'Patti Pelican and The Gulf Oil Spill' a hopeful, kid-friendly look at tragedy

The following article was originally published by Laurie Wiegler on Examiner.com, June 22, 2016. It has been lightly edited.

When Lynda Wurster Deniger saw the horrific sight April 20, 2010 coming from the TV set, she was devastated. "I would just sit there and bawl," she says of that day and the days that followed, the 87 days it took to cap the Macondo well off the southern coast of Louisiana.

But as a writer and former newspaper reporter, she wanted to turn her anguish into something that could help people. Her popular children's book, Salty Seas & His Heroic Friends, would prove the ideal launching-off point for the book she would write, buttressed again by the beautiful illustrations from Paulette Ferguson.

The children's book with the character of Captain Charley and friends Patti Pelican, Dottie Dolphin and Sammy Seagull introduced shrimping at sea, but it would be the second book, inspired by tragedy, that would be the writer's real challenge. And it was one she and her illustrator pulled off beautifully.

"I had Captain Charlie and Salty actually being involved in the boom and trying to help with the cleanup," Deniger says.

She began traveling around to Louisiana schools and sharing the story with school kids - not just reading to them, but "entertaining," she says. The sixtysomething light sees it as her mission to make sure the kids of today don't forget or in the case of the really young ones, miss learning about the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

"I don't mention BP in the book," she says, but acknowledges that the blown-up well on the cover is a pretty loud clue. She brings it up because someone said it'd be nice if BP could've helped in some way. Buying the books for the kids? Deniger sells them at the schools very inexpensively, and they come with a recording of her reading the book.

Asked if it was tough to put a positive spin on a tragic tale, she is not defensive. She explains that she went out to a rescue center to see how the brown pelicans were being washed. The oil-soaked birds' images that flooded the television airwaves for weeks were something else altogether up close.

"I called a man at the rescue center in Venice (La.) and asked if he'd be open to my coming down there," she says. "He said sure. I toured the facility, and took pictures, many of which would be used to make the illustrations (by Ferguson)."

The writer says she's not touring as much now, that interest is waning. People forget and move on, even as another oil spill, approximately 88,000 gallons from Shell Oil out on Timbalier Island, makes news. That gusher was snuffed quickly, hardly made national news, and certainly didn't inspire a book.

But the fact is: the state's national bird, the beloved brown pelican, is endangered. Thousands and thousands perished, and before they did so, suffered with oil-coated bodies. What Deniger is doing could be described as heroic, but she's not one to boast.

No, her mission is to make the kids understand.

"I take a bottle of water and dirty oil I got from my mechanic, and mix it together to show the kids," she says. I ask, 'What do you think is gonna happen? And they go 'Wow!', because oil and water don't mix."

To buy the book, please visit Amazon or check with your local booksellers.

Cover art: Used with permission. Illustrator: Paulette Ferguson

Scott Pruitt sworn in as EPA Administrator

On Friday Feb. 17, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was confirmed and sworn in as the 14th administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The news comes as a jolt to environmentalists and citizens concerned about his record of fighting the very agency he will be tasked with overseeing.

Back in December, the National Audubon Society along with other environmental groups responded negatively to the nod. NAS CEO and president David Yarnold said at the time:

“Scott Pruitt’s nomination as the anti-EPA Administrator causes us deep concern. The Environmental Protection Agency's work has always been based on science, but Pruitt is a climate change denier who has worked to dismantle well-grounded protections for clean air and clean water. Those protections have benefited birds and kids for decades and the next administration’s EPA needs to base its work on scientific consensus, something Pruitt hasn't shown a willingness to do. We urge the Senate to hold an EPA administrator to those basic standards."

The EPA issued a press release, which says in part:

"Administrator Pruitt believes promoting and protecting a strong and healthy environment is one of the lifeblood priorities of the government, and EPA is a vital part of that mission.

Pruitt became a national leader through a career of advocating to keep power in the hands of hardworking Americans. He has a proven record of working with industry, farmers, ranchers, landowners, small business owners and others to protect our natural resources.

As a dedicated civil servant, Pruitt created policies that serve the people. He strongly believes environmental law, policy, and progress are all based on cooperation among the states, cooperation between the states and EPA, and cooperation between regulators and the public.

As Administrator, Mr. Pruitt will lead EPA in a way that our future generations inherit a better and healthier environment while advancing America’s economic interests. He is committed to working with the thousands of dedicated public servants at EPA who have devoted their careers to helping realize this shared vision, while faithfully administering environmental laws.

Most recently, Administrator Pruitt served as the Attorney General for Oklahoma. He worked with his Democratic counterpart in Arkansas to reach agreement to study the water quality of the Illinois River that crosses between the two states and has been enjoyed by generations of Oklahomans and Arkansans. The Statement of Joint Principles provided for a best science study using EPA-approved methods, with both states agreeing, for the first time, to be bound

by the outcome.

During his tenure as Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Mr. Pruitt led an historic water rights settlement between the State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations that preserved the ecosystems of scenic lakes and rivers on native lands. The agreement, which required Congressional approval, was signed into law on December 2016.

The Law provides a framework that fosters intergovernmental collaboration on significant water resource concerns while protecting existing water rights and affirming the State’s role in water rights permitting and administration. Water settlement cases can be lengthy, costly, divisive and disruptive, however under Pruitt’s forward thinking leadership the process was hailed by all parties as one of commitment, hard work, perseverance and cooperation.

As Attorney General for Oklahoma, he also led the State’s legal challenges against property rights intrusion while protecting Oklahoma’s natural resources and environment."

In response to the announcement, an environmental attorney, James Rubin of Dorsey & Whitney, said:

"After a bruising confirmation fight, former Oklahoma Attorney Scott Pruitt will be sworn in as EPA’s latest administrator today. Everyone will be watching closely, including industry, environmental groups and EPA employees themselves, as Pruitt pivots from strong critic of EPA regulatory efforts in the Obama Administration to the head of a large agency tasked by multiple statues with protecting water and air quality, chemical and waste management and a myriad of other public health matters. It is not yet clear what his chief goals and initiatives may be, but change is certainly possible on the scope of climate and other energy-related regulation, wetland jurisdiction, and potentially even staffing sizes."

Before going into private practice, Mr. Rubin served for 15 years in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

To see Administrator Pruitt’s biography, visit: https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epas-administrator Photo: Scott Pruitt, at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2015, by Gage Skidmore, Peoria, AZ, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39289810