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WARREN RUDA / THE SUNDAY VOICE
A view of Laurel Lake from the Rushton residence inRice
Township. Joanne Rushton said she didnt realizehow much she missed
the lake until it returned.
Dam repairs will again dry out Laurel LakeBy Kristen GaydosStaff
Writer
While RiceTownshiphom-
eowners around Laurel Lake
have rejoiced in recentmonths at witnessing the
reflections of theirhomes in
thelakes surface rather than
pools of muddy swampwater
on thelakesfloor, its notyet
permanent.The lakeshigh water level
will bebroughtdown incom-
ing days, returning the lake
to the drained state it must
linger in until repairs to an
overflow dam are complete,
said Mark Carmon, spokes-
manfor thestateDepartmentof Environmental Protec-
tion.
Those repairs, however,
cannot happen until the Lau-
rel Lakes Watershed Protec-tionAssociation finds atleast
$50,000 to finish work on the
concrete dam, possibly fromthepocketsof those whoare
affected most by the lack ofwaterin thelake theprop-
erty owners.
DEPs B ureau of Dam
Safety authorized therepairs
in October 2007, including
rehabilitating the spillwayand regrading the embank-
ment. It wasestimatedto cost
$150,000;at the time theasso-
ciation plannedto seekgrant
f u n di n g f r o m t h e s t a t eDepartment of Community
and Economic Development
for the remaining $50,000 ofrepairs.
Association PresidentMichael Nardone said he
understands residents have
been frustrated the lake has
been empty so long, but get-
ting the state to cough up
that funding has been a bat-tle.
The DCED grant that was
supposed to be approved has
been pending indefinitely
s i n c e t h e s t a t e b u d g etimpasse last year. Now,
Nar-
done said the best way to
fund the repairs might be toturnto theresidents wholive
there.
See LAKE, page A5
DefenderexaminingofficesresourcesBy Michael P. BufferStaff
Writer
Luzerne County Chief
Public Defender Al Flora Jr.
is reallocating resources in
thepublicdefenders office toimprove legal representation
of juveniles, buthe isnt sure
what the long-term cost will
be and whether the changes
can continue.Flora, who has been in
charge of theoffice since
l o n g t i m e
c h i ef B a s i lR u s s i n
r e s i g n e d
M a r ch 1 7 ,
saidhe ispre-
p a r i n g ar e p o r t f o r
county com-
missioners on theoffice.The
report should be done in a
fewweeks.I am compiling for the
commissioners a complete
breakdown of our caseload
and workload, Flora said.
It will give them a goodunderstanding of what our
needs are. That has never
been done before. We are
stilltryingto pulldataon the
operation of thewhole office,so theyll have it in front of
them, and they can make
appropriatedecisions on how
to dealwith thisoffice.
County CommissionerChairwoman Mary anne
Petrilla said she is pleased
Flora is preparing a report
on the office and is keeping
commissioners informed ofoffice issues.
Awesome, she said. I
think it is importantthatwe
do thatgoingforward.
A state panel chargedwithinvestigating the kids-for-
cash scandal issued a report
Thursday and concluded thatformer Judge Mark A. Ciava-
rella, whopresided over juve-nile court for 12 years, was
able to incarcerate juveniles
at twice the state average,
many on minor charges, in
part because public defend-ersdidnt objectand paid lit-
tle attention to juvenile court.
Ciavarella and formerJudge
Michael T. Conahan are
accusedof accepting$2.8 mil-lion in kickbacksfor placing
juveniles in two for-profit
detentioncenters.
F l o r a d i d n t w a n t t o
respondto report findingsofthe office when Russin was
in charge. The Interbranch
Commissionon Juvenile Jus-
tice concluded that Russin,
whoresigned earlierthis
See DEFENDER, page A4
Flora
WHATNOW?By Matthew TresaugueHouston Chronicle
HOUSTON BP failed againSaturday to plug a runaway well
in theGulf of Mexico with heavy
drillingmud andcement, marking
another setback in its efforts to
stop the worst oil spill in Ameri-can history.
