Contrarian Pundit

In April 2004, U.S. Marines assaulted the Iraqi city of Fallujah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, to clear it of insurgents.  Operation Vigilant Resolve destroyed the city and left tons of depleted uranium-munitions amid the rubble. The military has always insisted that the radioactive substance
Health researchers, on the other hand, are discovering the horrible truth:
Today, [...]

Last Wednesday evening, the EPA directed BP to use less toxic dispersants on the Gulf oil spill within four days.  BP’s favorite dispersant, Corexit®, has been banned in the U.K. for over  a decade and is linked to respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney, blood, and reproductive disorders.  Approximately 700,000 gallons have already been poured into [...]

When CBS News tried to film the thick oil washing up on Louisiana’s coastal marshlands, its camera crew was confronted by BP and its private military contractors, the Coast Guard:
CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports it’s an ominous sight. The oil is thick and black and stretches about a quarter mile down a beach. It [...]

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson spoke out today about the use of toxic chemical dispersants on the Gulf oil spill:
The long term effects on aquatic life are still unknown and we must make sure that the dispersants that are used are as non-toxic as possible.  We are working with manufacturers, with BP and with [...]

There are a couple of interesting implications to read from Justin Gillis’ excellent New York Times article on how the gulf oil spill has been mismeasured.
The facts: Two weeks ago, Seattle-based NOAA scientists hastily estimated that the gulf oil spill amounted to 5,000 barrels a day, revising BP’s initial low-ball guess of 1,000 per day.  [...]

Here’s what the Gulf of Mexico oil spill looks like when plotted on a map of the Bay Area.

[Via James Fallows.]

The AP raises the interesting possibility that Halliburton may be ultimately responsible for the Gulf oil spill:
As the mile-deep BP well continued to spew an estimated 200,000 gallons of crude a day, a lawsuit claimed that workers for oil services contractor Halliburton Inc. might have caused the April 20 explosion, which killed 11 people. Halliburton [...]

ProPublica’s Abrahm Lustgarten has the scoop, with comment from our own Richard Charter:
On Thursday BP began using the chemical compounds to dissolve the crude oil, both on the surface and deep below, deploying an estimated 100,000 gallons. Dispersing the oil is considered one of the best ways to protect birds and keep the slick from [...]

The EPA has ordered Columbus Salame, a Bay Area Italian-meats producer, to upgrade its deficient refrigeration systems within 90 days, after one of two serious chemical leaks last year sent 17 employees at nearby Genentech to the hospital.  But the long overdue order and the way the plant’s problems have been handled raise serious questions [...]