Kindra Arnenson: Relief payments slashed if fishermen refuse to work for BP

Whistleblower: BP deducts from relief payments if fishermen refuse to aid cleanup

By Stephen C. Webster"">Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday,
July 6th, 2010 -- 11:25 pm

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Any relief payment plan established in the wake of the worst environmental
accident ever was bound to have its flaws, but this goes to a whole new
level of wrong.

According to documents obtained by Gulf resident Kindra Arnesen, who turned whistleblower when she saw how many people
were put out of work by the spill, BP will deduct money from individual
payments on claims for lost income if the claimant refuses to work in
assisting the spill response.

Reading from a letter she'd received from BP, Arnesen quoted the company's line:

"BP will continue its efforts to pay legitimate claims for losses incurred due to
the Deepwater Horizon incident. However, federal law clearly provides
for adjustments for all income resulting from the incident, all income
from alternative employment or businesses undertaken [...] and potential
income from alternative employment or businesses not undertaken but
reasonably available."

In other words, if you are a fisherman who was put out of work by BP and you do not elect to work in
their employ, but you still file a claim for losses over the Deepwater
Horizon disaster, that claim could be significantly less than actual
damages incurred.

Arnesen, a fisherman's wife and longtime Louisiana resident, has been a true pitbull of an activist since she began popping up in area media.
Finally, she gained enough notoriety by her audacious claims against BP
that CNN

picked up her story. She was one of the first to raise hell over
reports of fishermen getting sick, allegedly from the oil and dispersant
fumes coming off the Gulf.

Her husband David is one of thousands who opted to work for BP after the oil contaminated his usual fishing
routes. She believes he was one of many who were sickened by BP's toxic
vapors.

BP CEO Tony Hayward tried to pass the multiple boats full of sick fishermen as "food

poisoning."

In an amazing display of gusto, even with the possibility that she'd endanger his income by damaging their
relationship with BP, Arnesen showed up mad as hell to a citizens
emergency summit on June 19. Her speech quickly gained traction in
progressive media after she claimed BP's directors were eager

to cut costs and merely put on a show every time a politician
swings through, ushering cleanup crews out almost as fast as they're
ushered in.

Visibly disturbed by BP's concise statement on relief payments, Arnesen jeered: "They summed it up in one paragraph: billions
upon billions for coastal communities. One paragraph. One paragraph?
This is what they think? That we're gonna clean up their toxic shit? For
the same price that we're gonna pick up shrimp? Are they loony? Have
they lost their minds?"

"Am I scared? Yes," Arnesen told CNN. "Anything that ever starts, starts with one. And if I have to be the one then I have to be the one."

The team that filmed her, Project Gulf Impact, also recently landed an interview with Dr. Chris Pincetich,
a marine biologist, who claimed that the

U.S. Coast Guard is involved in spraying Corexit oil dispersant and
that the substance has made it ashore.

This video was published to YouTube by Project

Gulf Impact on July 4, 2010.