The Biggest Oil Spill in History

New Government estimates now place BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill as the largest in American History. "Even using the most conservative estimate, that means nearly 18 million gallons have spilled so far. In the worst-case scenario, 39 million gallons have leaked." This kind of makes the Exxon Valdez look like chump change with it's 11 million gallons.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Puget Sound

Sightline has a good article that puts the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill into a local perspective. Imagine every inch of every beach that you have been to around Puget Sound covered with oil. Unfortunately there is a lot more than that, about 222 times the size of Lake Washington! This leads to another article which you can see the oil spill on an interactive map. Informative and sad.

BP's trail of Shame Shame Shame

How often do I quote a Republican in an environmental blog? According to a great article in today's Seattle Times "Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, told BP executives during a heated September 2006 hearing. "I'm even more concerned about BP's corporate culture of seeming indifference to safety and environmental issues. And this comes from a company that prides itself in their ads on protecting the environment. Shame. Shame. Shame."

There are too many great anti-BP articles out there to even read right now, let alone re-post for you. But are you listening South Seattle? What BP is doing in the gulf coast they have been dumping directly on us in a much smaller way for years.

BP is Slick with their Green Washing Campaign

Mother Jones has a good article about BP's greenwashing campaign. As expected BP is trying to deflect blame from themselves and onto the offshore drilling contractor. Hmmm...why does this sound so familiar?

Could it be because this is EXACTLY the tactic that they have been using here in Columbia City for the last five years? Trying to blame their inability to pick up trash around their store on an obviously oblivious franchise owner despite the fact that BP is the actual property owner? It's nice to see that BP is at least very predictable and that their problems seem to stem from their uncaring and irresponsible corporate culture.

BP Oil Spill Updates

The EPA has launched a website to track the BP oil spill http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/

I wish they would launch a website to track all of the trash not being picked up around BP's AMPM store here in south Seattle, but I guess that is asking too much?

Bloomberg is also reporting that "BP’s Response to Oil Spill Lacking, Officials Say". I got a good laugh out of that one. BP must have an entire department dedicated to avoiding responsibility, it will be interesting to watch them squirm out of this one.

BP Oil Spill 5x Worse Than They Thought

It sounds like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is 5x worse than they originally thought and that as much as 5000 barrels a day are headed for sensitive environmental areas. They are attempting to drill 'relief wells' but this will take as much as 90 days to slow the flow.

Remember folks, act locally! BP owns the AMPM gas station at 5600 MLK in Columbia City. They have one of the worst environmental records in history and they have a long history of not picking up their trash right here in our neighborhood. Please do not support this store or this company.

BP Oild Spill From Outer Space

Treehugger has posted some NASA photos showing BP's oil spill from outer space.

This got me thinking that I should look at Google maps to see if you can actually see the trash piles around BP's AMPM gas station from outer space. Although it's not nearly as dramatic, you can in fact see trash piled up behind the store and in the empty lot that BP owns next door. You have to zoom in, but take a look!


View Larger Map

Happy Earth Day?

What did you do for Earth Day? Take the bus instead of drive? Plant some trees? Pick up trash in the neighborhood?

Well..that is not what BP did! In case you have not been watching the news...that is BP's oil rig that exploded and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico. Does this come as any surprise to anyone? BP already has the record for the largest OSHA fine in history, but maybe they will top it off by having one of the largest environmental disasters in history?

Is it any surprise that BP can't seem to take responsibility for cleaning up it's AM PM store here in South Seattle? They seem to have a deep lack of caring about the environment that seems to go through their entire company. I wish they would spend less money on green-washing advertising and more money on safety and cleaning up after themselves.

P Patch Program

The city of Seattle is looking for areas to develop new P Patches. It would be so awesome if they were able to develop the unused portion of this AM PM to be used as a P Patch rather than a trash-patch which BP seems to use it as now.

Maybe if you are feeling kind you could take a minute to suggest that to the city of Seattle? They are looking for new p patch locations and you can suggest one here. you can read more about the program here.

If you are filling out the form, the address for this location is 5620 Martin Luther King Way South and the owner of the property is BP WEST COAST PRODUCTS LLC 6 CENTERPOINTE DR LA PALMA CA 90623

Record OSHA fine against BP $87M!!

I just read that BP (AM/PM's parent company) received a record fine from OSHA for refinery violations of $87 Million! Is it any wonder that they can not clean up their gas stations? I'm wondering if there is just a uncaring culture within this company that trickles down to the local stations. Is it any wonder that they can't be bothered to pick up trash on their own property?


p.s. what was the second biggest OSHA fine ever given? $21 million, also handed out to BP for safety violations.

E-Mail Exchange with BP continues

I still have not heard back from BP, the trash still sits on their property so I wrote another email.

Dear BP,

Attached you will find a photo of trash located on your property at 5620 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Seattle WA. This is the same trash that was located on your property that I brought to your attention on June 15th that has still not been picked up (service request 1-246954357) exactly half a month ago. If you look closely at the overgrown weeds you can also see the trash that someone dumped on your property some time last year which has still not been picked up by your company.

