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Florida Launches Major Oil Watch Effort
| Copyright 2010 by Dale Cox All Rights Reserved |
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Tuesday - June 8, 2010
Statement from the Governor's Office
TALLAHASSEE –Governor Charlie Crist today announced that the State of Florida is taking
additional proactive measures to ensure the quick and timely discovery of oil from the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Reconnaissance missions are being coordinated daily from
the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee using air, land, and sea assets
from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP), the Florida Civil Air Patrol, and the Florida National Guard.
“While we acknowledge that the Coast Guard and BP, as the responsible party, are in
charge of the response to this oil spill, I have asked our state team to use all available
assets to proactively evaluate the potential areas of impact by air, land and sea,” said
Governor Crist. “We have a responsibility to our residents, businesses and visitors to
exhaust all possible avenues and to work to avoid the tragic scenes we have seen along
the coastline in Louisiana. This level of response can be done only by using these
aggressive reconnaissance methods from first light each day until dark. I want to thank the
members of our state team for their dedication to this mission on behalf of all Floridians.”
These reconnaissance missions that started last week are being conducted from Perdido
Key in Escambia County to Cape San Blas in Gulf County. Search areas are divided into
approximately five-mile increments, with all terrain vehicles (ATVs) patrolling the coastline
looking for any evidence of land-falling oil products. Boats are patrolling the gulf waters in
these areas looking for evidence of oil sheen or other oil byproducts, and air assets are
evaluating waters out to nine miles from shore daily and further when directed. When
evidence of oil is detected, the reconnaissance teams quickly report their findings back to
the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. Then teams hired by the
responsible party, BP, can be dispatched to the impacted areas through Unified Command
in Mobile, Alabama, to perform cleanup, skimming or other mitigation measures in a timely
fashion.
The aerial teams are equipped with cameras that geocode the location of what are believed
to be impacts from the oil spill. Aerial teams then send images to the State Emergency
Operations Center, so they can be mapped and relayed to response teams who are
deployed to that location to take appropriate actions. The attached map shows the area of
operations, flight patterns and where the state’s assets are deployed in these five-mile
zones and actively working to mitigate the impacts of oil on Florida’s beaches.
Two plans created by the United States Coast Guard, BP and the impacted states, including
Florida, outline the steps for shoreline assessment and cleanup to ensure quick and
efficient response to oil on our shores. Those plans include The Shoreline Cleanup
Assessment Team (SCAT) Plan and the Mobile Sector Near Shore and Shoreline Stage I
and II Response Plan.
The SCAT Plan outlines the role of SCAT teams and provides a process for collecting
shoreline oil data used to create cleanup plans. SCAT teams consist of trained
representatives from BP, the federal government and the state. The response plan
addresses response in three stages: recovering oil in the water, placing boom and other
protective measures along the most sensitive areas of Florida’s coastline, and cleaning up
any oil that does impact Florida’s shores as quickly as possible, both while the oil
discharge continues from Deepwater Horizon and after the leak is stopped.
The first stage of response involves oil removal from near shore waters using skimming
devices, vacuum systems, booming and other appropriate methods. These removal
methods are currently being used to prevent oil from reaching Florida’s shoreline.
Approximately 261,250 feet of boom has been placed in Florida along the most sensitive
areas of the Panhandle, and several counties in the western tip of the Panhandle are
moving forward with supplemental booming plans.
The second stage of the response plan outlines the cleanup methods for a variety of
habitats, including beaches, marshes, and man-made structures such as docks and
pilings. Boom will likely not prevent tar balls, tar mats and very sticky weathered oil from
washing onshore. Therefore, the most feasible cleanup method in this stage is manual
removal of oil with hand tools or mechanical equipment used by authorized and trained
individuals. The third stage is intended to finalize shoreline cleanup in habitats that may be
adversely affected by oil after the leak is stopped.
BP has contracted with Waste Management Services (WM) for removal of waste generated
from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This plan has been approved by the Unified Command
in Mobile with input from the State of Florida. Learn more about treatment and disposal
options here (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/files/treatment_disposal_options.
pdf).
For more information on Florida’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, visit www.
dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon, follow www.Twitter.com/FLDEPalert or call the Florida Oil
Spill Information Line at 888-337-3569.
