The LookoutFeinberg: The Gulf will fully recover from oil spill by 2012
It's been over 20 years since the Exxon Valdez spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude into Alaska's Prince William Sound, and some of the local fisheries still haven't recovered.
Still, Gulf Coast Claims Facility administrator Ken Feinberg said today that he believes the Gulf Coast's fisheries will recover fully from the 205 gallons of crude the BP spill dumped into the Gulf of Mexico by next year, and he's using that estimate as the basis for the financial settlements he offers claimants whose livelihoods have been affected by the disaster.
In a conference call with reporters, Feinberg -- no stranger to controversy of late -- announced his plan for paying final settlements. Under his proposal, claimants will receive twice their documented 2010 losses, while oyster harvesters will be offered four times their 2010 losses, since most experts seem to universally agree that oyster fisheries will be the hardest hit. The AP reports that Feinberg based his estimate of the long-term impacts to the Gulf economy advice of a Texas A&M University professor and a consulting firm.
Mississippi-based seafood processor Keath Ladner told the news agency that he still hasn't received a penny of the $1.7 million claim he submitted to the GCCF, and he doesn't feel that Feinberg is taking everything into consideration.
"It's just all uncertain. We still don't know how long it will take perceptions to heal across the country," Ladner said. "We may have certain species come back within a few years, but that doesn't mean the nation is going to feel safe buying it."
Environmental advocacy groups were quick to respond to Feinberg's announcement. In a statement emailed to The Lookout, the Ocean Conservancy blasted Feinberg decision as a premature one that's based on assumptions drawn from woefully incomplete science:
Feinberg made his early prognosis on Gulf recovery based in part on a recent Texas A&M report. However, Feinberg fails to say that this same report cautions that much uncertainty remains and that BP oil disaster impacts on marine species, fisheries and the food web may not be realistically known for years or even decades. Not until the many (Natural Resource Damage Assessment) studies are complete will we begin to have a better understanding of the disaster's true ecological impacts on the Gulf ecosystem.
Long-term independent monitoring and research of the Gulf is one of Ocean Conservancy's top priorities for comprehensive, Gulf region-wide restoration. Until that has been established, as called for in the National Oil Spill Commission's report on the BP oil disaster, any premature assessments about the timing of a Gulf recovery will undermine the much needed capacity for scientists and the federal government to respond to harmful impacts that may linger or surface in the future.
As for claimants who feel as though they're being short-changed, Feinberg offered a simple piece of advice: "If people feel that I have misread the available data or have underestimated the long term data, don't take the final payment."
(Photo: AP/Gerald Herbert)
