Mission

How CTGN got started: Like the rest of my friends and family on the coast, I’ve never been one to sit and wait for anyone to take care of me. The problem in the wake of the BP oil catastrophe in our Gulf of Mexico, is that no one knows really how to “take care of this”. That stops now. I’m done watching in horror as BP makes a bad situation worse with the toxic dispersant Corexit, destroying and forever altering life as we know, life as the delicate sea creatures in the Gulf know it. And I’m done watching the government, USCG and local officials do their dance around BP, talking a good game but accomplishing very little. I’m done watching images of the marshes and wetlands die, and doing nothing about it.

With half of my family in Alaska, I know all too well the damage these toxic dispersants cause when used to disperse the oil, and have outlined several documented cases here. As soon as the Deepwater Horizon exploded I began receiving information and pleas from my family in Anchorage to ensure people on the coast understood what was happening, so they could take steps to 1. get things changed and 2. protect themselves. With the other half of my family residing in Baldwin County, on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, that’s been my mission ever since.

We are a grassroots, citizen-funded effort to clean up the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s oil catastrophe. Just like post-Katrina, we’ve grown weary and disheartened watching and waiting for our elected officials to step up and give us something more than lip service. Taking matters into our own hands, we have done the research and created this site to educate the public and make it very easy for you to write or call your local, state and national elected officials. The data clearly shows that dispersant use does much more harm than good, both short and long term, in the wake of an oil spill.

We have found a much better way, one that is no stranger to our state and federal government: Bioremediation. As citizens we have to demand that our health, safety and the delicate balance in our ecosystem come before profits. We are raising awareness and driving the message to elected officials and the EPA to ban the toxic dispersant Corexit and employ the safer solutions already available and approved.

Here’s the list of already approved EPA products, many of which are bioremediation products, but the EPA is not forcing BP to use them. We must demand more. We must demand more from our national media. This is a crisis of epic proportions – and the kind that we can do something about. Tell the media to stay on this issue every hour until Corexit and all other toxic dispersants are banned and we have embraced Bioremediation in the gulf.

It is important right now that we send one unified message to our government. In addition to donations we need people willing to call their local and state representatives every day. Access our growing contact list here (email us if you have some to add). Give them these three messages:

1. Demand that BP cease & desist using Corexit to hide their spill, IMMEDIATELY. And we’re not talking about the mealy-mouthed “suggestion” initially made by the EPA, who apparently has trouble standing up to an organization which pads their pockets so nicely. Corexit is a product to which BP assigns the label: “potential human hazard: HIGH”. At least 11 fishermen working around the dispersant have already been hospitalized, and CNN’s Sanjay Gupta has confirmed chemical irritation in some of these. This is guaranteed to only get worse, and BP knows it. This is why they had all these fishermen sign their liability away right up front.
2. Demand that your local governments along the coast begin to purchase these safe, non-toxic Bioremediation products to clean local area beaches, wetlands and bays, before dispersants damage us beyond repair. No more waiting for BP, who should NEVER have been left in charge of this. Your local officials can make the call, purchase and deploy the product. Settle up with BP later – this is NOT about money right now. It’s about vital, precious resources and endangered lives (including our own).
3. Demand that both BP AND the USCG step aside and grant open access to OUR waters so that the extent of this can be documented and BP held fully accountable. No delays – NOW!

This is how to contact the EPA – please do so daily!!

Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA can be found on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/lisapjackson and the EPA can be found at: www.twitter.com/EPAgov. Send a clear message – stop BP’s use of Corexit immediately!

Lisa’s office number is: 202-564-4700.

Regarding Donations

We teamed up with the Waterkeeper Alliance along the coast, via Mobile Baykeeper. This is a coastal-wide consortium from Panama City to Galveston, working together to save the coast and save our waters. Many people have asked how they can give and the answer is, click the donate button in the upper right column. This will link to Mobile Baykeeper donation page. While BP must be forced to pay for their damage, the process of getting the funds is lengthy and cumbersome. We need feet on the street now and this disaster is overwhelming these waterkeeper organizations. They have a great need for resources today. They are training thousands of volunteers, educating coastal residents how to monitor, document and report back what they find, training clean up workers, and fielding thousands of calls for help. If you are moved to donate to this cause, this is a very worthy one for you to consider.