BP Must Pay for Damage to Local Businesses

By PETER ROBINSON
 
Editor's note: This editorial marks the second in a series entitled "Breaking the Bubble" - the series aims to promote awareness of current events within the "bubble" of the Advanced Studies Program community. You can access the podcast connected to this topic by clicking on the heading and we will hope that you will join us for a lunch discussion on the spill this Friday (July 23rd) in the Lowest dining hall.

Eddie Kurtich is the owner of Eddie’s Quality Oysters in the Plaquemines Parish community of Port Sulphur, Lousiana. He has been the proud owner for the past 40 years and employs up to six people. Since the explosion that led to the oil spill, Kurtich hasn’t been able to collect nearly enough oysters to keep his business running as well as it previously did.

Courtesy: United States Coast Guard

Last June, Kurtich sold 40,000 sacks that consisted of 100 pounds of oysters each. This year, he expects to sell between 6,000 and 8,000 sacks.  He petitioned BP for assistance, showing them the statistics that prove his lack of business. However, BP has not given him any payouts. Other business owners he knows have received $1,500 to $2,500, but, he said, “hardly anybody’s getting big money.”

Kurtich plans on selling a fraction of what he sold last year. BP must take responsibility for the downfall of Kurtich’s business; the company disregarded many warning signs, including a small blowout that occurred months ago, that could have prevented an incident of this magnitude. Logically, BP should have looked into how this happened and if it could happen on a larger scale.

When Kurtich went to BP and explained how they ruined his business, he asked for compensation from the $20 billion fund that President Obama mandated that they set aside for those affected by the spill. BP was incredibly slow to respond and Kurtich has yet to receive the compensation that he needs.

Businesses have been affected because the marine life isn’t as accessible and because tourists have not visited the Gulf Coast as much as in the past because of the impact of the oil spill on the region's beaches. To make matters worse, a national study conducted by the University of Minnesota and cited by the New York Times discovered that 44 percent of people surveyed refused to eat seafood from the Gulf of Mexico.

All of these problems, along with those that businesses like Kurtich’s have encountered can be traced back to BP’s gross negligence.  There were multiple safety precautions that did not function properly in the well because they were not put in place. This includes an ultimate fail-safe deadman system which would have resulted in hydraulic pincers crushing the pipe shut, immediately cutting off any oil flow.

On July 14, BP performed a test in an effort to determine if the pipes could pressurize, therefore stopping the oil from gushing out. The pipes have indeed pressured, but at a much lower pressure than expected, which raises additional concerns. Even though BP has been successful in stopping the oil from leaking into the Gulf, the cleanup remains a large challenge and the full effects of the spill will persist for many years to come.

Clearly, BP should have been proactive, taking more precautions before this disaster occurred instead of waiting and hoping for everything to work out. Data showed that there was a chance this could happen and BP did not take sufficient action to regulate safety or to prevent the issue from happening.

BP has created a disaster and it will take most businesses a long time to recover. Many smaller fishermen deal mostly in cash; therefore, they do not receive receipts. As a result, they have trouble proving their significant losses since the spill, and BP will not pay these fishermen compensation.

BP is taking advantage of their situation; they have a lot of money and resources and yet pay little attention to smaller businesses as well as the environment. Their business is profits, and that is exactly what they took from small businesses in the Gulf. BP will endure this catastrophe, but the survival of the small businesses remains in question.

BP must take complete responsibility for their actions and do something to help the local businesses that are suffering as a result of their mistakes. While local entrepreneurs follow the rules, BP ignored numerous safety codes and would have continued to do so, if not for the spill. If BP doesn't take immediate action and provide relief for people like Eddie Kurtich, then Gulf Coast fishing may be shattered for a long time and tourism could cease to exist.