Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Louisiana Oil Rig Fire / Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

roachboy · 07-09-2010, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Oil in Hancock marshes
By DONNA MELTON and GEOFF PENDER
WAVELAND — Oily goo coated grass along Jackson Marsh on Thursday as quarter-sized tar patties and oily sheen floated southward with the tide back into the Gulf.

It’s the first Mississippi marsh area to be invaded by the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker said as he surveyed the site with his wife, Gayle.

But also Thursday, officials with the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in east Jackson County reported oily tar and sheen entering marshes there, at Pointe aux Chenes Bay, although the extent of that intrusion was difficult to judge because the waterways are shallow and not easily navigable.

Hancock County District 1 Supervisor David Yarborough and Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo requested in mid-June that the oil disaster command build a sand berm on the north side of Beach Boulevard and silt fencing at the outfall. Both protective measures have been promised, but they’ve seen neither. “It was ignored,” Yarborough said. “Nobody did anything.”

Wicker said he requested an OK from U.S. Coast Cmdr. Jason Merriweather, the state’s deputy incident commander, for immediate permission and funding to implement the local authorities’ plans.

Mississippi’s oil-disaster plan from early on was to spot and fight the oil beyond the barrier islands, and try to prevent it from entering the Mississippi Sound and, more important, any marshlands.

So far that plan has not appeared to work.

Weeks ago oil and tar began landing on barrier islands without being spotted in advance. Gov. Haley Barbour and others said they got a “wakeup call” the BP/Coast Guard command didn’t have enough boats and aircraft looking for oil headed here. BP supplied more boats, and the state and feds stepped up air surveillance.

Soon after, oil and tar began entering the Mississippi Sound, and state leaders appeared surprised to learn the BP operation didn’t have skimmers on hand to help with the state’s plan of keeping it from landing on mainland beaches.

The state is buying and leasing what will be a fleet of 27 skimmers, with the first eight already delivered and more coming online in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, oily tar has been landing on beaches — including some large amounts in the Long Beach-Pass Christian area Wednesday.

Local government leaders in recent weeks have said it appears BP and the federal government is focused on cleaning up after oil hits beaches and marshes and is leaving any protection and prevention up to them.

State Rep. Brandon Jones, D-Pascagoula, said Thursday oil fouling Mississippi marshes is a sign “our response is starting to look like its own little disaster.”

“It’s kind of a results-oriented thing,” Jones said. “Setting up a perimeter around the islands, that sounded great. But then oil comes in one Saturday, and nobody’s there to welcome it, much less to stop it.

“And here we are weeks later, still having discussions about getting skimmers and where they are going to be, and oil washing into marshes. ... It’s one thing not to be ready on Day 1. But it’s a whole other animal not to be ready on Day 70-something.”

Dan Turner, spokesman for Gov. Haley Barbour, said Thursday “resources have been a problem” since early on.

“But second-guessing what has occurred up until now will not get us where we need to be,” Turner said.

“We are contracting to build skimmers, we have leased skimmers and we have people who are trained and ready to go. … One thing we can’t do is throw up our hands and say it’s unavoidable.

“We can go out and try to collect as much as we can, with skimmers … whatever resources we can. The real concern is still capping the well. This is going to be a long-term challenge.”

Longo said oil at Jackson Marsh could easily make its way to the other bayous, streams and lagoons.

“It’s the end-all to a lot of tributaries that meander into Hancock County,” he said. Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Teams were expected to start cleaning the Jackson Marsh soon, but neither Longo or Yarborough knew when that might begin.

Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Robbie Wilbur said the oil was confined to the grass just north of the road where the culvert drains, with less than a quarter-acre of oiled vegetation visible.

Water samples were taken, he said.

Wilbur said the marsh would not be cleaned.

“Since it is already damaged, currently this oiled vegetation will be left in place as a barrier in the event additional oiling takes place in the next few days with our current weather predictions and oil forecasts,” Wilbur said.

Response contractors will remove the tar patties floating in the water along the edges of the marsh, he said.

Hancock County has at least a dozen outfalls like Jackson Marsh and many were seeing the same type of contamination, Longo said, though DEQ confirmed oiled vegetation only at the Jackson Marsh location.

“This shouldn’t have happened, but it did,” he said. “We can’t continue to let this happen over and over again.”

Late Thursday afternoon, Longo saw workers putting up the protective fencing in front of Buccaneer State Park and at Jackson Marsh, but he feared it wasn’t being installed correctly. He said it looked as if they used “tomato stakes” to hold the fence up. “As soon as the water hits it, it’s going to knock it down,” he said.

Elsewhere in the county one lone worker with a pressure washer blasted tar balls and patties off Beach Boulevard, which was reopened Thursday afternoon after just one day’s closure.

A release from the DEQ on Wednesday had said the cleanup could take three to five days.

Hancock County Emergency Manager Brian Adam said county supervisors reopened the road Thursday, but portions of it could still be closed during cleanup. Detours are already in place for several sections of the road for construction.

At Lakeshore Drive and Beach Boulevard, near the Silver Slipper Casino, black waves rolled ashore, bringing tar balls and a grassy material onto a few hundred yards of beach.

Though the material looked like oil, it was more likely debris flushed from marsh areas by recent storms, Adam said.

It was still shocking to people to see black water crashing onto a beach already littered with thousands of gooey brown globs of oil.

“Oh my God,” said Jessica Thomas, 31, of Pass Christian, who was snapping pictures with her digital camera while talking to her mother on her cell phone. “Oh my God.”

She stood on the sand in a stretch of tar balls.

Thomas, whose parents live in Waveland, came to the closed beach to find work with a SCAT team after being turned away at the WIN Job Center.

“It makes me want to cry,” she said. “I have a 6-week-old son who will never be able to enjoy this Coast like I did.”

The beach from Nicholson Avenue to Lakeshore Drive in Waveland remained closed Thursday as cleanup crews worked to remove tar balls and other contaminated debris that had begun washing onshore Saturday. Barbour has called for a year-long study by state agencies to examine the economic impact of the BP oil disaster on the state.

The state Institutions of Higher Learning and departments of Employment Security, Environmental Quality, Marine Resources, Revenue and the Mississippi Development Authority and Gulf Coast Business Council will work on the study.

The study is estimated to cost $600,000, funded equally by BP and anticipated grant money from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

“We need a clear grasp on how this oil spill will impact the state of Mississippi and local communities for years to come,” Barbour said.

Oil in Hancock marshes - Waveland - SunHerald.com

barbour shucking and jiving aside, the simple fact is that there's no concerted response out there directed at keeping the oil away from marshes or for dealing with it once it arrives.

this is entirely baffling to me.

i hope i'm wrong...