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OIL SPOTTED NEAR THE PASS: With 'heavy' tar balls on the horizon, county calls for a booming plan 'redesign' (4 P.M. UPDATE with PHOTOS)
4 P.M. UPDATE: The crew deploying boom across the Destin Pass for the first time ran into some difficulties Wednesday night, including weather issues, and wasn’t able to complete the task.
Because the county decided to close the pass with oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill still three miles offshore, the failure to completely deploy the boom was not a major issue, said county Public Safety Director Dino Villani.
Villani also said that a company contracting with the unified command overseeing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response had requested "a redesign" of its plan to lay boom diagonally across Destin Pass to pick up spill residue entering the pass.
New photos from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster »
To see aerial photos of the slick just a few miles off shore, click here.
View a gallery of photos of tar balls on the beach. »
View a gallery of photos of tarball clusters seen from the Okaloosa pier.»
To see beachgoers on the beach on Okaloosa Island, click here.
See pictures of Wednesday's protective work at the west jetty.»
“They got about halfway through when they ran into problems. That’s OK. That’s why we started early,” he said. “They need to get a feel for what they’re doing so they can get on a regular routine.”
The county made the decision to close the pass Wednesday afternoon after tar balls began washing up on shore at Okaloosa Island. Large slicks of oil were confirmed about 3.5 miles off shore and a light sheen was visible about four miles off shore in the vicinity of the pass.
Villani also reported that barges that will be deployed across the entrance of the pass were arriving Thursday and could be staged as early as Friday morning.
Eagle SWS, a company contracting with the unified command based in Mobile, has been tasked with deploying the boom that will extend across the pass. It is hoped the large boom will help push any oil getting into the pass into county created collection areas on either side of the pass.
Eagle SWS will also be putting boom out at the Destin Bridge and in two channels on the northside of the bridge.
Villani said a "real light" oily substance had shown up in the collection areas Wednesday night. "It was very light, not even a sheen, more like a bit of a staining," he said.
The retained oil does indicate the chevron system set up by the county is working, Villani said. It could not be confirmed that the oil collected was oil spill oil.
THE LATEST
‘I CAN STILL SMELL IT ON ME’: Unexpected oil encounter for dive group near the jetties
Frustrated captain: ‘Either close it or don’t’
8 A.M. UPDATE: Tar balls are heavily concentrated on the stretch of Okaloosa Island near the pier, both on the beach and in the waters just off shore, according to visual reports Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, an emergency City Council meeting is set for this morning at 10 a.m. at the Destin City Hall Annex. The Log will offer live updates from the meeting at reporter Matt Algarin's liveblog.
The city of Destin issued the following warning on its website, "Oil product has been spotted near East Pass. The Coast Guard and other BP resources have been notified and are being deployed ASAP to the area."
The beaches were largely empty, though a few people still walked along the sand. One, a visitor from Ohio, had been out walking the night before and realized too late that she had been stepping on tar balls.
"I shouldn't have to go to an auto parts store to get this stuff off of me," said a disgusted Gina Bill, from Delta, Ohio.
Tracey Vause, Okaloosa's Beach Safety Division Chief, said crews worked all night to clean the stretch of beach from the El Matador east toward the pier.
The pier remains open and about three dozen people were fishing about 8 a.m. It is being left up to the fishermen whether they keep the fish or release them.
"If if wasn't for the oil, I would probably would try to keep the fish," said Steve Barnaclo, who is on vacation from Cincinnati. "The only way you find it is to smell the oil. I'm not going to smell these things."
Okaloosa County Public Safety Director Dino Villani stressed that the beaches weren't closed however people should enter the water at their own risk, due to the presence of petroleum products there.
There were 50 people assigned to clean the beaches Wednesday. That number has been doubled for Thursday.
"We're directing them to the heaviest areas first," Vause said. "They're just now starting to get their minds around the task of the day."
He said the crews would be out on the beach as long as it was safe for them to do so. Due to the protective clothing they have to wear, the heat index can make it dangerous for them.
Crews continue to work to fully deploy the boom closing the Destin Pass. It was not completed last night, Villani said, adding that they were still "OK."
He clarified that charter boats will not get locked in or out by the boom. He said search and rescue boats will also be a priority for access to the Gulf.
Villani said the booms that were in place did collect some oil overnight, which means that they're working. They have had no reports of oil in the bay, he said.
