Oil spill threatens Gulf Coast

(CNN) -- A huge oil spill oozing toward the Gulf Coast on Thursday threatens hundreds of species of wildlife, some in their prime breeding season, environmental organizations said.
The Coast Guard said Wednesday that the amount of oil spilling from an underwater well after an oil rig explosion last week has increased to as many as 5,000 barrels of oil a day, or 210,000 gallons, five times more than what was originally believed.

Although efforts to minimize the damage are under way and options under consideration include asking the U.S. military for assistance, wildlife conservation groups say the oil could pose a "growing environmental disaster."

"The terrible loss of 11 workers (unaccounted for after the rig explosion) may be just the beginning of this tragedy as the oil slick spreads toward sensitive coastal areas vital to birds and marine life and to all the communities that depend on them," said Melanie Driscoll, director of bird conservation for the Louisiana Coastal Initiative, in a statement.
Coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida could be at risk, the organization said.

"For birds, the timing could not be worse; they are breeding, nesting and especially vulnerable in many of the places where the oil could come ashore," she said. "The efforts to stop the oil before it reaches shore are heroic, but may not be enough. We have to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, including a true catastrophe for birds."

"The best case is, the wind shifts and the oil doesn't hit," said Tom MacKenzie of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I'm not real confident about that. ... We're doing everything we can to prevent it, but it could be a bad one."

It's not just birds that could be affected, although they are usually the first to feel the effects, said Gregory Bossart, chief veterinary officer for the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The birds are right at the surface, get covered in the oil and swallow it, causing liver and kidney problems.

"They need to be rescued and cleaned," he said.
But the coastline of Louisiana, with its barrier islands and estuaries, "is a very unique ecosystem. It's very complex," Bossart said.
Plankton found in the estuaries nourish organisms all the way up the food chain. Crabs, mussels, oysters and shrimp feed on the plankton, he said. Oil smothers the plankton, meaning they cannot eat.

Also, "the estuaries here are a nursery ground, literally a nursery ground, for the entire fish population in this area," Bossart said.

River otters in the region eat mussels and other animals. And "we know, in this area right now, that there are sperm whales. There are dolphins right in the oil slick," he said.
If an oil spill is small enough, animals can leave the area.
"Some of them can get away," Bossart said. "It's totally dependent on the size of the slick, and this is huge."

Exposure to the oil for a prolonged period of time can result in a toxic effect on the skin, and mammals can suffer lung damage or death after breathing it in, Bossart said.
"When the oil starts to settle, it'll smother the oyster beds. It'll kill the oysters," he said.

The Audubon Society, which is affiliated with the Louisiana Coastal Initiative, is recruiting volunteers in Florida and making its Center for Birds of Prey available for bird cleansing and rehabilitation. Elsewhere, Audubon said it was gearing up to mobilize volunteers and provide assistance as the oil reaches land.

The spill also threatens the Louisiana and Mississippi fishing industry, as crab, oysters and shrimp along the coast could be affected, along with numerous species of fish. Gulf shrimp are in their spawning season.

More than 400 species are threatened by the spill, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Thursday, citing the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
"When you stop and begin considering everything that this could impact, it really is stunning," Karen Foote, biologist administrator with the department, told the newspaper.

A handful of "Important Bird Areas" -- designated because of their value to bird species -- face immediate threat from the oil, the initiative said. They include the Chandeleur Islands and Gulf Islands National Seashore areas in Louisiana and Mississippi, along with the Active Delta area in Louisiana, which includes Delta Island National Wildlife Refuge and the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area.

Several species of birds are cause for special concern, the Louisiana Coastal Initiative said. They include the brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana, which nests on barrier islands and feeds near shore. The brown pelican's breeding season just began, according to the Initiative, and "many pairs are already incubating eggs."

The species was taken off the federal endangered species list last year, but "their relatively low reproductive rate means any disruption to their breeding cycle could have serious effects on the population."

More than 800 brown pelicans died when a smaller oil spill hit Louisiana's Breton Island National Wildlife Refuge a few years ago, MacKenzie said.

