Oil spill update/Chamber meeting measures
Even though Lee County has joined many Florida Gulf Coast counties into the ordered State of Emergency by Gov. Charlie Crist due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the impending threat to the Fort Myers Beach shoreline and surrounding beaches has not changed. According to the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau, the declared executive order could loosen up emergency money, waive highway weight limits if needed, enforce illegal price-gouging and activate the Florida National Guard.
Town of Fort Myers Beach Environmental Sciences Coordinator Keith Laakkonen has been following the oil spill impact closely.
“The Lee County Emergency Operations Center is still in a monitoring mode (Level 3),” he said. “A state of local emergency still has not been issued for anywhere in Lee county. There have been no reports of any tar balls or oil anywhere in Florida from the Deepwater Horizon event.”
Laakkonen cautioned that, at this point and if needed, oil contaminated materials will still be handled by trained, paid workers and not by volunteers, but that could change. He said the oil spill situation reminds him more and more of a hurricane on a daily basis because of the forecasted current model that needs to be watched on a daily basis.
It has been five weeks since the drilling explosion and, while the leak has not been fully contained and oil continues to gush out and into the Gulf, the Beach waters show no ill effects. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Agency’s situation report on Monday, the oil spill was 55 miles southwest of Pensacola, 120 miles from Port St. Joe and 280 miles from Clearwater.
According to Laakonen, some good news may lie in the central Gulf area where an eddy may soon break off of the Gulf Loop Current.
“If an eddy were to break off, it would have the oil just spinning out in the Gulf of Mexico for a long time,” he said. “That possibly would be good news for southern Florida. It might be a protector and keep the oil out in the Gulf, but at this point it’s too early to tell.”
Laakkonen attended a productive U.S. Coast Guard meeting in St. Petersburg Tuesday, May 18, with beach managers and officials from Lee County and the Coast Guard. At that meeting, proposed changes by the group involving protection to wildlife areas were implemented into an overall oil spill plan.
“We were able to get a little more protection for those areas such as the Critical Wildlife Area and the least tern nesting area off the southern end of the Beach,” said Laakkonen. “The point of the plan we worked on was not just for Deepwater Horizon, but for any spill in the future.”
Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil drilling platform owned by Transocean Ltd., under contract to BP, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana on April 20. Submerged at the bottom of the Gulf, the rig continues to discharge up to 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day. BP, the United States Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service are the lead response agencies on the oil spill.
Chamber meeting informs and answers
Last week, on Tuesday evening (May18), more than 100 Fort Myers Beach business owners, fishing captains and tourism industry personnel crammed into Pink Shell Resort’s Lido Grand Ballroom to listen to six town and county officials speak and answer questions on the impending oil spill impact in the Southwest Florida area.
The informational meeting focused on updates and important contact numbers and websites from the panel of experts which featured FMB Mayor Larry Kiker, Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah, Lee County Emergency Operations Manager John Wilson, the Department of Environmental Protection’s Rhonda Haag, FMB Town Manager Terry Stewart and Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau’s Pam Brown.
“The latest forecast says that the oil spill has entered the (Gulf) Loop Current,” said Wilson. “That may be good news to us. Whatever product gets into the Loop Current may go far away from our area. We are watching that very closely.”
The Gulf Loop is a clockwise current that carries water from the Yucatan Channel north into the Gulf of Mexico, then back down south off Florida’s west coast, past the Dry Tortugas and into the Gulf Stream. Reports say it should take roughly 10 days for any oil in the Loop Current to travel almost 450 miles to the vicinity of the Dry Tortugas, according to NOAA oceanographers. The Tortugas chain of islands begins about 70 miles to the west of Key West.
Wilson described the product as a South Louisiana crude oil which is less toxic than regular crude oils. He said the plan which will be used involves an updated area contingency plan by the U.S. Coast Guard.
“The plan they will use is to put out booms,” he said. “The question is whether the booms will actually be a less protective measure for tar balls versus the oil sheen. Right now, the experts are telling us that more than likely what we’ll be seeing down here is tar balls.”
