Senator Nelson says the U.S. Navy has more than 2 dozens oil skimming ships that are able to be deployed to the Gulf of Mexico immediately, but they are just sitting idle instead.
We’d like to add two points:
The plan needs to stop the oil leak! Not enough effort to cap this well has been expended. After all we can’t clean up something that’s still leaking.
We need far more than the skimmers he’s speaking off. We need thousands. BP is currently paying some out of work charter boats to convert to skimmers and clean up in the immediate area around the well. We’d like to see this program expanded.
Governor Crist gets on CNN and says all the right things, we suppose. In truth, we think there’s much more The State of Florida could be doing to keep this oil from washing up on it’s beaches en masse’. If we do, we’ll all be known (including you Governor Crist), as the heros that stopped the flow of Oil from going into the Atlantic and possibly, actually destroying all of mankind. Okay, maybe the BP Oil Leak isn’t a planet killer (how big does an oil spill have to get before it kills the planet anyway?), but if this oil gets into the Atlantic in large quantities, it will be a global disaster.
Of course there is risk for a Governor to do something about this. As you know our Governor is currently campaigning. If he was to go out there and try to get this oil, and fails to get it all, or even just looks silly doing it, his career could be over. So he has a huge motive to stick to traditional emergency response methods. After all traditional and conservative mean just about the same thing and here in FL they argue about who is more conservative like it’s a good thing.
Here’s the “traditional” forms of actions he’s taking:
Requested $50 million from the federal government.
Half of which has been approved and delivered. It’s marked for marketing, of all things.
The other half hasn’t been decided on yet and that half is for beach clean up, booms, skimmers, etc.
Requested $100 million “promptly” from BP for clean up and research projects
Issued a State of Emergency for “virtually” the entire state of Florida
Acting tough and concerned in public about the issue in the media
This is while still saying the beaches are clean and the water clear, come on down to FL and have some fun.
I guess we all knew it would happen sooner or later. we all knew that whether or not the oile from the BP Oil Leak reached the Gulf of Mexico’s “Loop current” or not, the oil would hit at least the Florida panhandle beaches. Now it seems it’s started.
With no end to this giant leak in sight, the future of Florida’s beaches, especially the ones in the panhandle, looks pretty grim. When it does hit the loop current, and it probably will, the east coast of Florida will even be in trouble.
Florida is all clear of red tide. I recieved this from FWRI today:
EAST COAST
Karenia brevis, the Florida red tide organism, was not detected in water samples collected this week alongshore of Brevard County.
NORTHWEST COAST
Karenia brevis, the Florida red tide organism, was not detected in water samples collected this week alongshore of Okaloosa and Walton counties or offshore of Levy and Citrus counties.
SOUTHWEST COAST
Karenia brevis, the Florida red tide organism, was not detected in water samples collected this week alongshore between Pinellas and Collier counties or offshore of Pinellas County. Additional samples collected late last week south of Marathon in the Florida Keys (Monroe County) also contained no K. brevis.
This is indeed great news, as it means there’s no red tide detected anywhere in Florida at the moment.
The rainy season is coming so it would be nice to see the many local fertilizer ordinances are going to have an impact. Let’s hope so. We’re betting that a lot of the nutrients are coming from further up stream, but the homeowners have been a significant contributor in the past.
Recent Comments