Did you think BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster was all cleaned up?
Lesley Pacey has news for you.
Alabama mom sounds a warning.
By Pat Elder
August 29, 2022
On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers and the largest spill of oil in world history. 4 million barrels of oil flowed from the damaged well over an 87-day period, before it was finally capped on July 15, 2010. To make the oil go away, toxic chemicals called 'dispersants' were sprayed in unprecedented amounts. The beaches looked white enough and after a few years the tourists came back. Story over.
“The world was led to believe that the cleanup was a success, that the dispersants were harmless and life was back to normal,” says environmental activist Lesley Pacey. Lesley became an advocate for human health after her daughter, Sarah was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia at age 4 in 2004, six years before the devastating oil spill. Sarah’s cancer was part of a leukemia cluster in Fairhope, Alabama, where they live. Thankfully, Sarah has been off treatment and in remission since 2006.
Sarah and her mom, Lesley Pacey
Sarah’s diagnosis opened Lesley’s eyes and she witnessed many rare cancers and neurological diseases in her community on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay. In response, she founded Eastern Shore Community Health Partners (ESCHP) in June 2008, two years before the oil rig disaster. Lesley got a jump start on things. She began tracking brain and neurological cancers, leukemias and lymphomas, as well as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The Alabama Department of Public Health wasn’t doing the job, so she stepped in.
Lesley maintains a database and maps of rare cancers and neurological diseases on the Eastern Shore dating from 1995 through today.
Lesley explained, “Twelve years after Deepwater Horizon, people are suffering from serious health problems, cancers, neurological ailments and other chronic health issues. We're seeing premature death and exposed populations and rising cancer rates - and these numbers are unfortunately expected to increase.” Lesley is confident ESCHP can improve public health by appealing to scientists to conduct long overdue environmental testing in Eastern Shore communities.
A documentary, The Cells of Baldwin County, was produced in 2016 about her cancer cluster research efforts. The film won a best short documentary award and was featured in Lancet Oncology.
Lesley has worked with whistleblowers for The Downs Law Group, assisting with chronic health claims on behalf of hundreds of clients harmed by exposure to the BP oil spill of 2010.
Lesley also is associate producer of – as well as featured in - a feature length documentary on the health effects of the oil and Corexit chemical dispersants on the Gulf Coast residents and oil spill exposed workers. The Cost of Silence, directed by Mark Manning, debuted on Jan. 27, 2020 at The Sundance Festival.
Lesley spends a lot of her time writing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and reviewing and identifying key documents that prove causation as well as disinformation by BP, its subcontractors and governmental agencies attempting to conceal the human health danger of the environmental disaster. If Lesley didn’t do it, it might never get done. The “system” is broken and exists to protect corporate and military polluters.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010 was the world’s worst offshore oil drilling accident in history. The resulting oil spill contaminated 68,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico and threatened the lives of millions of people.
From BP employees to clean-up volunteers to coastal residents and vacationers, Gulf Coast families and communities of all ages, races, and classes are suffering chronic illness, cancer, and premature death at rates far above national averages. The common link among the victims: all were exposed to oil and dispersants. See The Cost of Silence.
More dispersant was used on the BP spill than in any other oil spill in U.S. history.
Moreover, for the first time ever, the EPA approved using dispersants not only at the surface but deep underwater at the source of the spill. Approximately 1.84 million gallons of dispersant were applied, with more than 1 million gallons on the surface and 771,000 gallons pumped deep into the water column to dilute the oil.
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said, “BP carpet-bombed the ocean with these chemicals, and the Coast Guard allowed them to do it.”
The Dispersants kill fish and crustaceans at all stages of growth. They also kill bird eggs. These deadly chemical dispersants are used around the world. It’s the price for societal addiction to petroleum.
The Coast Guard reported that the Deepwater Horizon rig had a foam sprinkler system containing 200 gallons of super-concentrated aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containing PFAS. It has been consumed by the gulf. This, in itself, is an environmental disaster.
One of the dispersants used at the BP spill, Corexit 9527A, contains the toxin 2-Butoxyethanol which "may cause injury to red blood cells (hemolysis), kidney or the liver" with "repeated or excessive exposure," according to the manufacturer's safety data sheet.
Corexit 9527A was sprayed on the 11-million gallon oil slick created by the Exxon Valdez spill, and cleanup workers reportedly suffered health problems afterward, including blood in their urine as well as kidney and liver disorders, attributed to 2-Butoxyethanol. Corexit 9527A is significantly more toxic and less effective than other available EPA-approved dispersants.
Lesley is not about to let it any of this go. She sees people getting sick in her community and she is acting to change it. We can learn a lot from Lesley Pacey.
Lesley will be in Washington at the SAFE EPA Protest on September 20th.