime to offer support to the Vietnamese community. BPSOS, a national organization that originally formed in 1980 in Virginia, has received grants for additional translators at their offices in Biloxi and Bayou La Batre.
“Even though the oil spill has been capped the community is still reeling from this,” says Danny Le, the regional branch manager for the organization.
On an ordinary day, the small, homey office of BPSOS in Bayou La Batre is busy with a steady stream of visitors. People come by to get help with everything from filling out a deposit slip to re-writing a money order. BPSOS staff also host food banks and informational meetings to keep community members up-to-date on the BP claims process.
“It’s a lot on your shoulders,” says Pham, sitting at his desk cluttered with papers. “Giving school supplies and passing out food and making sure they get their assistance helps for right now, but what happens down the line when the oil spill affects us for ten years, and the benefits run out?”
- 1
- 2
- next page »
Comments
Oil Spill Response
Submitted by Bill Reeder (not verified) on February 26, 2012 - 11:27am.
Oil Spill Eater II EMULATING MOTHER NATURE
HOW BIOREMEDIATION OCCURS IN MOTHER NATURE
We need to first explain what happens In Mother Nature when a hazardous
material is spilled. (Note that the key words used here are set in bold and defined in a simple glossary on the last page.)
There is a myriad of bacteria everywhere on the planet. Where a toxic spill comes in direct
contact with bacteria, that bacteria is killed or dies off. Bacteria that is proximal [near] to the spill but not in direct contact, reacts in several ways:
- First, the bacteria separate themselves far enough away so as to protect themselves from the toxicity of the spill.
- Second, the bacteria then releases enzymes and biosurfactants to attack the
spill.
- Third, the biosurfactants emulsify and solubilize the spill.
What this means is the biosurfactants will break up and partition the spill into a manageable consistency. In other words, it is breaking down the molecular structure of the spill or detoxifying it, so it can be used as a food source.
The enzymes then form binding sites on the emulsified or solubilize spill and
this is where the bacteria will initially attach themselves and start the digestive process.
There have to be large amounts of bacteria for this process to take effect, and, if left solely to nature, it is a long process for bacteria to acclimate themselves to a spill. It then takes further time for the bacteria to release enzymes and surfactants.
One of the limiting factors is the number of bacteria present to produce and release enough enzymes and surfactants to get the process started.
This is why you hear scientists talk about adding nutrients to jumpstart the rapid growth of bacteria so enough enzymes and biosurfactants can be released to affect the mitigation of the spill.
However, nutrients alone have limited uses because of concentration requirements which are compromised in various environments--washed away or diluted by wave motion—and that, compounded with the time it takes to grow a large population of bacteria, reduces their effectiveness.
Wouldn't it be nice if there were a means of emulating Mother Nature while at
the same time, speeding up the process to mitigate in hours, days or weeks what Mother
Nature takes months and/or years to handle on her own?
There is such a solution: OIL SPILL EATER II
OIL SPILL EATER II (OSE II) contains exact proportions of enzymes, bio surfactants, nutrients and other necessary constituents for complete life cycles and biodegradation.
When OSE II is added to a spill, it is not necessary to wait on the proximal bacteria to release enough enzymes or bio surfactants since they are already supplied by OSE II. Therefore, the minute you apply OSE II, there is sufficient biosurfactants to start the emulsification and solubilization process. This process generally takes just a minute or two, or possibly several more minutes depending on the consistency of the spill. As the bio surfactants do their job, the enzymes are attaching themselves to broken down hydrocarbon structures, forming digestive binding sites.
Note: Once this process has occurred, several important changes take effect:
1. The fire hazard has diminished.
2. The toxicity of the spill is rapidly diminished.
3. The odor or smell is almost non-existent.
4. The oil or spill will no longer adhere to anything.
5. The spill is caused to float, OSE II will prevent the oil from sinking.
If the spill has not reached a shoreline yet, but does so after application, it will not adhere to wildlife, sand, rock, wood, metal, or any vegetation.
If the spill has already attached itself, once application occurs, the spill will be
lifted from sand, rock, wood, metal or vegetation and wildlife. OSE II is the perfect solution for cleaning up oiled wildlife and marine life because it works so swiftly and is non-toxic, causing the oil to just easily slough off once sprayed on. This causes less trauma for the animal being cleaned and a much faster and easier cleanup process.
The spill is detoxified to the point that indigenous bacteria (natural to a given environmental location) can now utilize the oil as a food source. This also diminishes toxicity to marine organisms, birds or wildlife.
OSE II causes the oil to float on the surface of the water, which reduces the impact to the sub-surface preventing secondary contamination of the water column or tertiary contamination on the floor of the body of water associated with the spill area. The spill being held on the surface will make it easy to monitor.
OSE II also has an extremely efficient nutrient system which is activated once you mix
the product with natural water--water native to the spill environment.
While the spill is being broken down and detoxified, the indigenous bacteria already living in the natural water used to mix OSE II starts rapidly colonizing or proliferating the growth of large numbers of indigenous bacteria.
Once the bacteria run out of the OSE II’s readily available nutrients, they convert over to the only food source left: the detoxified oil spill. The spill is then digested to CO2 and water. In some cases you can see bacteria growing on the spill; however, in a short period of time, the oil will be digested to CO2 and water before your eyes on a contained spill. In laboratory tests, once you see the water in the test beaker or aquarium become turbid, you know it is only a matter of time before the contaminant is remediated to CO2 and water.
Unlike mechanical cleanup, which cleans up a maximum of 20% of the oil spilled, OSE II will actually address 100% of a spill. This information is substantiated by the EPA’s listing of OSE II on the National Contingency Plan for oil spills referred to as the NCP list, which contains the efficacy test performed for the EPA at LSU University. This documentation can be examined at: http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/ncp/products/oseater.htm.
Post new comment
|
© InsideClimate News |