U.S. Military Planes “Crop Dusted the Workers” During BP Oil Spill Clean Up 

It is a piece of history that effectively has been buried, and it is eerily familiar to the stories of countless Deepwater Horizon response workers whose health and lives have been wrecked by exposure to oil and chemical dispersants with similar health impacts. Boat Captain John Scott Maas witnessed the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and eventually the gulf coast. 

 

My name is John Scott Maas. Those practices by the British Petroleum Corporation, which the U.S. government enabled, created nightmarish, unending health tragedies for some 48,000 clean-up workers, those living in surrounding Gulf communities and the environment. The primary cause was use of the deadly dispersant Corexit. Corexit was a public relations triumph because it falsely made it look like the oil disappeared. But it didn’t. Rather the so-called dispersant fused with the oil to create a new, far more toxic compound that sank to the sea floor, creating an underwater Death Valley. Even worse, the price was grotesque human tragedy. I am making this record to demonstrate why the use of Corexit must be banned to prevent that tragedy from happening again.   

My involvement in the BP oil cleanup (through my participation as a “Vessel of Opportunity” and the eventual VOO Program) commenced immediately after the spill in May 2010 through approximately July 2010 (effectively, slightly less than two months). During that timeframe, my workdays lasted from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM seven days per week for the entire period. During that time, I did not participate in any other work activities for any other contractor, nor did I pursue any other employment opportunities. I was exclusively devoted, 12 hours per day, seven days per week, to the intense, daily activities necessitated by the emergency conditions in the Gulf. I was one of about 11,000 vessels in the Gulf who worked diligently to minimize the dangerous, toxic effects of the constantly gushing oil [uncontrolled for 87 days], as the site pumped billions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.   

My work also included cleaning the badly fouled, environmentally protected marshes in and around the area. Those marshes were saturated and devastated, and the cleanup was devastatingly difficult for everyone involved. Finally, we focused greatly on the area that I referenced above, which is of particular interest to me: wildlife rescue, cleanup, and rehabilitation.  

Every day during the cleanup BP reassured us that Corexit is as safe as Dawn Dishwasher soap. They knew better. The Manufacturer’s Safety Data Sheet repeatedly requires Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as gloves, and eye and face protection. Exposed skin surfaces and clothes must be washed immediately. That is because as early as May 2010 the Centers for Disease Control knew and warned that Corexit could lead to chemical pneumonia if it gets into the lungs; central nervous system depression, as well as injury to red blood cells, kidneys and liver.  

BP totally disregarded these warnings and safety standards. Instead, they removed all the safety labels from Corexit barrels, as well as all safety warnings from the incident command centers.  They replaced responsible practices with the following reality for those in the VOO program. To illustrate –   

  • Daily we were told that we’d be safe without PPE, and if we tried to use it we would be fired immediately. Worley and Parsons Group, the contractor whom we worked for directly, forbade the use of the safety equipment I had purchased due to what BP described as “photogenic negative opportunity” — in other words, because the use of respirators and PPE suggested toxicity to the press and the public, which BP and their public relations team intended to minimize. Instead, we were instructed to wear clothes such as shorts and flip flops on the boats.  
  • Although it was supposed to occur daily, there was no decontamination of workers or anything else. We routinely had to drive home in our contaminated clothing with our contaminated boats in tow.  
  • Hazardous materials training was shrunk from the legally required 40 hours to 8, even though many of the employees had language difficulties and no previous training or experience.   
  • There were only three air quality monitors for the 100-mile coastline, and the results were not shared with VOO captains.  
  • There was no support for health-related issues. We did not have a place to report conditions and get help, and workers were fired immediately if they raised concerns at morning meetings.   
  • We were threatened with immediate termination if we took pictures or spoke with the media.   

I personally experienced the culture of retaliation. In July a fire broke out on a barge used to transport equipment. I got the crew removed and the fire extinguished in five minutes.  However, I was fired 48 hours later, because I refused to falsify records about what had happened.  

Because of these practices, I and all the other cleanup workers were heavily exposed to Corexit. The government helped BP to poison us. Military C-130 planes from the Coast Guard and Air Force Reserve basically crop dusted the workers with what BP has admitted were some 1,800,000 gallons of the dispersant. They would spray 232 gallons per minute, 100 feet above the water, in my case directly above me.        

