Videos Of Oil Spill In Mayflower, Arkansas

22 families had to evacuate a suburban neighborhood in Mayflower, Arkansas due to Exxon’s recent oil spill. It is not yet a week since Mayflower began to suffer from the Exxon oil spill, which is estimated at 12,000 barrels of oil and chemicals. The smelly mess is horrific, with risks to nearby bodies of water mounting as oiled birds and wildlife tragically becomes part of the scene.

Flight restrictions over the site have been issued for media since this film was made:

“The smell is unbelievable,” Drew Barnes, a resident of the affected neighborhood says in his video:

“Water is more Important than oil,” the CEO of Masdar, in the heart of Middle Eastern oil country, said just a few month ago. Echoing this voice from the Abu Dhabi Week of Sustainability makes this seem more tragic. So many predicted this. So many tried to prevent this.

There is at least hope is that the multitudes opposing the Keystone XL pipeline will develop a stronger foothold on the reins of this disaster, which has left many humans and animals suffering. At least there is hope for that.

There is hope that Exxon will act ethically. That hope keeps diminishing. A legal technicality exempts Exxon from being required to contribute money to a federal oil spill cleanup fund — because this is not typical oil (but even worse).

The media is being kept away from the scene, Chris Tacket of TreeHugger notes: “Arkansas Online (via DesmogBlog) reports that the FAA flight restriction is being overseen by an Exxon employee.” Exxon is determining when media can return to the air above this crude oil spill.

Here’s more from Chris Tacket on this:

Exxon Censoring Media at Arkansas Oil Spill Site
UALR Public Radio reports on how the flight restrictions will limit the media’s ability to take follow-up footage to compare and see how the cleanup is progressing. They also note how Exxon is blocking media access on the ground.

Attorney General Pledges Legal Action Against Exxon
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is also growing frustrated with Exxon. In this piece at Arkansas’ KATV, he says legal action against ExxonMobil is “a certainty“

KATV – Breaking News, Weather and Razorback Sports

Here’s a bit from a radio segment from UALR Public Radio:

“I let it be known that I would be coming today with lawyers and with investigators and we were coming on behalf of the state and many times they attempted to route me into a van and take me on a tour. And I tried to explain to them I’m not here for a tour and I’m not getting into a van,” McDaniel said.

“We are here on behalf of the state of Arkansas as the state’s lawyer, as a constitutional officer empowered by the General Assembly to enforce our laws and we were here to conduct an investigation, not take a tour. So I didn’t appreciate some of how we were treated, so I can only imagine how some of the homeowners must have felt.”

Apparently, from a closed-door meeting Exxon officials held with Mayflower residents, the evacuations are supposed to last for weeks, and there’s no indication how Exxon will compensate homeowners and other residents who are being affected by all of this.

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