We Spent a Morning with the Guys Who Found Oil at Ft. Pickens
From Ring of Fire:
On February 28, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection removed an estimated 1,200 pounds of oily material from the waters off of Langdon Beach in Ft. Pickens, Florida. The coastal observance has been ongoing for several years, but is now in its drawing down period, as the majority of oil monitoring in Florida has ended. So, we went and spent the morning with the guys that found the oil and talked with them about the situation.
The morning began with us meeting the crew that found the tar mat on a section of beach and going on a walk with them. The crew normally walks a section between 400 and 2,000 meters long. According to the crew, which consisted of Joey Whibbs and Dominic Marcanio, the conditions were optimal for searching for oil, and they did find oil while we were with them. Check out the photos and video from our search with them and be sure to read about the history of the spill and details of our conversation with the responders, below.
The official Deepwater Horizon response ended in June 2013, after the Coast Guard and BP deemed the residual risk to be “as low as reasonably practicable,” meaning they decided the cost involved in reducing the risk further would be disproportionate to the benefit gained. Active oil spill cleanup operations were also ended in Mississippi and Alabama at that time.
You can read the full article here at Ring of Fire.