My work was focused on an area approximately three miles from the shore, something of a “last opportunity for protection” for the increasingly contaminated shoreline. On a daily basis [12 hours per day], I worked in my boat, Super Skiff One, which is approximately 17 feet long and 5 feet wide, with space gunnels or sides less than one foot from the water line. Accordingly, it is obviously not a large vessel. It is highly susceptible to water entry in rough waters. It is difficult to control in rough waters. It is impossible for a sustained period of operation in the water to keep ocean water and any “dispersed oil” and chemicals from entering the boat. I am not exaggerating in stating that one of my typical deckhands and I would be literally covered with the “disbursed oil,” which had flowed from the spillage site. BP has nonsensically insisted that oil clean-up workers were not regularly exposed to both the vapor and skin contact with Corexit. That assertion is incomprehensible.   

Perhaps the most blanket exposure was the shoreline. As a lifelong mariner, I can affirm the common-sense observation that the ocean winds blow inland, and substances and objects left to float in the Gulf wash ashore. Corexit-saturated crude oil is no exception. It was plainly observable that the millions of barrels of oil with dispersant gushed uncontrolled and were washed ashore. More would be washed up from the sea floor after violent storms. That shore clean-up was my job for BP. It is not an exaggeration that there was not a single square foot of beach area immediately North of the spill site, ranging from Horn Island (to the west) to the beach areas of Dauphin, Alabama that were not fully and totally saturated in the two to the three weeks immediately after the spill. That blanket contamination continued for approximately one year after the spill occurred. I reiterate what may sound like an extreme exaggeration, but it is not: there was no portion of the beach areas described above where any person could walk two or three steps without coming into contact with the Corexit-saturated crude oil.   

The public health threat persists. Corexit oil is still on the shores of islands throughout the Gulf coast and remains an ongoing threat to visitors and recreation. At most about 10% has been recovered. The oil has hardened into tar balls that are in the form of charcoal briquettes, some as large as cars.    

BP had no reason to hire my boat and crew, and to assign us to the beach areas and ocean surface [three miles from the shore], except for one purpose: we were hired for the continuous and daily responsibility of “direct contact” with Corexit-saturated crude oil. I, my crew members, and every comparably assigned clean-up crew experienced a “level and duration” of massive, continuous exposure to Corexit. We breathed Corexit fumes, and experienced Corexit saturation of our clothing and skin, quite literally 12 hours per day, 7 days per week, for about two (2) months. I am aware of no comparably assigned work crew who would dispute that indisputable fact.  

Prior to my involvement in the cleanup activities following the BP oil spill, I can assert, unequivocally and unconditionally, that 1 was in very good health. I worked literally every day in a job that required vigorous and strenuous physical activity, with no disabilities or limitations on my physical condition or my health that in any way impeded my ability to pursue a job that I loved, and at which I excelled, as a boat owner and captain in the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. It had been my intention to continue in that work that I greatly valued well past the retirement age of 65, if my health circumstances had permitted. In the five-year period immediately preceding my involvement in the BP oil spill cleanup, I had no obvious (disabling) physical issues. 

My physical condition changed in a dramatic manner immediately after the spill. Of course, the most dramatic and noticeable effects occurred while I was on the water [as described below], coming into direct contact with the chemical oil disbursements utilized by BP. But it must be noted that I [like many other shoreline dwellers in the immediate proximity to the spill site] began to notice burning eyes, shortness of breath, and other odd symptoms contemporaneous with the first usage of the experimental chemicals in the hours following the event. Having been involved in other oil spills, I have never experienced the type of immediate, acute symptoms that began with my initial work, and continued throughout the approximate six-week period that required exposure to both the aerosolized particles and the water that saturated my shoes and clothing twelve hours per day, seven days per week.   

Machines used by John Maas to breathe at night.

 Please note on this subject that the boat that l had chartered and used for the project was so irrevocably contaminated by the toxic chemical that after three failed decontamination efforts and a thorough analysis by experts retained by BP, the boat was salvaged as improper for future use of any type due to its toxic pollution. I asserted my rights, and BP had to reimburse me the full $42,000 I had paid to purchase it. Accordingly, it has been difficult for me to comprehend how BP can take the position that the boat was essentially totaled by permanent contamination from these highly toxic substances, but human beings working within the boat for an extended time were not affected, despite the well-documented medical and chemical publications that confirm the long-range risks and dangers associated with even minimal human contact with the chemicals.   