Haag said water baseline samples have been conducted along Florida shore lines and sent out for analysis.
“Prior to anything that arrives along our shores, we now have a documented basis for what the conditions of those shores, beaches and estuaries were before,” she said.
Brown wanted to inform everyone that her department is monitoring tourism cancellations and asked anyone to report such information related to that issue. She encouraged all businesses to communicate with potential visitors to show Florida is alive and well.
“We want our consumers calm and to keep coming down,” she said. “We have industry partners assuring international guests that are beaches are clear and beautiful.”
Judah disclosed a ‘heavy heart’ and assured anyone who has fears and concerns that Lee County will be prepared for the impact. He also spoke about the county’s involvement with alternative energy and fuel.
“I would send a one-way ticket to any “Drill, Baby, Drill” advocates to the former site of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill site,” he said. “It is so frustrating to me that people don’t understand that we are not talking about true energy independence by continuing to push for drilling offshore. I’m thankful that Lee County in its own small way has taken steps to pursue working with companies like Algenol to convert algae into ethanol or ethanol bio-fuels which takes grease and waste vegetable oil and converts that to bio-diesel.”
Stewart’s situation report explained that Lee County Emergency Operations Center is working in conjunction with the local U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Coast Guard St. Petersburg Sector.
“This provides an integrated, unified command structure that enables the resources to be brought together to deal with a massive emergency such as this,” he said. “It’s really important that the Back Bay area, our estuaries and areas that provide for marine growth are protected. We’re staying on top of this. Lee County EOC is the driving force behind this.”
The two-hour session presented an opportunity for anyone to ask questions and hear replies. There were questions asking for subject clarification and dealing with hurricane issues, a contingency plan for wildlife, insurance claim information and what can be done before the oil spill impact reaches the Beach shoreline.
“If we get an early season storm coming into the Gulf of Mexico, it may push some of the oil on the water closer to the Loop Current,” Wilson replied to a question about the oil spill with an hurricane impact. “A large hurricane (Cat. 3 or 4) may help disperse the oil to a larger area.”
Another inquiry questioned what measures will be taken before the oil impact reaches the Beach shoreline, since one speaker said officials are declaring war on this situation. Contractors, shrimpers and fishermen could help by skimming oil and putting out dispersents if needed.
Regarding claims, officials urged businesses to collect names and contact information to support claims for cancellations.
Kiker, who offered opening remarks at the meeting, also consoled listeners with closings remarks.
“As far as Fort Myers Beach goes, I think we can handle this,” he said. “We are all here in this room, and we’re communicating. We will continue to communicate with you often. That’s important.”
Important contact information regarding Oil Spill Impact:
Florida Oil Spill Information Line: 1-888-337-3567
Latest News Information: www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon
Report Tar Balls or Oil Sheen: 1-877-272-8335
Report Wildlife Impact from Oil Spill: 1-866-557-1401
Lee County Industry Partner information: www.leevcb.com
The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association is recommending all businesses that have experienced a loss of income due to the oil spill open a claims account with BP by calling 1-800-440-0858. Claims can only be made by those businesses that have already seen a loss of income.
On May 17, 2010 Governor Charlie Crist announced BP will provide Florida with an additional $25 million for a national tourism advertising campaign. These funds are in addition to the $25 million Florida has already received.
On May 14, 2010, Governor Charlie Crist announced that the U.S. Small Business Administration approved disaster loan funds for businesses along Florida’s Gulf coast that have been impacted by the Deepwater Horizon incident. Learn more at: www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance.
To assist Visit Florida with images, please continue to send your photos of people enjoying Lee County to KMeckley@leegov.com and we’ll tweet these links to Visit Florida as well as post them on our own social media sites. This will allow residents to share Florida Live! Or, to contribute directly, simply become a Share a Little Sunshine fan at www.Facebook.com/FloridaSunshine and post a current photo of our beautiful Sunshine State.
–the bullet points were provided by Lee VCB