The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana began spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 in one of the largest such disasters in history.
Thousands of personnel from all levels of government and BP, the rig’s operator, are working to cap the well, stop the flow of oil into the sea and prevent any more oil from reaching the coastline. As of Friday, May 7, the only place oil had been reported ashore was at the Chandeleur Islands, part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge.
Much of the state and local government activity has been to publicize the availability of resources for those affected by the spill and keep oil from reaching the coast and sensitive waterways.
For its part, Plaquemines Parish, La., is using jack-up barges — which can be jacked up on pilings moored to the sea floor — to deploy absorbent boom to contain the oil. The parish had already deployed one boat and was in the process of launching two more.
The first boat was deployed to the Head of Passes, according to parish spokesman Kurt Fromherz. “The location [of the boat] is close to the marsh so that when the oil moves in we’re in a very close position and we can move in really quickly and just throw this boom in the oil to protect the marsh land, or protect the bayous or waterways or whatever it is.”
At the same, crews are patrolling the marshland conducting water samples looking for signs of oil.
At a May 5 meeting, a Santa Rosa County, Fla., official had expressed concern that he had not received guidance from BP about how to respond to the oil spill. As of Friday, the county had received the guidance it needed from BP in the form of the Near-Shoreline and Shoreline Stage Response Plan. There had also been a concern over using out-of-state contractors to do beach clean up work that officials said local volunteers were willing to do.
By Tuesday, May 11, a document posted to the Santa Rosa County website outlined training classes offered by BP for people interested in seeking paid employment assisting clean-up efforts as well as volunteer positions doing pre-landfall beach cleanup.
Other counties are also organizing classes to train volunteers for beach clean up. “We are trying to put together some HAZMAT training; we’ve found two trainers,” said Kathy Newby, a spokeswoman for Okaloosa County, Fla. “So now we just need to secure the details, and we should be able to train 150 people per trainer at a time in the college here.”
The county is facilitating four modules of training for people interested in volunteering or seeking employment with response efforts. Details for classes being held through May 15 are available on the county’s website.
In addition, the Florida Department of Corrections has offered inmates as resources to help with beach clean up if needed. On May 8, a corrections spokeswoman said they had not been called, but were ready to respond if needed.
[Photo courtesy of NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team.]