The Big Oozy's beginning is almost a year gone, but reports of tarballs washing onto shore continue to trickle in with the tide. Missing among the conjecture, however, has been actual photographic evidence of the beaches where the oil's still rollin'. Sounds like a good opportunity for Mother Jones reporter Mac McClelland to have a standoff with a BP flunky! McClelland returned to the scene of her prime this week, seeking to see how the beach has changed in a year down at the Grand Isle-adjacent wildlife refuge, Elmer's Island. After the go-ahead lackey lambasting, she found an even better example of primitive thinking: cleanup workers who fashion their own tools. And, oh ya, there's oil, too.

In the wake of the Big Oozy, there were questions about whether the pollutants in the Gulf were bound to make coastal residents sick. Last month, a study formally confirmed that residents were reporting widespread symptoms. But there was still a lack of proof to tie them to the BP blowout. Well, one influential doctor is alleging that there might be a reason for that. Over at La. CoastPost, coastal scientist Len Bahr turns his concerns from barrier islands to corporate roadblocks. He recounts the stories of Dr. Mike Robichaux, who has witnessed Ochsner Health employees deny that illnesses of certain people close to the coast have anything to do with oil. But who, we are left wondering, is beind Ochsner?

Could it be? The phantom plume has come to exact revenge? The Coast Guard is investigating reports of a 100-mile oil slick near the site where the Deepwater Horizon went down, Rocky Kirstner with the Natural Resources Defense Council reports. Crews are apparently searching near the site of the Matterhorn well, which is north of the Macondo well site that spawned much environmental agony last year. There's been plenty of oil boo-boos since the Big Oozy, but none were reported to be anywhere near 100 miles in size.

The Big Oozy's path to the big screen featured animated productions, actors playing concerned citizens and even some financial help from BP. But the environmental disaster's turn on the red carpet got some serious help yesterday when a production company bought the rights to turn the epic New York Times account of the final hours aboard the Deepwater Horizon into a movie. The project is being helmed by a trifecta of production companies that execs are doubtless hoping will put their unique stamp on the project.

UPTOWN - A local environmental group released one of the first independent studies today on the impacts of the BP oil catastrophe. The Louisiana Bucket Bridage's report is nearly the only one that focuses solely on the health and economic impacts of last year's Big Oozy.

Earlier this month, oil spill claims overlord Ken Feinberg noted that payments to people affected by the spill were based on the expectation that the Gulf would be fully recovered by 2012. There was instant outrage, and the assumption that he was wrong. But the one-two punch of Southern time and academic time meant there was a little lag in someone coming forward to use, y'know, science to refute him. But, over the weekend, we got one. University of Georgia Professor Samantha Joye reported  that on a recent trip to the seafloor in a submarine, she found more oil than expected.

The Big Oozy hurt our seafood and our wallets, but there's less talk about how it's hurting our health. Nevertheless, there's an entire community of people, flying just under the radar, that are trying to alert the Gulf Coast communities about their vulnerability to illness for years to come. At 3 p.m. today, a sampling of those people will participate in a panel  at the First Unitarian Church on S. Claiborne Ave. The presence of lead speaker Wilma Subra, a chemist who's been warning people about the hazards of oil in the environment for 30 years, is enough of a reson to go on its own. The discussion will be streaming online here.

by Alexis Martinovich

The Macondo well leak might be plugged, but the flow of information from mid-level Washington officials keeps flowing unchecked. The EPA is said to be in the process of bowing to pressure to reduce the estimates of how much oil leaked into the Gulf this summer. The decreased estimate comes after the feds raised the estimate on the heels of independent reports that the flow was a lot more than initially projected. With current estimates around a 4.9 million barrel contribution to the Gulf ecosystem,  BP seems to be buckling under the pressure of paying to clean up its mess. Meanwhile, BP stocks are on the rise today. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone were rewarded for not finishing their chores?

Perhaps it seems like attorneys trying to hit BP where it hurts are throwing court action against a wall to see if it sticks. But who can blame them, what with the sudden availability of a certain sticky, black substance to put on the back of the filings. In their most recent move, attorneys Stephen Herman and James Roy are dusting off the statute often used by the FBI to prosecute mafia gangsters (and Louisiana politicians!).

Amid the Big Oozy sideshows, none comes with so putrid a stench as the spat over whether or not the seafood is safe to eat. Before oil even hit land, the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board launched a campaign to convince everyone seafood was fine. Well, this might've calmed the fears of the trusting vacationers in the North, but we here at the epicenter detected a ring of 'The lady doth protest too much.' But, with a class action suit headed by rainmaking environmental attorney Stuart Smith in the offing, the industry campaign is only ramping up. And what better to hammer home the point than a lambasting from James Carville. At least, he used to give lambastings.