COLLECTION OF COVERAGE
WHAT LIES BENEATH: Aerial photos capture the slick 3 to 5 miles out
'HANG ON TO THOSE MEMORIES': Fishing finale draws tears from captains (PHOTOS)
BP begins burning oil, gas collected from runaway well (MAP)
From charges of ‘lollygagging’ to ‘mutual admiration,’ Holiday Islanders navigate BP claims process
Bos helps secure barges as Okaloosa's oil protection permits get the green light (PHOTOS)
'A phenomenal outpouring' for Okaloosa's decision to buck the BP system
LINKS BEYOND: As Destin and Okaloosa buck unified command, the nation takes notice
'PROACTIVE STEPS': Sandestin digs trench, deploys scrapers to protect the beach
Tempers rise in Walton as community searches for answers at “What Can I Do?” Forum
The story continues.
Hundreds of tar balls washed ashore Wednesday on Okaloosa Island, angering vacationers and forcing the closure of the Destin pass.
The first wave of tar balls, some as big as dinner plates, reached the beach at the western tip of Okaloosa Island early in the morning. A second wave was reported about 3 p.m.
Tar balls were also confirmed to have come ashore on Eglin Air Force Base property.
A reporter and photographer for the Northwest Florida Daily News went up in an airplane Wednesday afternoon and saw huge masses of oil hovering 3.5 miles off the Okaloosa County coast.
The worst-looking “product,” as it has come to be called, extended west from the western end of Okaloosa Island to approximately the Santa Rosa County line.
The slick appeared to be drifting slowly eastward. Its eastward reach extended to an area about 4 miles south and west of the Destin Pass.
Okaloosa County Administrator Jim Curry said projections indicate it will continue to move slowly eastward for the foreseeable future.
Greg and Toni May of Dallas, Texas, who traveled here to get married on the beach Wednesday evening, weren’t happy to find tar balls on the Okaloosa Island sand behind their hotel.
“It’s really sticky stuff,” Greg May said.
“It’s a downer we’re not going to be able to enjoy our vacation on the beach,” he said. “We had a choice for our wedding between Hawaii and Florida and chose Florida.
“Every day we see commercials. We thought it would be clear.”
BP cleanup crews have begun staging in the area and responded quickly Wednesday morning to clean up the tar balls, Public Safety Director Dino Villani said.
Skimmer boats, which are also being brought in from outside the area as Okaloosa County “ramps up” its preparations for oil, were being used to pick up the tar balls that were closest to shore.
“The product we’re looking at now is highly weathered,” Villani said. “It’s one of the easiest forms to collect and pick up.”
From the air above the Gulf of Mexico, it was evident that the oil coming in was more than isolated patches. Sheen was floating in what vaguely resembled schools of huge fish. Clumps of coppery oil appeared occasionally along with the sheen.
Villani announced the waters of the Destin Pass would be closed to traffic Wednesday at 7 p.m. Coast Guard booms would be deployed across the pass and at the Destin bridge.
The time was chosen because that’s when the tide is high and water from the gulf is moving into the pass.
The pass will be opened again at low tide when water is flowing in the other direction, then closed again when the tides change.
Destin charter boat association officials were scrambling late Wednesday to notify local boat captains hired to operate oil skimmers for British Petroleum of the impending closure.
They did not want the captains to find themselves stuck inside Destin Harbor and unable to work and make money.
The Coast Guard booms to be installed when the pass is closed will supplement chevron booming the county has already done.
It is hoped a massive boom laid across the pass entrance will help sweep spill residue to collection points installed by the county.
Booms will also be put in at the Destin bridge and across two channels on the north end of the pass. These will serve as a last resort to prevent oil from getting into Choctawhatchee Bay.
Villani traveled to Mobile, Ala., Wednesday to meet with U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Steve Poulin, who is heading up the Florida sector response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Villani said Poulin personally issued him the authority to implement all measures the county has requested to use in preventing oil from entering the pass.
“We’ve had generous and expedited cooperation,” he said.
The Okaloosa County Commission had decided Monday to circumvent the authority of Poulin and the Unified Command set up to oversee spill response by voting to allow Villani to act without the command’s permission if that became necessary.
It doesn’t appear now Villani will have to take independent action.
The county received approval Wednesday to install air and slip curtains, put in foam-filled pipe booms and wall in the pass entrance with barges.
It will still likely be several days before either of the curtains or the pipe booms can be installed.
Villani said the county’s plan to line six barges up across the entrance to the pass when it is closed “is probably a few days out.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also announced Wednesday that it had extended the area of federal waters closed to fishing to Panama City Beach.
The closure was intended “to capture portions of the oil slick moving beyond the area’s current northern boundary,” a news release said.
The closure does not apply to state waters.
•••
Here is the county's report on the pass closing.
