Debate over whether oysters from Louisiana are safe to eat
Published 1:39 pm Thursday, September 2, 2010
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists Julia Lightner,, left, Christine Seither, center, and Chloe Dean, right, drag a net along the floor of the Gulf of Mexico and Barataria Bay to check for oil in near Grand Isle on the Louisiana coast, in advance of the Monday's start of the shrimping season, Friday, Aug. 13, 2010. In addition to shrimp samples being lab tested, the LDWF took five shrimpers to spots of their choosing to check for the oil, and none was found. -- (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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Hyundai moves production of Santa Fe
The Wall Street Journal is reporting Hyundai Motor Co. is moving production of its Santa Fe sport-utility vehicle from its plant in Alabama to a new plant owned by affiliate Kia Motors Corp. in Georgia.
The move is intended to help fill Kia’s plant and give Hyundai more capacity to make its Sonata sedan in Alabama.
Production of the Santa Fe will begin sometime this fall in West Point, Ga.
Oil sheen spreading to Gulf platform explosion
NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) — A mile-long oil sheen spread Thursday from an offshore petroleum platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana, west of the site of BP’s massive spill.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough said the sheen, about 100 feet wide, was spotted near the platform owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy Inc.
He said Mariner had deployed three firefighting vessels to the site and one already was in place fighting the blaze.
The Coast Guard said no one was killed in the explosion and fire, which was reported by a commercial helicopter flying over the site around 9 a.m. CDT. All 13 people aboard the rig were rescued as they floated in the nearby water in survival outfits called gumby suits.
The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Vermilion Bay on the central Louisiana coast. It’s location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP’s well spewed oil and gas for three months after an April rig explosion.
Environmental groups question oyster safety
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Sampling by environmental groups has found oysters contaminated with oil along the Louisiana coast befouled by the BP PLC oil spill, a finding that casts doubt on statements by federal and state officials that all seafood tested here is safe to eat.
Batches of oysters were sampled on Aug. 2 and 3 near the mouths of the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers and laboratory tests revealed the animals were tainted by oil, according to Wilma Subra, a well-known Louisiana chemist working for environmental groups. The oysters were obtained from a reef and an old crab trap, she said.
The sample was backed by the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper and the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals says that since the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion the agency has found no oyster samples with high levels of oil contamination. The agency has been testing for the worst kinds of oil compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which have been linked to cancer. However, in 85 of 116 oyster samples, DHH has detected on minute amounts of PAHs, agency data shows..
