Pensacola Bay Lab Test Reveal Oil Found Last Month In Bay Is “EXTREMELY TOXIC”
October 28, 2010
BY SCOTT PAGE
Gulf Breeze News HERE...
Test results are in for oil material found in Pensacola Bay late last month, and the numbers are frightening.
A lab experienced in testing petroleum products determined that the oil’s toxicity levels are sky-high.
“In its natural state, the numbers are off the chart,” said Heather Reed, the environmental expert for the City of Gulf Breeze who made the discovery. “It’s extremely toxic to human health.”
Lab workers had to dilute the sample 20 times just to get a reading. Reed said samples are usually diluted only once.
“The oil is very well preserved,” Reed added. “It smells very strong when pulled out of the water. It made me nauseated.” Reed in late September discovered a significant amount of oil buried in submerged sediment near Fort McRae in Escambia County while conducting independent research.
“The oil was in about 3 feet of water and was buried pretty deep in the sediment,” Reed recalled. “The mats were between 6 inches and a foot in diameter, but some were more than 2 feet in diameter. I kept digging and finding more and more."
“Finding this submerged oil is very alarming to me because it’s in such large mats,” Reed explained. “I believe it came into (the bay) in June with the initial impacts.”
Reed on Sept. 30 revisited the site and another near Barrancas Beach with BP and Coast Guard officials to inform responders of her discovery. She also discovered oil present at Johnson Beach, Fort Pickens and Orange Beach through research she conducted in September.
The topography near Fort McRae helped preserve the submerged oil. Because the area is a secluded cove, very little water flows through it – resulting in low oxygen levels.
“(The oil) is in an anaerobic environment, so there is not a lot of bacteria to break it down,” Reed explained.
Reed said that similar samples that might possibly remain submerged in the Gulf of Mexico could be extremely damaging to the marine ecosystem.
“I am concerned about upwelling events,” Reed said. “Strong currents draw up nutrient rich water and sediment from the sea floor that nourishes plankton and other organisms that are the foundation of the marine food chain."
“If an upwelling event brings up any oil material with these toxicity levels, it could be harmful to any animals near the upwelling plume.”
Reed is unsure of the effects of the oil on the water quality near Fort McRae.
“The surface area is very large, and it gets pretty deep, so there could be a lot of dilution,” she said. “Because it sank and is submerged, it will stay there.
“I would not recommend going into the water.”
She explained that the effects near the beach would be different because of more aeration.
Though no oil has been reported on Gulf Breeze shores or in local bayous, those areas could be at risk.
“We don’t have any barriers, the Coastwatchers aren’t patrolling anymore, and there has been no communication to the city of this oil entering the bay,” Reed said.
If oil entered any of the Gulf Breeze bayous, Reed explained that it would sink and become submerged just as it had near Fort McRae.
“It would definitely sink and be preserved,” Reed said. “And it would be very difficult to find.”
Showing posts with label Submerged Oil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Submerged Oil. Show all posts
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Gulf Oil Update: Day 160
Editor's NOTE:
I have tried repeatedly for the past week unsuccessfully to obtain up-to-date information regarding the water and air quality in the Gulf coast areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. It is not clear when the area was last sprayed with Corexit dispersant and when it was last applied to the surface water in that area. At one point several weeks ago for example, the water in and around Orange Beach Alabama was said to contain 13.6 ppm of 2 butoxy ethanol (2BE) and core samples from the sea bed allegedly contained over 66 ppm of the 2 BE "marker" for Corexit according to Local chemist Bob Naman.
It is truly unfortunate that the necessary data required for people to make informed decisions about traveling to the Gulf area has not been released by the appropriate federal and local authorities. BP and the unified command have been very unwilling to reveal the extent to which Corexit spraying and direct surface water application has been continued or stopped at a date certain. It is clear from multiple reports eminating from locals and University research projects that much of the oil once located on the surface has been "dispersed" to the sea bed after falling through the entire water column. The short and long term effects to marine life and the local human populations affected remains to be determined.
At the very least, the controllling government authorities have made it extremely difficult if not impossible for interested individuals to obtain the information they need to make informed decisions about the potential deliterious health related effects to which they might be exposed.
--Dr. J. P. Hubert
4 MILES offshore Pensacola: Scuba divers find “what appeared to be tarballs”, “nearby location shows a MUCH THICKER brown film” — Officials deny oil
September 23rd, 2010 at 02:58 PM
Floridaoilspilllaw.com HERE...
Possible oil below the ocean’s surface, WEAR, September 22, 2010.
As we all know, oil is still in the gulf… sitting on the sea floor and dispersed in the water column…
Dan Thomas, WEAR reporter: We’re out here in the Gulf of Mexico about 4 miles off Pensacola beach…
Mike Harrell, Harrell Marine Services: “I have seen what I think and analysis will prove that what I thought was oil.”