Destin East Pass closes wednesday night
The Destin East Pass will close this evening and every evening unless otherwise noted. The pass will be open during outgoing tide and closed during incoming tides with booming operations. Numerous, small tar balls washed up on Okaloosa Island today (Wednesday) and were cleaned up quickly. Okaloosa County Beaches are open; however swimming is not
encouraged with oil close to shore.
Tar balls began washing up on Tuesday evening, and some can be seen in the water; however, many washed back out to sea with the tide. Please do not handle any oil or dispose of oil. Report an oil sighting to a lifeguard, call 311, and select 0 or contact the State Warning Point at 1-877-2-SAVE FL (272-8335) or #DEP on cell phones. The majority of impacts to Florida’s shoreline will likely be highly weathered, in the form of tar balls, oil sheen, tar mats or mousse – a pudding-like oil/water mixture that could be brown, rust or orange in color.
The Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners has voted to pursue protective action for East Pass, and keep oil from inland waterways. The State of Florida approved the air curtain, and permits are in process. The air curtain has been ordered by the Department of Public Safety. Okaloosa County Public Safety is requesting several layers of protection:
1. Air Curtain
2. Barges to block the pass on incoming tides and move them on the
outgoing tide.
3. Slip Curtain
4. Foam Filled pipe
•••
View from above shows sheen, “weathered product”
DESTIN — As he flew west from Destin Airport along the Okaloosa County coastline, pilot Dane Weathers expressed shock at the amount of oil he saw on the water 1,000 feet below.
He added, “it’s surprising how close it is.”
The Northwest Florida Daily News hired Weathers to take a reporter and photographer up in his plane Wednesday afternoon to give them a real sense for how far the Deepwater Horizon oil spill had extended its reach.
That reach appeared to be as far east as the Destin pass, though south of the pass there were only thin fingers of sheen visible. The sheen was about four miles off shore, according to Weathers’ calculations.
It wasn’t much farther west, however, at approximately three miles due south of the Eglin Air Force Base gate on Okaloosa Island, that the really nasty stuff was clearly evident.
The sheen was everywhere, and in a lot of places there were sickly copper-colored patches.
This, according to Public Safety Director Dino Villani and other officials, is the “weathered product” that will, if it makes it to shore, come in as tar balls or tar mats.
Weathers’ on-board equipment indicated the sheen and the “weathered product” were hanging around about 3.5 miles south of the beach.
The oil slick was pretty much in evidence from the Eglin gate west to approximately the Okaloosa/Santa Rosa County line. It appeared to thin out as the plane traveled west toward the Navarre Bridge.
•••
Curious beachgoers: 'It kind of makes you want to cry'
OKALOOSA ISLAND — Visitors on the Okaloosa Island pier Wednesday morning watched several large clusters of bright redish brown tar balls roll toward the shore.
“I expected it to be black and nasty, and it was red like blood,” said John Zachary who was visiting the area from Arkansas.
He had planned to go fishing every morning while he was here, but said the sight of the clusters had him rethinking that plan.
“It kind of makes you want to cry, and I don’t even live here,” he said.
People stopped on their journey to the end of the pier to stare at the tar balls which were in sharp contrast to the emerald green water.
“I’m glad I got here before it got here,” said Michelle Bartkowiak, who was visiting the area with her husband for their 30th wedding anniversary.
She said she postponed making reservations until last Saturday because of the threat of the oil, but ultimately decided to come because she wanted to see the area "before it got messed up."
Nancy Weatherly crouched down in the sand and looked closely at the small blobs sitting in the sand behind yellow police tape.
"I saw there were a lot of people out here last night around 11 and when they put up the tape I pretty well figured it was because of tar balls," Weatherly of Arkansas said. "I think this is definitely going to discourage people from coming to the beaches."
Wednesday morning beachgoers lounging in condo chairs had their views obstructed by the police tape stretching across the sand. In front of the tape, hundreds of small tar balls were scattered across the sand.
The site of the clusters was especially devastating to Niceville resident Ronald Deale.
“It’s just so unbelievably sad,” Deale said after looking at the tar balls for the first time. “That right there, I’m afraid, is just the beginning; it’s going to be devastating.”
Deale said he moved with his family to the area 10 years ago specifically for the beaches and the Gulf. Every day since the explosion he’s been thinking about what this will mean not only to his way of life, but to his friends who depend on the Gulf for their livelihood.
“It’s going to change our whole region,” he said. “It’s almost surreal… it’s hard to believe it’s happening to us.”
Destin City Manager Greg Kisela said he has not recieved any reports of large quantities of tar balls on Destin beaches.
