[StBernard] Chalmette community meeting on Gulf of Mexico oil spill unleashes anger, frustration

[Westley Annis]

Chalmette community meeting on Gulf of Mexico oil spill unleashes anger,
frustration
By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
May 24, 2010, 10:32PM

A few minutes into the Monday night BP community meeting in Chalmette,
claims representative Allen Carpenter was explaining how to submit claims
for wages as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico when there was
an interruption from the front row.

"It's not just lost money, it's our heritage," said Erwin Menesses, a shrimp
net maker from the parish. "All you've sat here and talked about is money,
money, money, money. ... Can you replace my heritage?" "No sir, I can't,"
Carpenter replied. "Nobody can replace a heritage."

The exchange was one of many emotionally charged moments Monday night, as
fishers, politicians and everyday residents had one of their first
face-to-face meetings with representatives of BP, the Coast Guard and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Concerns ranged from fears
about the heavy use of dispersants to getting claims paid to simply how BP
let this accident happen.

"What are you thinking, with no backup plan?" asked Gary Holland. "How can
BP attempt an effort like that without being fully prepared for
contingencies?"

Glenn DaGian, a BP retiree who has come back to represent the company at
community meetings, fielded a raft of questions all night.

"The federal government has worked very hard in the past month to figure out
how the MMS either didn't regulate or should have regulated," DaGian said.
"We hired what we thought was the safest contractor out there, Transocean.
They had the world's most famous blowout preventer, made by Cameron. ... All
I can tell you is it was a colossal screw-up." 

One central question of the evening centered on how much BP would pay in
claims for fishers who had been receiving money from BP putting out booms.

After questioning from George Jackson, a crabber and shrimper from
Florissant, DaGian said that the claims reimbursement process is totally
separate from the "vessels of opportunity" program, meaning wages earned
from working for BP would not be counted against claims.

St. Bernard Councilman Wayne Landry asked the same question later in the
evening, saying "I want clarity because I don't believe from our attorneys
advising us that that's going to be the case at the end of the day."

DaGian repeated the assurances that claims would be fully paid, and another
BP public affairs representative said he would check with the company to
make sure that working for BP would not affect claims.

Simply getting work has been difficult for many of the fishers, and Landry
added that "we've got a community tearing apart at the seams because
everybody's anxious."

Patricia Diaz Meyer, whose husband, Mederic, owns four oyster boats, said he
has been unable to get work during the past few weeks because of favoritism
toward other fishers at the marina in Hopedale, and the tensions are
splitting bonds among fishers "They should be fighting to fix this, but
everybody's fighting against one another, and pretty soon there's not going
to be anything to fight for. It's just going to be covered in oil," Patricia
Meyer said.

George Barisich, the president of the United Commercial Fisherman's
Association, had pointed questions about the use of dispersant, which the
EPA has criticized but not forced BP to halt entirely.

A NOAA representative, Nicole Rutherford, said there have been many
misconceptions about dispersants, and that they are 10 to 100 times less
toxic than oil itself.

Barisich was skeptical at best. "There's three sides to every story: my
side, your side and the truth, and that's what were trying to get to,"
Barisich said.