News

This morning I attended a meeting of the Barrier Island League to discuss the oil spill and our reaction to it. The natural desire to "do something" has resulted in some residents, especially on Casey Key suggesting we take immediate action. The problem, of course, is that no one knows what that action should be.

 

After some discussion, the BIL reached general agreement on the following:

1. We have to rely on County, State and Federal officials to tell us what is to be done and when to do it.

2. The size of the expense and manpower requirement to clean the beaches, should we be hit, is far too large to entertain the idea of doing it ourselves.

3. Taking independent action, without knowing what we are doing, will likely do more harm than good.

4. We will try to provide current and accurate information to our members. This information can be condensed from County, State and Federal websites.

5. The Officers of the BIL will stay in contact throughout the crises to share information and coordinate any necessary action with government entities.

 

The bottom line is that while we are all frustrated, all we can do at this time is stay informed, share information with our members and hope for the best. In the next couple of days I will send you some websites that you can monitor as often as you like. I will be working with Sis to get a couple of e mails out to our members in the near future. If we are successful in getting our website fully operational, we will use that for updates.

 

The latest release ( today, 9:20 AM ) from the Deepwater Horizon Response site shows the oil is 290 miles from St. Petersburg and that no impact from the spill is expected in ANY area of Florida for at least the next 3 days. There are approx 20,000 personnel and 1,400 vessels currently working on the spill. They have recovered 13.1 million gallons of oil / water mix. At this time it appears that our area is not immediately threatened by the spill. The unknowns are the effects of a hurricane, or tropical storm in the Gulf and what the long term may bring regarding environmental damage to the Gulf and future dispersal of tar balls.

 

Dick Hess