Dan Thomas, WEAR reporter: I found what appeared to be tarballs, similar to what we’ve seen on shore. This is video shot by Harrell of a nearby location shows a much thicker brown film. It’s not what he was hoping to find… His marine services company depends on the gulf being pristine.
Mike Harrell, Harrell Marine Services: “I’ve been diving these waters for 25 years and what I have seen, it just doesn’t look like it used to.”
One group of researchers have observed oiled sediments on the seafloor stretching from the wellhead to 20 nautical miles off the coast of Gulfport, MS.
Today the media is reporting that federal teams have been finding oil just off the coast all along the Gulf.
Now WEAR discovers what appears to be submerged oil four miles from shore.
____________
Feds: Finding “plenty” of crude all along Gulf Coast by digging holes just offshore — Up to 25 PERCENT OIL in samples
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:31 AM
Floridaoilspilllaw.com
Oil lingering in waters off Alabama, Mississippi and Florida beaches, Press-Register (Ben Raines), September 23, 2010:
A good deal of oil remains in the shallow waters closest to the beaches in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, according to a federal team using shovels and snorkeling gear to survey the coastline for submerged oil. …
“We’re basically digging potholes approximately 18 inches deep,” [Todd Farrar, who works for Polaris Applied Sciences, a company hired by BP to do the shoreline assessments with federal officials] said… “We’re finding plenty of it.”
In the potholes he dug Wednesday morning, Farrar reported that from 10 to 25 percent of the material in his shovel was oil…
I have tried repeatedly for the past week unsuccessfully to obtain up-to-date information regarding the water and air quality in the Gulf coast areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. It is not clear when the area was last sprayed with Corexit dispersant and when it was last applied to the surface water in that area. At one point several weeks ago for example, the water in and around Orange Beach Alabama was said to contain 13.6 ppm of 2 butoxy ethanol (2BE) and core samples from the sea bed allegedly contained over 66 ppm of the 2 BE "marker" for Corexit according to Local chemist Bob Naman.
It is truly unfortunate that the necessary data required for people to make informed decisions about traveling to the Gulf area has not been released by the appropriate federal and local authorities. BP and the unified command have been very unwilling to reveal the extent to which Corexit spraying and direct surface water application has been continued or stopped at a date certain. It is clear from multiple reports eminating from locals and University research projects that much of the oil once located on the surface has been "dispersed" to the sea bed after falling through the entire water column. The short and long term effects to marine life and the local human populations affected remains to be determined.
At the very least, the controllling government authorities have made it extremely difficult if not impossible for interested individuals to obtain the information they need to make informed decisions about the potential deliterious health related effects to which they might be exposed.
--Dr. J. P. Hubert
4 MILES offshore Pensacola: Scuba divers find “what appeared to be tarballs”, “nearby location shows a MUCH THICKER brown film” — Officials deny oil
September 23rd, 2010 at 02:58 PM
Floridaoilspilllaw.com HERE...
Possible oil below the ocean’s surface, WEAR, September 22, 2010.
As we all know, oil is still in the gulf… sitting on the sea floor and dispersed in the water column…
Dan Thomas, WEAR reporter: We’re out here in the Gulf of Mexico about 4 miles off Pensacola beach…
Mike Harrell, Harrell Marine Services: “I have seen what I think and analysis will prove that what I thought was oil.”
Dan Thomas, WEAR reporter: I found what appeared to be tarballs, similar to what we’ve seen on shore. This is video shot by Harrell of a nearby location shows a much thicker brown film. It’s not what he was hoping to find… His marine services company depends on the gulf being pristine.
Mike Harrell, Harrell Marine Services: “I’ve been diving these waters for 25 years and what I have seen, it just doesn’t look like it used to.”
One group of researchers have observed oiled sediments on the seafloor stretching from the wellhead to 20 nautical miles off the coast of Gulfport, MS.
Today the media is reporting that federal teams have been finding oil just off the coast all along the Gulf.
Now WEAR discovers what appears to be submerged oil four miles from shore.
____________
Feds: Finding “plenty” of crude all along Gulf Coast by digging holes just offshore — Up to 25 PERCENT OIL in samples
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:31 AM
Floridaoilspilllaw.com
Oil lingering in waters off Alabama, Mississippi and Florida beaches, Press-Register (Ben Raines), September 23, 2010:
A good deal of oil remains in the shallow waters closest to the beaches in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, according to a federal team using shovels and snorkeling gear to survey the coastline for submerged oil. …
“We’re basically digging potholes approximately 18 inches deep,” [Todd Farrar, who works for Polaris Applied Sciences, a company hired by BP to do the shoreline assessments with federal officials] said… “We’re finding plenty of it.”
In the potholes he dug Wednesday morning, Farrar reported that from 10 to 25 percent of the material in his shovel was oil…
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