After pumping mud into the
damaged wellshaft for three days,
theLondon-basedoil giant conced-
ed that theprocedure,knownas atop kill,was unlikelyto work
in
themile-deep watersoff theLoui-
siana coast.
This scares everybody, the fact
that we cant make this well stopflowing, the fact that we
havent
succeeded so far, said Doug Sut-
tles, BPs chief operating officer.
Many of the things were trying
have been done on the surfacebefore, but have never been
tried
at 5,000 feet.
BPs next option involves cut-
tingand removingthe leaking ris-
er at the top of the blowout pre-venter, the five-story
contraption
above the wellhead. Engineers will
then install a cap that would be
connected to a new pipe from a
drillship on thesurface.Suttles said he is hopeful the
procedure would capture most of
the oil escaping from the well. It
should take four to seven days to
completethe maneuver.Atthe same time,BP iscontinu-
ing to drill a relief well, which
experts say isthe surestbetto stop
theflow, butmaytake until August
to finish.Afterthe announcement, Presi-
dent BarackObamasaid in a state-
mentthatongoingflow of oilis as
enragingas it is heartbreaking.
Obamasaidthenewplanto cap-ture the oil is risky, but we will
continue to pursue any and all
responsible means of stopping
this leak.
The oil is gushing from BPsMacondo well, which blew out
April 20, toppling the Deepwater
Horizon rig and killing 11 work-
ers.
The ruptured well has spilledbetween 18 million and40
million
gallons of oil into the Gulf overthe past five weeks, fouling
more
than 100 miles of coastline, based
on official estimates.The ecological toll of the spill
thus farincludes 478birds,224 sea
turtles and 25 marine mammals,
according to the latestfederal tally.
But officials cautioned that testsare ongoing to determine
how
many diedfrom oilexposure.
Thefailure of the topkillproce-
dure was perhaps the toughest
blow in the series of unprecedent-ed steps to stop the leak.
Some
expertssaidit wasBPsbest option
to endthe slow-motionsaga before
thecompletionof therelief well.
Were all very disappointed,Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary
Landry said.All of us want tosee
thiswell capped.
See LEAK, page A12
BPs top kill effort fails
to plug Gulf oil leak
Former Nanticoke residentdescribes initial rescue effortBy
Patrick SweetStaff Writer
From 40 miles away,
Nanticoke native Dustin
Bernatovich couldsee the
flames from the Deepwa-
ter Horizon oil rig paintthe night sky above the
Gulf of Mexico.Bernatovich is a U.S.
Coast Guard aviation sur-
vival technician a res-cue swimmer andwasa
member of the second
helicopter crew to arrive
attherig whenit exploded
April 20.I was just released to
go home, the 29-year-old
said Friday in a phone
interview. Ten minutes
after I left, I got a callfrom the air station say-
ing an oil rig had explod-ed.
As part of the back-up
crew thatnight,Bernatov-
ich didnt anticipate the
call.He rushedback totheNewOrleans stationwhile
a fellow guardsman tossed
his gear into the helicop-
ter.
See RESCUE, page A12
COUGHLINS SHELLEY BLACK
EARNS 2 GOLDS AT PIAAs. B1
JAE C. HONG / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michael LaBlanc fixes caution tape Saturday as workers cleanup
oil residue along the beach in Port Fourchon, La.
A summary of events on Saturday, the 38th day of the Gulf
ofMexico oil spill:
I NO GO: BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles says top
killprocedure failed to stop the leak. More than 1.2 million
gallons ofmud were used in the attempt.
I UNPRECEDENTED: In the six weeks since the spill, the leak
hasdumped between 18 million and 40 million gallons of oil into
theGulf of Mexico.
I ENRAGING, HEARTBREAKING: President Barack Obama, inresponse to
BPs failed procedure, said his administration will notrelent until
this leak is contained.
GULF GLANCE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dustin Bernatovich said his participation in the res-cue effort
at the Deepwater Horizon was by far thehardest thing Ive ever
done.
SUNDAY VOICET
HE
