Tar Balls, Debris Wash Up on Peninsula

As rough weather roiled the Gulf of Mexico over the past week the most significant amount to date of debris and tar balls washed ashore in Gulf County.

From Tuesday through Saturday members of the Sight Contamination Assessment Teams (SCAT) found tar balls and debris over a swath of shore spanning from the tip of St. Joseph Peninsula to the state park, where on Saturday tar balls and debris were spread across 1,600 to 2,000 yards of beach near the bathhouse and campground area.

“The only impact has been out at the state park on the gulf side,” said Amber Davis, the Public Information Officer for the county’s Deepwater Horizon response.

The tar balls were described as being between 3.5 and 4 inches in diameter and appeared much like “smashed golf balls,” Davis said.

“Most people would probably walk right past it and not notice,” Davis said.

Last Tuesday, closer to the tip of the peninsula, the SCAT found 24 tar balls and debris, weighing six to seven pounds, according to a report submitted to the Board of County Commissioners and Emergency Management.

The debris included what appeared to be a 2 x 2 piece of burnt insulation which could have come from an oil rig such as the Deepwater Horizon, according to county Emergency Director Marshall Nelson.

“You could smell it when you walked in the room,” Nelson said of the debris and bagged tar balls.

 Tests to determine the source and whether the tar balls and debris came from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill had not come back at press time.

Davis said when the tar balls and debris were found at the state park protocol was followed with members of the Coast Guard collecting samples for testing.

“We don’t want that product in our county and not know about it,” said county administrator Don Butler of the importance of the SCAT work and subsequent testing.

The SCAT went out last week for a three day survey of the county’s beaches to effectively establish a baseline. The goal, Davis said, was to determine if the beaches are clean.

Results from tests of the tar balls and debris found last Tuesday is expected sometime this week.

At the county’s request, Davis said the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) were testing offshore waters for any sheen or other evidence of oil.

Thus far those tests have not come back.

“We have had no verified (oil) in the water,” Davis said.

However, some boat captains have reported the evidence of dispersants as close as three miles out and in one Coast Guard report an “unusual” number of dead dragonflies was documented near a potential sighting of oil roughly three miles offshore.

Nelson said it should not be a surprise to see impacts such as tar balls and debris in the days to come, but the key is the future.

“When you get it starting to come in it comes in groups,” Nelson said. “Eventually the oil is going to come and we are going to have oil and tar balls on our beaches for (some time to come).

“We need to get used to it.”

There were reports Tuesday morning of a patch of oil “mousse” being seen at low tide near the Port St. Joe Marina and isolated debris or small tar balls were reported at Money Bayou, St. Joe Beach and Salinas Park, though by the far the most significant impacts were in the state park on the peninsula.

Davis is part of a team that has been hired by the county with money from BP earmarked for EOC augmentation.

The BP money will fund three positions for 28 days.

Davis was hired as Public Information Officer, Patrick Farrell as planner, essentially the person who provides action plans and documents what actions were taken. The county has yet to hire the third position, a person to handle claims, Butler said.

Butler added that he had an interview with a qualified candidate on Tuesday and hoped to have somebody on board shortly. Butler said that the county will likely seek an extension of the funding.

There remain roughly 600 people, working rotating shifts of 12 hours, on the BP payroll in the county to assist with beach clean-up.

Butler also noted that the decontamination site being used by BP to clean boom may become a site for boom clean-up from other states. He has had conversations with district officials from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection who have indicated that BP is impressed with the Gulf County clean-up site and may use it for boom from other states.

“We would need sign off from the Port Authority (which owns the land on which the decontamination site is located) and BP and nothing is final, but that would be a boost for our local economy and for workers,” Butler noted.