'OIL INVASION' OF YESTERYEAR: Area has a history of oil encounters, scares (PHOTOS)

More than 20 years ago, experts concluded that Florida was the “best prepared state in the nation” to deal with containment and clean-up of offshore oil spill mishaps.

Their predictions, noted in a Feb. 13, 1983, Daily News article, were based on the soon-to-be-published Oil Spill Vulnerability Atlas, which mapped out a plan to protect the state’s most environmentally fragile areas.

There is no indication in the Daily News’ archives that the atlas was ever put to any real use. But its existence shows that nearly 30 years ago, officials were worrying about the type of event now threatening the coastal areas.

“Preventive measures are infinitely more desirable — and effective — than after-the-fact cleanup efforts,” said Dr. Charles Getter, the South Carolina biologist who served as the chief consultant for the atlas. “Containment and recovery in advance of undesirable contact is the key.”

To read a Log story about the oily days of a summer long ago, click here.

In recent weeks, the area has seen the first signs of the advance of the Deepwater Horizon spill and officials have scrambled to minimize the impact.

There have been numerous reports of oil sheen offshore, moving ever closer to the coast, and tar balls have washed up on local beaches.

For some longtime residents, this is déjà vu. In early 1970s, tar balls began appearing on local beaches from a source that was never identified.

Some speculated that a large vessel had a leak or that the oil may have come from an offshore wreck.

Folks who lived here back then said that it was also commonplace to step on a tar ball.

“Nothing was a big deal back then,” recalls William Tennis, who has lived here since 1947. “We had to go to the beach with a little bottle of mineral spirits.

“You could step in them and it was a nuisance but it wasn’t anything that kept you from going swimming,” he added.

Others remember using gasoline or lighter fluid to remove the sticky petroleum product.

According to news reports from that time, it cost about $1,000 per mile to clean up the beaches. The tar balls affected beaches between Fort Walton Beach and Panama City.

Back then, much of that long stretch of beach was undeveloped.

Tar-like oil globules were scooped off the beach with shovels, front-end loaders and dump trucks. Forty local people were hired to complete the job.

Beachgoers took the sticky blobs in stride, according to Tennis. He said if you lived on the beach, you could expect to find almost anything.

“We used to have titanium on the beaches,” he said. “You walked along the dune line. You’d see a black line.”

Still, he called the current events “absolutely devastating.

“It’s hard to conceive,” he said. “It’s the worst thing I have ever seen happen.”

The historical report continues with this report from The Log's Matt Algarin.

This isn’t our first 'oil invasion.'

Accounts of oil on the beaches were reported in the Destin Weekly Log and the then Playground Daily News 34 years ago.

The first account is dated January 31, 1974, and reports that “oil chunks” were spotted along the tideline and scattered from Okaloosa Island into Walton County.

“Tests indicate that the bits of tar-like material found on area beaches are crude bunker C type oil,” according to Florida Marine Patrol Officers that were on the scene.

The next article appears in The Log and is dated the week of February 9 – 16, 1974. It states that “the biggest activity in Destin this week has been cleaning up the oil spill that hit the beaches about 10 days ago. The oil at this time is in firm lumps and not too much of a nuisance on the beaches, but it was feared that it would melt as the sun grows hotter and make the beaches virtually unusable.”

It reports that an estimated 13,000 gallons of Crude C (fuel oil for ships) was pumped out or spilled far out at sea and “rolled onto beaches from Navarre to Panama City.”

According to the article, the Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team, headquarted in Mobile, contracted with Cesco of Mobile to “do the clean-up work.”

Cesco sent about 15 men from Mobile and engaged sub-contractors in the various areas to help with the job. Destin Equipment rentals was the sub-contractor here. It was expected that the work here would be done by this weekend and the crew would move on toward Panama City.

The work was completed under the National Water Quality Act, which specifically dealt with oil spills and dumps. At the time it was estimated that work on the “oil invasion” would cost about $1,000 per mile to clean up, with the spill extending 70 to 80 miles.

Another report in the Daily News of May 1974 was titled “Oil Globs Return, Threaten Beaches.”

The article says that “tar-like” globs of oil began washing up on Okaloosa Island over the weekend and had threatened the purity of the Miracle Strip beaches for the second time in less than four months.

“The substance, which is similar in appearance to the crude bunker “C” type oil which washed ashore Jan. 29, apparently is limited to a small area near Fort Walton Beach.”

According to the article “some of the material was shoveled up by hand and taken inland to be buried.”

Years late, an article in the Playground Daily News on September 12, 1977 reported on a 75-mile oil slick along the Intracoastal Waterway.

The 500-gallon spill was said to “dissipate with little or no residual ecological damage.”

Marine Patrol Officials said at the time that crude began spilling into Santa Rosa Sound after a barge ran aground west of Pensacola, rupturing a bulkhead.

“After we got some reports, we cruised up and down the Sound and the barges were the only possible source of the black oil residue,” Oil Spill Investigator Jim Pfeiffer said.

Pfeiffer added that “The Sunday spill is one of the largest recorded in the Panhandle in recent years.”