Ed Overton After PBS Buras, LA "Town Hall" Part I

Saturday 21, 2010 - Part I

We were invited by a friend to attend a "town hall" meeting in Buras, LA. We were told that representatives from BP, EPA, and others would be in attendance. We arrived to a much different scenario.

Louisiana Public Broadcasting was filming a show for PBS. The auditorium was set up with a raised section for panelists, half-dozen broadcast cameras, and rows for the "audience" a.k.a. citizens of Plaquemines Parish. We were quickly informed, as we entered with our film gear, that we were not allowed to film.

As the LPB producer put it: "PBS owns this space for the next hour and ten minutes." Well. One thing led to another and we were sent with a grumble to film from the balcony. So we did. The panel was uninformative, a re-hash of the usual. After the panel, however, was a different story.

Summary of the event:

Panelists include:
• Billy Nungesser, Plaquemines Parish President
• Sec. Robert Barham, La Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries
•Keith Seilhan, BP's La. Incident Commander
•Jim Noe, Senior VP, Hercules Offshore (invited)
• Cyn Sarthou, Gulf Restoration Network
• Dr. Ed Overton, LSU Environmental Scientist

Hosts:
• Beth Courtney, LPB CEO
• Tom Bearden, PBS NewsHour correspondent
• Shauna Sanford, LPB news anchor

"Crisis in the Gulf: Louisiana and the Oil Spill" Airs Wednesday, August 25th 10:00PM EST WLAE-TV Channel 32.

Filmed by Gavin Garrison
Matt Smith and Heather Rally for Project Gulf Impact
http://www.projectgulfimpact.org