FEMA's sale of Katrina trailers sparks criticism - washingtonpost.com

After Katrina displaced 770,000 Gulf Coast residents, the federal government embarked on what watchdog groups dubbed a "hurricane of waste." Lacking plans and contracting experts, FEMA spent $2.7 billion on 145,000 trailers and mobile homes. Many of the mobile homes, it turned out, could not be placed near the coast, under FEMA's own rules.

The agency rushed production of the trailers, with few safety specifications. Then, over nearly two years, FEMA officials suppressed internal warnings that there were health problems among 300,000 trailer occupants -- what lawmakers later called an "official policy of premeditated ignorance" -- before declaring that trailers should be abandoned in early 2008.

When they finally conducted tests, officials found formaldehyde levels in trailers five times greater than the average in most modern homes, and in some cases 40 times greater.

[Via: The Washington Post]

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Oil Spill Timeline Map

BP Gulf Oil Spill Controlled Burns

Each day, another way to define worst-case for oil spill

Even the most sober analysts are quick to say that this is such an unpredictable well that almost anything is possible. Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University, said additional leaks are a possible source of deep-sea plumes of oil detected by research vessels. But this part of the gulf is pocked with natural seeps, he noted. Conceivably the drilling of the well, and/or the subsequent blowout, could have affected the seeps, he said.

"Once you started disturbing the underground geology, you may have made one of those seeps even worse," he said.

Expanding deepwater drilling was BP's top priority

''This is a geological monster,'' the former president told CNN. ''That is one heck of an oil well. There's more oil down there than I ever dreamed.

''The navy could probably stop it, but there are all kinds of consequences that would have to be considered,'' Mr Clinton said. ''You could stop that well, but what else might you do that might upset the ecostructure of the Gulf?''

The navy would not need to use a nuclear weapon, Mr Clinton said, explaining that the navy could simply ''blow up the well and cover the leak with piles and piles and piles of rock and debris''.

EPA's Update on Dispersant Research

Top EPA Scientist to Discuss Data from First Round of Dispersant Testing

Keep any eye on the links for updated information coming out today on Dispersant Research.  It will be interesting to see what they have to say.

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