Species of beach-nesting terns and gulls, beach-nesting shorebirds, large wading birds, marsh birds and ocean-dwelling birds are also at risk, along with migratory shorebirds and songbirds, the Initiative said.

The migratory songbirds move across the Gulf during a two-week period from late April to early May, for instance.

"The journey across 500 miles of open water strains their endurance to its limits," the Initiative said. "They depend on clear skies and healthy habitats on both sides of the Gulf in order to survive the journey."

According to a 1998 study by Louisiana State University, more than 500 million birds fly over the Gulf and enter the United States along coastal areas in Louisiana and Texas each spring.
The barrier islands east of Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain have still not recovered from the blow dealt by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Bossart said, and a spill such as this one could seriously threaten their recovery.

"I think at this point it would be wrong to say it's catastrophic, because it really hasn't hit any area except out in the Gulf proper," he said. But "it's certainly a very serious thing" that could pose a long-term environmental challenge.

Plans have been under way to protect wildlife since the spill was discovered, MacKenzie said. "We know what we're doing to try to protect those key assets. ... A lot of people are leaning forward in the foxhole to address this."

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Cy-Fair ISD players take next step

Cy-Creek's Brandi Virgil during a recent game. Photo by Tony Bullard

By TODD HVEEM
CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT

Cy Creek High School softball standout Brandi Virgil is headed to Michigan to play college softball.

Virgil has helped guide the Lady Cougars to three straight playoff appearances and a pair of co-district titles.

She is batting .475 with six home runs as Cy Creek prepares for the playoffs.

Cy-Fair Bobcat senior guard Aarika Reyna has signed a basketball scholarship with Southeastern Louisiana.

Reyna helped lead the Bobcats to the Class 5A state title.

Jersey Village’s Tory Salazar also signed with McMurry University, and Jersey Village golfer Austin Sarabia inked with Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas.

Langham Creek’s Diana Ramirez also will play college soccer at Huston-Tillotson in Austin, and Cy Creek wide receiver Trent O’Connor will play football at Kansas Wesleyan.

Three Cy-Fair ISD soccer players to play in Showcase Game

A trio of Cy-Fair ISD soccer players were selected to play in the Texas Association of Soccer Coaches Senior Showcase game on May 1 in Georgetown.

Bryan Vasquez of Cy Falls, Walter Kromholz of Cy Woods and Miguel Mendoza of Langham Creek were selected to the 20-member team. This is the eighth straight year Cy-Fair ISD has had a player chosen to play in the event.

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RIPPLES FROM PANAMA CANAL EXPANSION WILL EXTEND TO HOUSTON PORT AND SURROUNDING REGION

Published 04/15/2010 - 5:36 a.m. CST
"The impacts of the Panama Canal widening will filter to the Houston region," said DougSethness, vice president of the Houston firm CH2M Hill and a principal project manager/program manager for the Panama Canal expansion project.
“We think the Panama Canal expansion is a game changer, but we are not sure yet how it is going to change,” Sethness told

Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee members at an April 1 meeting.
The expansion project, which will be completed in 2014, will allow larger ships to travel through the canal. Larger ships can carry more containers, which could equate to greater loads coming into the Gulf Coast area and more truck and rail traffic handling those containers.

However, Sethness said, the Port of Houston is not a deepwater port – that requires a 53-foot depth – but Brazosport is getting there. Gulf Coast ports are making changes to accommodate the larger ships that would be able to travel through the Panama Canal after 2014.

But there is more to be done, he said.
“We need intermodal improvements in Texas,” he said. “We need to improve our infrastructure to the heartland and other Gulf Coast states. We need focused logistics education programs in schools.”

The Panama Canal expansion project is creating a set of three new “locks,” which lift ships up to the main elevation of the Panama Canal, and widening different portions of the canal to allow for two-way traffic in some areas.
The current two-lock system opened in 1914 is about 900 feet wide and accommodates ships with a 40-foot draft. The new three-lock system will be about 1,200 wide and will allow ships with a 50-foot draft.
“The ships going through it today take up every inch of space,” Sethness said. “Often they scrape their way through.”

