Experts say no oil in bay

At a community meeting last week, seafood workers differed with state officials on whether there is oil in Apalachicola Bay, but have yet to produce concrete evidence to support their allegation.

On Wednesday, Nov. 19, about 40 people gathered in the Apalachicola courthouse annex to listen to a wrap-up of current information about the state of the local coastline, almost seven months after the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill April. 20.

Representatives of British Petroleum (BP), the Coast Guard, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Community Services (FDACS) and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) all told the audience continuous testing, since the spill, has revealed no evidence of oil contamination in the county’s coastal waters.

A small group of vocal seafood workers insisted the bay is badly contaminated with oil; representatives of the Coast Guard and DEP asked for evidence of the pollution.

Darryl Boudreau, DEP’s assistant director, moderated the meeting, which opened with Jason Maddox, spokesman for Polaris Applied Sciences, explaining his firm’s role in the massive, ongoing clean-up of the spill.

Polaris, a subcontractor for BP, is the “bird dog” of the Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment Technique (SCAT) program overseen by US Fish and Wildlife. SCAT is designed to make valid assessments of damage caused by the spill and inform BP of what restitution is needed, thereby avoiding conflict of interest by removing the petroleum giant from the decision making loop.

Polaris employees patrol beaches and take samples in areas that may be affected by the oil. They report oil to the operations arm of SCAT and make recommendations about how contaminates can best be removed from the environment.

“We are looking for oil every day. There’s no doubt there will be more oil,” said Maddox.

Lt. Anthony Romero described the Coast Guard’s efforts to monitor the spread of petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico, stressing that the county’s waters are clean.

Romero said only 400 pounds of product (petroleum and related chemicals from the spill) had been found in Franklin and Gulf counties combined, compared to 1,200 pounds per day in Pensacola at the height of the leak.

Boudreau said that, after an oil spill or hazardous substance release, response agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the, Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), collaborate to clean up the substance and eliminate or reduce risks to human health and the environment through the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process. Cooperators conduct studies to identify the extent of resource injuries, best methods for restoring those resources, and the type and amount of restoration required.

The first public NRDA meeting relating to Deepwater Horizon, will be held Nov. 30 at the Okaloosa County Convention Center, with others to be held throughout the affected region.

Boudreau said the NRDA team is fine cleaning affected beaches. Their goal is to have the shoreline in pre-spill condition by Mardi Gras, March 8, to the west and by spring break to the east. He said various agencies monitoring the spill’s aftermath have taken thousands of samples of water and seafood.

The NRDA team believes that only about half of the leaked petroleum made landfall. The rest dispersed into the water column or sank to the floor of the Gulf. So far, none of the monitoring entities has found evidence of a subsurface oil plume, and populations of organisms known to feed on petroleum have soared.

Boudreau said monitoring will continue indefinitely and that BP has pledged $20 million to Florida for monitoring the Gulf and marketing seafood over the next three years.

He said of 380 subsurface samples collected by DEP along Florida’s shores, only 19 were contaminated and none exceeded public health allowances. None of the 21 samples taken off Franklin County was contaminated. Only two samples, both collected off Escambia County, contained dispersant.

Taunya James, president of the Franklin County Seafood Workers’ Association (FCSWA), repeatedly insisted dispersant was being applied to the bay daily by helicopters described as black or camouflage in color. She and other seafood workers claimed to be aware of serious local contamination.

Boudreau asked if anyone who witnessed the application of dispersant could provide an aircraft identification number or had taken pictures.

“We’re out there to work, not take pictures,” replied James.

Another seafood worker said that, for the first time in his experience, the oysters did not spawn this year.

Dr. John Fruin, chief of FDAC’s Bureau of Food and Meat Inspection, said 200 samples of seafood are being tested for contamination and of 175 already completed, only a handful showed any contamination and that the level was “hundreds of times” below the level of concern.

He said NOAA and the US Food and Drug Administration have taken 1700 samples of seafood in Florida, most in the Panhandle and only 13 showed contamination with dispersant. Once again the amount contained was well below the level of concern.

“We are using the best science available,” he said.

James said FCSWA had samples tested privately that showed the product was tainted.

Apalachicola resident Benjamin Owens displayed pictures which he said showed petroleum contamination in the bay. Romero examined them and said he believed they showed an algal bloom.

Romero asked if anyone could take him to a contaminated area, and James and several others said they could do so. Romero said he would spend the night if they would take him in the morning, and James and her husband met with him after the meeting.

In a telephone interview the next day, Romero said James took his cell phone number and told him her husband’s boat was in the shop but she could find another one. He said he spent the night in Apalachicola specifically to view the contamination with James but she never contacted him the next day.

In a telephone interview, James said she was not aware Romero had spent the night in the county.

Boudreau, Romero and Fruin all urged anyone with evidence of contamination to call (800) 320-0519, the state hotline, to report oil.