Accordingly, my life changed in May 2010, as I immediately began experiencing the physical effects of the toxic chemicals referenced above. Initially I tried to minimize them, as [l believe] most workers did. We saw it as a moral and patriotic duty to the country, and to our neighbors on the coastline, to endure whatever symptoms we had begun to experience. I would compare our frantic driven, emotionally charged attitude toward the cleanup as something very similar to the 9/11 first responders. We were single mindedly focused on accomplishing the job and depended upon BP to tell us the truth about the substances that they were using in their own desperate attempt to minimize what had become a public relations and financial disaster for the company. We had no idea that BP was lying to us and quite literally “experimenting” with highly toxic chemicals that a scientific study concluded was 52 times more toxic when mixed with crude oil. We had no idea BP knew [as they have now admitted] that Corexit carried long-term, harmful physical effects for even minimal exposure, much less the daily, skin-saturating exposure that absorbed highly dangerous chemicals into our body tissue and bloodstream.    

 Denial was impossible, however, when symptoms gradually, persistently became worse over time. I will describe the progression as follows: My deckhands and I immediately began to feel skin and eye irritation that I would describe as a burning sensation. We attempted to rinse away the constant exposure to the extent possible. We did not wear the same clothing day-to-day and attempted to wash away from our clothes and skin the odor and residue of the chemical dispersants that lingered on the boat and in our clothing. 

Beginning with the May 2010 exposure and moving through my July termination from my position, I experienced the following acute symptoms, on a regular basis, for the first time in my life: I continued to suffer from tremendous eye burning and irritation that would not relent even though I was no longer directly exposed to the fumes. My vision changed, and after three months I suddenly required reading glasses, which I had never worn prior to the oil spill.   

I began suffering from continuous respiratory problems manifested by ceaseless coughing, something that I had never experienced at any time previously in my life. I began experiencing an odd shortness of breath and related fatigue, which I had not experienced prior to the spill and which has worsened with time. My lack of energy and my inability to engage in any type of strenuous activity [at work or at home] changed my lifestyle 100%. l was forced to give up my beloved work as a maritime captain. The BP job was my last job, having been regularly and fully employed for my entire adult life up to that event at age 47.   

Over the next few years, I could not understand why I was gradually and progressively experiencing worsened shortness of breath and episodic bouts of uncontrolled, intense coughing. As noted above, I have not had any similar problems in my life prior to my exposure from the BP spill. I have never been a smoker and have no family history of any respiratory illness of which 1 am aware.   

 As my symptoms kept progressing, I became increasingly concerned. In about 2014, I saw Dr. Chad Griffen, a primary care physician located in Sparta, Tennessee. I explained to Dr. Griffen my entire medical history, emphasizing that I was entirely clear of any type of respiratory issues until the BP spill and that my progressing respiratory problems had lingered intermittently, but persistently, since that time. I also reported to him that I was experiencing severe, prolonged headaches. Dr. Griffen saw me on three or four occasions before referring me to Dr. David Henson, a pulmonologist in Cookeville, Putnam County, Tennessee. In approximately 2015, Dr. Henson sent me for medical testing at St. Thomas Hospital in Cookeville, Tennessee. Based upon those test results, I was diagnosed with chemically induced asthma, as well as reactive airways disease. Following my diagnosis, Dr. Henson attempted to conservatively treat my then worsening condition with an inhaler for my asthma and nightly oxygen.   

I also have consulted with Nurse Practitioner Jeanine Thompson at TLC Medical Clinic in Sparta, Tennessee. In approximately 2017, NP Thompson reviewed my history and concurred in the recommendations for a pulmonologist. She did not attempt to actively treat what was a clearly observable pulmonary injury. She did prescribe nebulizers intended to provide symptomatic relief, but with the understanding that it could not cure or significantly improve the gradually-manifested residual chemical damage.   