There are three primary load center ports in the U.S. – Seattle/Tacoma, Los Angeles/Long Beach and New York/New Jersey. He said the U.S. is importing less and exporting more.
The Gulf ports, which include all ports along the Texas and Lousiana coast, are further down on the list. The trade there is primarily for the petrochemical industry.

After World War II, many consumer products were made in Japan and ships carrying those items could travel to Los Angeles/Long Beach or through the Panama Canal to New York/New Jersey.

“As costs got higher we started buying things out of Korea, and they travelled the same way,” Sethness said. “In the China decade we followed the same route.”
“Now we are looking for a cheaper place to buy goods, and manufacturing plants are opening in Singapore and Malaysia,” he said. “They can travel through the Suez or Panama canals.”

As the manufacturing hubs move west to India, and eventually Africa, the Suez Canal could become the dominant route, Sethness said.

“For first time we are seeing price wars between the Suez and Panama,” he said.
Currently it costs about $150,000 – 200,000 for ships to travel through the Panama Canal, and they are lined up waiting.

“All major (U.S.) ports are putting money into increasing the size of the ports,” Sethness said. “We could possibly go into an overcapacity situation.”

“The biggest potential risk is we face is over-building in our current economy,” he said.

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Taking their shots at the next level

Brittney Griner’s star is rising, but she’s just one example of Houston’s girls hoops prowess
By JENNY DIAL
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
April 3, 2010, 10:44PM


Every time a television announcer is shocked by one of Brittney Griner's highlight-worthy moves, Nimitz coach Debbie Jackson can't help but laugh a little.
Jackson watched the 6-8 Baylor star dominate on the court for four years, and she's glad to see that the rest of the world is starting to see something she has known all along.
“I think that any time someone who hasn't seen Brittney play yet sees her, that person becomes a fan,” Jackson said. “She is not disappointing.”

So while Jackson is sitting in the stands at the Alamodome today when Baylor takes on Connecticut in the second game of the NCAA Women's Final Four, she will be ready to hear more about her former player, who has become one of the most recognizable women's basketball players in the country.
And Jackson will see more familiar faces. Along with Griner, the Houston area boasts three other starters on Final Four teams: Bellaire's Jasmine Hartman at Oklahoma, Clear Brook's Kelli Griffin at Baylor and Cy-Fair's Nneka Ogwumike at Stanford.

“To have four starters out of the 20 that are still playing says a lot about Houston basketball,” Jackson said. “We have some really high-quality players in this area.”
Houston has become a hotbed for girls basketball. The area has produced the No. 1 player in the country the last two seasons

— Griner was the top recruit in 2009 and Chiney Ogwumike is this season. Kelsey Bone won several national awards and was a McDonald's All-American in 2009. Nneka Ogwumike was a McDonald's All-American and was named Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2008. USC's Stefanie and Briana Gilbreath were both McDonald's All-Americans and dotted several other All-America lists in 2007 and 2008.

Glenn Nelson, publisher of hoopgurlz.com, said that over the last five years the Houston area has become the place to go for a post player.

“I can't think of any other city in the country that has an identity in the recruiting world the way Houston does,” he said. “But the last few great post players have come from there, and that's where coaches will go now and compete for those girls.”
Diverse talent
While the last handful of big names — the Ogwumike sisters, Bone and Griner — have been post players, guards are starting to become prominent in the area, diversifying Houston's basketball scene.
North Shore's Courtney Williams, Elkins' Donielle Breaux and Worthing's Jenzel Nash are among guards in the spotlight now.

Cy-Fair's Cassie Peoples is a two-time All-State selection with a state championship already on her résumé.
That doesn't mean there will be a shortage of excellent post players. Hightower sophomore twin posts Taylor and Tyler Gilbert are already on the national radar.