I'm just curious if any headway has been made on this issue and if you are going to ever start holding this franchise to the same high standards to which you hold your other stores by picking up the trash that has been lying on your property for months.

thanks,

E-Mail Exchange with BP

photo of large pile of trash piled behind behind Columbia City AMPM just the other day!

3/12/09 (letter from me to BP)

Dear BP,

I have a problem with an Arco AM/PM gas station in my neighborhood and I only recently discovered that BP is actually the parent company for Arco so I thought that I would bring this matter to your attention directly. My problem is trash, lots and lots of trash being dumped and left on the Arco property in my neighborhood and Arco not taking the time to pick it up. This has become such a problem that I actually keep a blog about it, which you can visit here.

http://ampmsucks.blogspot.com/

I have never gotten anywhere by writing anyone in your company with any of my concerns, and I don't expect this notice to get any results either, but I thought that I should continue to try as I realized I have been tracking the problems at this particular station for almost 4 years now, but you are welcome to read all about that in my blog.

Sincerely yours,

4/08/09

(almost a month later, trash still has not been picked up at the site.)

Dear BP Customer Service,

It has been several weeks since I sent you this email detailing trash problems at your store and I have not heard back from you. I'm just curious if any headway has been made on this issue.

04/09 (A letter from BP!!!)

Thank you for taking the time to send us an email recently. We are always pleased to hear from our valued customers. We have located this station and we apologize for the problem that you encountered at the BP/Arco station in Seattle, WA. However this is an Independently Owned Station and we have forwarded your concerns to Upper Management over the station for proper handling and also requested for a follow up call to you regarding this matter. Please allow 3-5 business days for a follow up call from Upper Management not including weekends. Once again thank you for your recent email, and we hope we have been of service to you. Thank you for your business.

(they never called, trash still on site)

4/30/09 (from me to BP, nearly a month and a half after trash reported)

Thanks for your email on April 9th letting me know that someone from Upper Management will be contacting me in 3-5 business days to discuss this situation. It is now April 30th and I still have not heard from anyone. Are you sure that somebody is going to contact me?
thank you,

5/4/09 (almost 2 months since trash reported)

FROM BP TO ME

We apologize if you have not been contacted. We have notified the BP Field Representative for this station and advised that this is your 3^nd request for a follow-up. They will request that the independent owner follow-up with you directly at their earliest convenience.

We appreciate your patience with this matter and apologize for the delayed response.

(I was never contacted by BP management or an independent owner)

5/27/09

FROM ME to BP(nearly two months since trash reported, some clean up has happened but trash pictured above still on site)

Thank you so much for your email. I just went by the store and I was impressed to see that the noxious weeds and 'lawn' had been mowed. I was amazed to see that most of the trash had actually been picked up except for a large pile of concrete and some barbed wire and some traffic cones it was looking pretty good. I was even more impressed that they threw their trash in the dumpster this time rather than dumping it on the neighboring property.

I'm curious if this was a one time clean up or if your company is going to start holding the franchise owner to the same standards as your other stores?

thank you,

P.S. you misspelled 'Acknowledgement' in the subject line of this email, if that is being auto-generated you might want to make sure and fix that.

June 9, 2009

Some trash still on site several months after being reported to BP they still have not contacted me saying when this will be taken care of or if there is going to be any regular maintenance on this site. BP is trying to spin this as being the responsibility of the franchise owner HOWEVER BP is actually the owner of the property and it is therefor ultimatley their responsibility.

another abandon car

I just reported another stolen vehicle that was dumped on the side of the AMPM Arco station on MLK. This is a HUGE problem in my neighborhood and I'm really bummed that Arco is not taking steps just to report stolen cars being dumped on the side of their property. As a matter of fact they are encouraging this by allowing the weeds to grow so tall that it gives cover to potential car problems. I let it sit for a few weeks this time hoping that I could just get in touch with someone from their company and get them to report it, but their customer service department won't respond to my messages. A sad day for my neighborhood.

Watching TV

I just walked by today and this TV is still sitting on their property. I kind of joked that maybe they were waiting for it to biodegrade, but maybe they really are?!? They picked up the tires (or somebody did) but no other real changes. How long has this tv been here now?

BP, one of the most polluting corporations in the world

I emailed BP customer relations again with more photos of the trash around their store, they emailed me back for some clarification but other than that I have not heard back from them. It's funny to me to see some BP commercials where they pretend to be environmental but in reality they can't even pick up the trash around their own store. Nice Greenwashing!

The truth is that Mother Jones named them one of the worst companies in the world in both 2000 and 2005 and is considered by the EPA to be one of the most polluting companies in the country.

Really BP...if you can't even pick up the trash that is on your property right in our neighborhoods, why should we believe that you care about the environment at all?

still life with stacked tires

Although Arco AM/PM gas station is still not picking up their trash. At least someone in the neighborhood has started stacking their trash tires to make it look more artsy. Way to go Arco!