I received only minimal benefit from the inhaler and nebulizer treatments and eventually sought treatment with a Vanderbilt pulmonologist, Dr. Charles Wray, who has particular expertise in dealing with chemically induced respiratory damage. l began seeing Dr. Wray in 2016. My evaluation and treatment through Dr. Wray’s office has consisted of various medications [in an attempt to find one that will be most effective for my particular condition], as well as at-home sleep studies due to my inability to breathe at night. As my condition had worsened, I began experiencing nightly panic attacks due to my inability to breathe as l was trying to sleep. As a result, I was referred to the Crossville Counseling Center in Crossville, Tennessee, where they diagnosed me with PTSD related to the acute progression of my pulmonary symptoms, inability to breathe [particularly at night], and growing inability to cope with my disability.  The PTSD is further exacerbated, because the recurring, severe headaches have not stopped.    

My breathing has stabilized at an unacceptable level. Medical tests indicate I only have 35-45% lung capacity. I require oxygen every night to be able to sleep. I am continuing to be treated and evaluated by Dr. Wray. As far as my foreseeable prognosis and treatment plan is concerned, I do not believe that my respiratory function is going to improve based upon Dr. Wray’s comments. He has attempted various medications and has been checking for others after they failed. I am not getting that any medication is going to greatly improve my situation, as it has become clear over the past 3-4 years that my lung function continues to deteriorate due to the chemically induced respiratory damage.  

I am hardly alone in my misery. My deck hands and I all suffered rashes and growths on any skin surfaces where we had been exposed to Corexit, because there was no PPE and we were working in shorts. I had painful white warts, some as big as erasers. They’ve broken out some 20 times and continue to come back.   

 Too many of my co-workers and friends have died. The most painful for me was my life partner with whom I had lived for 11 years, Lisa Birdwell. Lisa also worked on our boat, trying to clean it as well as possible.  During our relationship she had never been ill before the BP spill. Three months into the job, on July 15, she became ill and took off work for the first time ever. She died 22 days later, infested with cancer in her brain, lungs, intestinal track and uterus.  

 This statement is not about the legal battle I filed against BP for damages, but for the credibility of my statement it is significant that I successfully asserted my rights.  I am extremely frustrated with the legal profession and lawyers who behaved like used car salesmen, pressured me to engage in unethical behavior, or engaged in fraud against the courts as BP lawyers did when in a filing they added contradictory text to my own statement. My protests convinced the judge to remove them from the case. I had to represent myself pro se for a period, and from that context managed to get my case moved to the Middle District of Tennessee and a fair judge.  I found dedicated, outstanding attorneys to represent me from the family law firm headed by William Burger.     

 BP aggressively contested virtually everything I have summarized above. BP hired doctors who never saw me to say that I had not been significantly harmed. The medical experts called by Mr. Burger, who worked with me extensively, made their asserted conclusions look embarrassing. BP’s lawyers wisely decided to settle on favorable terms to me, rather than allow a judge and jury to assess our comparative credibility.  

The human tragedy paralleled massive environmental damage that for all practical purposes massacred sea life in the Gulf.  As early as August 2010, scientists testified that hundreds of turtles had been killed, and other species such as sperm whales and blackfish tuna were threatened (Exhibit 9). A 2021 report by the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) disclosed that marine deaths included – from 4-8.3 billion oysters, juvenile turtles, 105,400 sea birds, and further casualties such as a 51% drop of dolphins in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay. 

In 2015 the EPA proposed a regulation for Corexit and other dispersants, and in 2022 a court ordered EPA to publish them after seven years delay. But those regulations are milquetoast rules that will not end or even control the use of Corexit. They merely require more research, adjustment of standards, advance warnings of dispersant use, and other background improvements. BP and any other oil company will still be free to use Corexit the next time there is a spill.    

The government’s continued shielding of oil company threats to public health and the environment is inexcusable, and there is no question it knows better. The 2021 NOAA report concluded that handling of the spill was an “economic, political, scientific and legal nightmare.” How can our government allow this to happen again? We have had more than 13 years since Deepwater Horizon to accumulate stockpiles of safer alternatives. It is time for our government to start protecting the public, instead of the oil industry. 

 

John’s story is echoed by many other people who have been impacted by Corexit. Read more about John Scott Maas’ story in our fourth BP Report about these stories and policy recommendations to delist Corexit here. 

This is an abridged version of John Scott Maas’ official affidavit.