“We have had all these great post players, but there are some amazing guards, and the coaches coming here to see the post players are taking notice of the guards,” Cy-Fair Shock Elite Nike AAU coach Rob Amboree said. “You can come to Houston and just get quality players. I think right now this is the best city in the country to recruit for basketball.”
Every year for the past five years, an average of 16 girls have signed to play at Division I basketball programs. Cy-Fair junior Peoples has already committed to Texas.

Recruiting hotbed

Nelson said that the quantity and quality of talent has made Houston one of the top areas to recruit in the country.
“It will only get better if history of this sport tells us anything,” Nelson said. “This is a sport that will get more and more popular in the area because it feeds off of the success that Houston is already having.”

As the sport continues to grow in the area, young players continue to latch on to it. Peoples said the interest in girls basketball will keep growing as long as the talent level stays high. She played in San Antonio before moving to Cy-Fair and said that the level of competition here makes the game better.

“Every game is hard, every game is a game you have to work,” Peoples said. “It's entertaining, and it builds better basketball players when you have to be on your game 100 percent of the time.”
Peoples said every year the Final Four becomes more exciting for her.

“I used to love watching anyway, but now that I know some of the players, it's even better,” she said. “It shows me that I could do that, too. It's a goal that becomes really reachable when you see your friends get there. I could be playing in the Final Four in the next few years, too,


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The West team in the McDonald's All-American girls' game wasn't just super- sized. It was Texas-sized.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -

Five Texas players combined for 62 percent of the West's scoring in an 84-75 victory Wednesday at Value City Arena.
According to several Texans, it was a fitting performance.
"Everything is bigger in Texas," said Stanford-bound forward Chiney Ogwumike of Cypress, Texas, who scored 14 points.
"But the concern and support of girls athletics in Texas is unsurmountable. Southern hospitality - people care.

"They're not into using you; they're into developing you."

Texas A&M signee Karla Gilbert of College Station said, "This shows progress, what we can do in Texas."
Flashy guard Meighan Simmons of Cibolo, Texas, earned the West team's MVP honors, scoring 21 points with three rebounds, and Florida State signee Natasha Howard earned the East MVP award - and screams from friends and family traveling from her nearby hometown of Toledo - with 20 points and nine rebounds.
Friendly rivals

As a Stanford commit, Ogwumika not only had to contend this week with two future rivals at California - guard Afure Jemerigbe and forward Lindsay Sherbert - but also the fact that she's leaving Big 12 country to play in the Pac-10.
Three of the McDonald's girls players from Texas are attending Big 12 schools, and Simmons is bound for Tennessee.
"It's light humor," Ogwumika said. "Of course we talk to each other about, you're going here or there, Pac-10 or whatever. It was funny.

"Traditionally, people would say, 'Why don't you go to UT?' But I did what was best for me athletically and academically. We tease each other, but the decisions were made for the best of us."
Old hat
East boys guard Josh Selby went to a "dunk off" with the West's Ray McCallum to win Monday's Jam Fest, but he never doubted the result.
"It was not a surprise because every dunk contest I won," Selby said.

"I was very confident. All the dunks I did, I did before."
McCallum's dunks, meanwhile, surprised some observers because he does not dunk often in games. Slam magazine said McCallum's moves "shocked" most experts, before McCallum lost the competition when he fumbled some between-the-legs dunks.
Rim shots

• For the 10th year in a row, Oak Hill Academy was represented at the McDonald's game, this time by guard Doron Lamb, a UA target.

Last year, Oak Hill placed Oklahoma big man Tiny Gallon and two years ago, it was guard Brandon Jennings, then signed to a letter of intent for Arizona before he opted to play professionally in Italy.
• Lamb was quoted in the official McDonald's game media guide saying he favors math at Oak Hill "because I like putting up numbers."
Among hobbies listed by the players, Memphis-bound Jelan Kendrick plays chess, Villanova-bound Jayvaugh Pinkston boxes, North Carolina signee Harrison Barnes sings bass in a school choir, and Texas' Tristan Thompson enjoys Shakespeare.

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