CLICK HERE TO READ CURRENT UPDATES ON THE OIL SPILL IMPACT ON FLORIDA.
Statement from the Governor's Office
TALLAHASSEE –Governor Charlie Crist today announced that the State of Florida is taking
additional proactive measures to ensure the quick and timely discovery of oil from the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Reconnaissance missions are being coordinated daily from
the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee using air, land, and sea assets
from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP), the Florida Civil Air Patrol, and the Florida National Guard.
“While we acknowledge that the Coast Guard and BP, as the responsible party, are in
charge of the response to this oil spill, I have asked our state team to use all available
assets to proactively evaluate the potential areas of impact by air, land and sea,” said
Governor Crist. “We have a responsibility to our residents, businesses and visitors to
exhaust all possible avenues and to work to avoid the tragic scenes we have seen along
the coastline in Louisiana. This level of response can be done only by using these
aggressive reconnaissance methods from first light each day until dark. I want to thank the
members of our state team for their dedication to this mission on behalf of all Floridians.”
These reconnaissance missions that started last week are being conducted from Perdido
Key in Escambia County to Cape San Blas in Gulf County. Search areas are divided into
approximately five-mile increments, with all terrain vehicles (ATVs) patrolling the coastline
looking for any evidence of land-falling oil products. Boats are patrolling the gulf waters in
these areas looking for evidence of oil sheen or other oil byproducts, and air assets are
evaluating waters out to nine miles from shore daily and further when directed. When
evidence of oil is detected, the reconnaissance teams quickly report their findings back to
the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. Then teams hired by the
responsible party, BP, can be dispatched to the impacted areas through Unified Command
in Mobile, Alabama, to perform cleanup, skimming or other mitigation measures in a timely
fashion.
The aerial teams are equipped with cameras that geocode the location of what are believed
to be impacts from the oil spill. Aerial teams then send images to the State Emergency
Operations Center, so they can be mapped and relayed to response teams who are
deployed to that location to take appropriate actions. The attached map shows the area of
operations, flight patterns and where the state’s assets are deployed in these five-mile
zones and actively working to mitigate the impacts of oil on Florida’s beaches.
Two plans created by the United States Coast Guard, BP and the impacted states, including
Florida, outline the steps for shoreline assessment and cleanup to ensure quick and
efficient response to oil on our shores. Those plans include The Shoreline Cleanup
Assessment Team (SCAT) Plan and the Mobile Sector Near Shore and Shoreline Stage I
and II Response Plan.
The SCAT Plan outlines the role of SCAT teams and provides a process for collecting
shoreline oil data used to create cleanup plans. SCAT teams consist of trained
representatives from BP, the federal government and the state. The response plan
addresses response in three stages: recovering oil in the water, placing boom and other
protective measures along the most sensitive areas of Florida’s coastline, and cleaning up
any oil that does impact Florida’s shores as quickly as possible, both while the oil
discharge continues from Deepwater Horizon and after the leak is stopped.
The first stage of response involves oil removal from near shore waters using skimming
devices, vacuum systems, booming and other appropriate methods. These removal
methods are currently being used to prevent oil from reaching Florida’s shoreline.
Approximately 261,250 feet of boom has been placed in Florida along the most sensitive
areas of the Panhandle, and several counties in the western tip of the Panhandle are
moving forward with supplemental booming plans.
The second stage of the response plan outlines the cleanup methods for a variety of
habitats, including beaches, marshes, and man-made structures such as docks and
pilings. Boom will likely not prevent tar balls, tar mats and very sticky weathered oil from
washing onshore. Therefore, the most feasible cleanup method in this stage is manual
removal of oil with hand tools or mechanical equipment used by authorized and trained
individuals. The third stage is intended to finalize shoreline cleanup in habitats that may be
adversely affected by oil after the leak is stopped.
BP has contracted with Waste Management Services (WM) for removal of waste generated
from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This plan has been approved by the Unified Command
in Mobile with input from the State of Florida. Learn more about treatment and disposal
options here (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/files/treatment_disposal_options.
pdf).
For more information on Florida’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, visit www.
dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon, follow www.Twitter.com/FLDEPalert or call the Florida Oil
Spill Information Line at 888-337-3569.
CLICK HERE TO READ CURRENT UPDATES ON THE OIL SPILL IMPACT ON FLORIDA.