While BP’s runaway well may finally be capped and oil is disappearing from the Gulf of Mexico, Dean Blanchard’s shrimp scales are still idle at his processing plant in Grand Isle, Louisiana.
Mr Blanchard used to be the biggest supplier of wild-caught shrimp in the United States. He’s been haemorrhaging money for months now and losing clients who were forced into long-term contracts to find other sources of shrimp.
He figures he’s lost $40 to $50 million in sales since the Deepwater Horizon sank spectacularly on April 22 and unleashed the worst oil spill in maritime history.
After laying off 80 workers and trimming his operations to a skeleton crew of just eight men, he estimates his books will show a net loss of two million dollars. So far, BP has paid him just 165,000 dollars in compensation.
“It sucks. They’re not paying,” Mr Blanchard told AFP.
“They’re basically doing what an insurance company does, send you the first adjuster who says we should pay you, then they fire that adjuster and hire another one until they find an adjuster who thinks they shouldn’t pay you.”
Mr Blanchard is particularly frustrated by BP’s plan to ask businessmen to decide by Thanks-giving whether to sue the company or take a compensation check covering all past and future losses related to the spill – something Mr Blanchard says is “crazy”.
Like many people here, Mr Blanchard is afraid it could take years – or even decades – for the region’s fisheries to recover from the toxic soup of oil and chemical dispersants used to keep the crude from reaching fragile coastal wetlands.
“They need to give us two or three shrimp seasons to see whether they all die off,” he said. “If that oil sinks to the bottom of the ocean like they’re planning, then what are next year’s baby shrimp going to eat? They need to give us more time to decide what to do.”
Last week, BP said it paid out $347 million in claims since May 3.
It has received 148,000 total claims so far, and is yet to deny a single claim, although around 40,000 claims are still outstanding or awaiting adjustment, like Blanchard’s.
Claims czar Ken Feinberg was appointed by the Obama Administration in June to administer a $20 billion compensation fund. He won’t take over management until August 23.
BP insists it is doing the best it can and has promised to pay all legitimate claims.
“We continue to look for ways to improve or simplify the claims process,” BP spokesperson Elizabeth Adams said.
“As you know, Mr Feinberg will take control of the process on August 23, and will take on any ongoing issues and may address some changes.”
Josie and Harry Cheramie filed a claim in May for their two-boat fishing business and were quickly sent two 5,000 checks for lost income.
But they haven’t been able to get the nets back out on the water yet, and they’re worried that the checks may dry up before the shrimp come back. And 10,000 dollars is scant compensation for having to live with the fear that their way of life could be lost forever.
“It’s the unknown that’s nerve-racking,” Mrs Cheramie said.
“When you make your living from seafood and there’s no more seafood and you’re not sure when you can go fishing again, it’s all you can do to keep your head above water. My husband and I were hoping to retire but this has put an end to that idea.”
Mr Feinberg has said that there isn’t “enough money in the world” to compensate everyone who might have been impacted by the oil spill. In testimony before Congress he signaled out people who’ve seen their property value sink as those who may not make the cut.
Real estate developer Shelly Landry is hoping she won’t be considered unworthy.
She owns 76 oceanfront lots on Grand Isle and has been selling 15 a year since she started in the business in 2008.
But the business dried up even before the oil reached the island’s miles of white sandy beaches and Landry doesn’t know how she’s going to cover a $1.3 million bank loan.
“Five times they have reassigned me with a different adjuster,” she says. “Because in their minds they say they don’t know what to do with me. Well, they’re going to have to figure it out.”