POV of Gulf Pollution

Hello ATSers. This is my first thread. Let me give you some background on what I will be posting about and myself. I hope pictures post. If they don't could a person in the know U2U me?

I am a Marine Diesel Mechanic. Marine as in water not the military. The company I work for goes all over the United States and the world to service and fix crew/supply/oceanic freighters. If its diesel, we'll come fix it. What I am about to post about I see on every boat, everytime I go. No matter what country or state. It is sickening. I will be posting pictures of boat I am currently on.

I am in Forcheon currently. It is a porty "city" that boats come to for refueling, service, and loadingof equipment for oil platforms. This is a huge hunting and fishing community. We are slowly, but surely destroying this area. I'm no eco freak, but even this disturbs me.

Here is Coast Guard rules and regulations of what you can dump and how far out you have to be to dump it,



This is about to go overboard.



We are on dock. So nothing can get thrown over board. At all. Even dirty water. The crew on this boat is currently doing shipyard work. Cleaning and inventory and the such. Paint and acid lockers are part of that work.
These items spill and buildup all the time. Whole containers get thrown overboard when empty.



The rooms are scrubbed down with corrosive soap and vaccumed into a shop vac.




Fuel and oil samples are taken and then dump overboard.



Everything is then washed overboard.












This boat takes 12 people to run. I had to be secretive with takeing photos as that is a big no-no in the boat world. If you get hurt and sue you'll never get hired again anywhere. If you see something wrong and tell you'll never get hired anywhere. I took as many photos as I could, but there was alot more going on then I could capture.




I hope these people fishing know whats in the fish they catch.



Hope you enjoyed reading. Be nice its my first thread

I'll trying to answer any questions you have or answer anything if my bad grammar bad it unable to understand.

Pretty sick eh. And everyone worries about the carbon in the environment. Lets put a carbon tax on it, carbon credits, carbon capture and storage (CCS)...

No one looks at the real problem, that we are POLLUTING the crap out of this world of ours.

Maybe keep documenting this quietly and send it to news papers across the country once you have enough information. Don't sit on this.

reply to post by blahblah454


Not to mention when you get 12 miles out its legal to blow your sewage line. Then people go commercial fishing in same place it everyone dumps at. Think about that next time you bite into some fish.

I live in one of the most free and advanced countries in the world. The Capital city of one of our province British Columbia, Victoria, dumps its raw sewage straight in to the ocean. Halifax, another capital city on the East side of the country does the same.

The reason for this is that treatment is "too expensive". Give me a break!

I live and work in the area. I work for Stone Fuel (not the full name but you know the Co. I'm talking about) I work on the river now but I used to work in Fourchon. If they are actually dumping fuel samples you need to post an anonymous call to the coast guard. YOU need to bring the pain. The company I work for goes thru great pains to keep accountability of all potential pollutants that could enter the water. This is not common practice from what I've seen in 15 years on the job. The coast guard has access to testing procedures that can trace ANYTHING that comes from a particular boat, be it bilge, fuel, oil, whatever. They can track it to the exact boat. I've seen it done already. Please do more than just show and tell. Report them. You only have to do it once and it will start a snowball effect from the top down in that area. I fish there too. Please think about it.

I admire your bravery for posting real life problems you are seeing in person and possibly putting your job at risk.

From the information you posted it appears to be a very disturbing problem.

Hopefully, with people like you bringing this issue out, we can get some action taken to fix this.

reply to post by Khaaaaaan!!


This company isn't small. I've heard about your Coast Guard test, but have never seen it. I fix the boats not ride them you know. Anyway. If all these boats are running EMDs and using same oil/fuel wouldn't they only be able to trace it back to boats with similar specs? My dad is a port captain for a company and he was complaning the Coast Guard was giving him problems because his oil sample came back different.(Shell changed it formula) So I know the test works, but not that it can be traced back to a perticular boat.


My dad use to work at Stone. Hes a river rat. Thats how I got into this buissness.

reply to post by Isittruee


That's interesting about your dad. I might actually know him. Once we had about 15 tugs piled up at the end of our slip and there was a bilge spill floating around in our area. The coast guard came in and nailed the exact boat. That's just one example I've seen. I also heard stories of them tracking boats in open water for 50 miles because they were leaving a trackable sheen.

I know about the BIG companies like chouest or HOS ect. There must be some way to get the CG involved in this. If you want PM me on the company and boat details. I have close ties to certain people sitting on the Greater Lafourche Port Commission. I can also talk with my Co. safety person to figure out how to address this thru back channels or anonymously. As you might guess this alarms me and I am taking it seriously.

reply to post by Khaaaaaan!!


U2U me so I can reply. For some reason when I click member or go to your profile I have no message option.

The problem you are talking about has been going on for a very long time. They use "common practice" to justify their actions. That is not right.

Lots of these corrosive chemicals are used in ports and ship building factories all over the world. It is a common practice. Small amounts can be neutralized by the water but in certain areas, the amounts are excessive. If we were to stop using some unnatural chemistry it would be a lot better.

This present world full of unnatural chemicals is bad for the environment. People complain of cigarette butts on the beaches but cannot fathom that what you can't see is a lot more dangerous than what you see. The chemicals we use on our lawns, to wash our cars, to clean our homes, etc... are getting into the lakes and rivers at alarming rates. We cannot concentrate chemicals in one spot either, even if they are natural. Do we have to wash our cars every week? Do we have to have the nicest lawn in the neighborhood? These chemicals find their way into our water and food supply often.

Thanks for posting this and helping to keep awareness about what is still going on in the gulf. Are you seeing oil slicks out there? What about maybe seeing any other signs of the macondo oil leak that is still ongoing?

As for what you are documenting, this is a world wide issue. Mankind everywhere does not know what to do with their trash. They know how to destroy/extract Earth's resources, make products for money with the resources, and then pollute the Earth with their manufactured products that help to destroy the Earth and its inhabitants some more.