NAACP investigates impact of Gulf oil spill

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s six OFF-SET questions is Jacqueline Patterson, the NAACP’s Climate Justice Director.

During her 3 and 1/2 year term as a volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps in Jamaica she worked with the Community Environmental Resource Center which began due to the contamination of the Harbour View community water supply by the neighboring Shell Company plant. After Peace Corps, Patterson went on to earn two Masters Degrees in Public Health and Social Work from Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland respectively. She is co-founder of the organization Women of Color United (WOCU). 

On Wednesday, April 20, 2011 the nation’s oldest civil rights organization releases an NAACP Special Investigation into the BP Oil Spill—the disaster that began one year ago today.

You and your team spent the better part of a year conducting this study and you reached the conclusion that the physical and mental health of Gulf residents is a primary concern. What kinds of health problems are people facing?

People showed us skin lesions they had acquired after being in contact with the water during the clean-up efforts. Others showed us documents from their health care provider showing compromised breathing after working on clean-up crews. One woman who had encountered spray from the water states that she is losing her vision in one eye. Her health care providers haven’t been able to pinpoint the source of her deteriorating eyesight. Many people reported depression. Yet others confessed to an increase in alcohol consumption.

Your report calls for BP to finance physical and mental health care systems to provide extensive care, from assessment through treatment. In your discussions with BP, are they open to this recommendation?

We’ve heard a willingness from BP to invest in research on long term impact on health. However, what we’ve heard from Gulf residents is that they don’t want people to study why they died. They want to know what’s wrong with them now and they want it fixed. 

BP has given some money to mental health care, but there needs to be more investment in strengthening the mental health care systems throughout the Gulf so that no one is turned away who is in need of care.

You also recommend that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility must immediately reform the claims process. For those who have never been through that process, what are the problems and how do you think they can be fixed?

The problems with the claims process are so many and the GCCF apparently did not incorporate the recommendations that were shared when they ask for comments on how they were doing their work.  So, instead of seeing changes in the system, people, who believe they have submitted all requested documentation, are still receiving denial letters with little explanations/guidance regarding what is needed. Detailed guidance must be shared on what is missing from denied claim applications.

Community based organizations that have lost money due to a drop in donations while experiencing a significant rise in demands, are still having a hard time figuring out how to file claims. A special category in the GCCF process should be created so that CBOs can be reimbursed for their losses.

People are still being placed in the top tax bracket because of the size of the payments they get from the GCCF and the category under which it is disbursed. No regard is given to the fact that these lump sum payments and the way they are disbursed is giving a false illusion of wealth when these payments may have to last for years and much of the payments, for some have to go into recovering boats that have sat for so long, they are in a state of disrepair. GCCF should work with the IRS to determine how to administer the funds in a way that incurs minimal tax liability for claimants.

GCCF formulas fail to take into account damaged credit histories, damaged rental histories, etc. and the resulting rise in interest rates people will have to pay, potentially for at least 7 years, depending on how long financial recovery and credit repair takes. There should be inclusion in the formula, some calculation that accommodates payment for this collateral damage to financial health.

Finally, the GCCF fund should provide support for financial counseling give the challenges that have arisen from the disaster itself, as well as the GCCF processes.

Did the BP oil spill have an impact on people of color to a greater degree than others in the Gulf area?

People of color experienced the impact differently in several ways. The thing that stood out the most to me in all of my conversations, that was particularly unique to African Americans specifically, was the fact that many of the people I talked to quit their minimum wage (or just above) jobs when recruiters from BP contracting companies came asking them to join clean-up crews with promises of long term employment from 1-3 years minimally.

Those jobs ended in a matter of a few months and the economy was so bad off by then that they couldn’t get any other job. So the vast majority have been unemployed since September-November at the latest.

Also, out of the 9 landfill facilities where the oiled waste from the disaster went, 6 were in communities that were predominantly communities of color and, in most cases, the community was not aware that this waste was coming. In several of the sites, including the one where the most waste was going, there was a history of non-compliance violations, thereby putting surrounding communities at possible risk.

According to ProPublica, BP has spent more than $16 billion to make things right. Is it the NAACP’s view that the company has not done enough?

• In a case like this, “making it right” cannot be defined by what’s behind a dollar sign. “Making it Right” can only be defined by results, as determined by the affected communities. 
• It’s not right when a woman is afraid of when her husband walks in the door because he has developed a new habit of beating her.
• It’s not right when a woman who lost her job is first evicted from her home, and then after living in her car, her car is repossessed.
• It’s not right when a man who has earned his own wages and independently provided for his family drops to his knees at a town hall meeting in front of Gulf Claims Facility Administrator Kenneth Feinberg to literally beg for his claim to be fulfilled because he’s down to his last $18 and his children woke up to no lights on Christmas morning.
• It’s not right that so many in the gulf are on their knees, literally and figuratively, before a system that is failing to deliver restitution, 12 months after this devastating disaster.

 That raises the question: when do you think BP will no longer be asked to help the people in the Gulf area?

BP will no longer be asked to repay the people in the Gulf area for all that has been lost due to this oil spill, when the Gulf is truly made whole again, as indicated by economic revitalization, restored   cultures and communities, people who are enjoying independent livelihoods, and people who are no longer suffering physically and otherwise.