a DAILY Harper's Index of the oil disaster - FL Dept of Environment Daily Status Reports

[nashville_brook]

For daily updates on the Florida response to the BP Oil Catastrophe, check this FL Dept of Environmental Protection website:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/default.htm



Here's the Status Report for yesterday. Looks like updates are posted daily at noon:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/files/sit_reports/0610/situation_report45_061210.pdf

Weather Summary:
Relatively weak winds (below 10 knots), low seas (below 3 feet) and low rain
chances are expected through the next 2 days. Monday through Wednesday the chances of offshore rainfall increase to around 40%. Winds are forecast to remain light and out of the southwest through Monday before shifting to the west on Tuesday. These conditions may push portions of the oil plume towards the extreme Northwest Panhandle through the beginning of next week.

Current Situation:
Florida beaches are open.
Unified Area Command estimates release rate of oil from Deepwater Horizon at 12,600 to 40,000 barrels per day.
The containment dome is recovering approximately 15,550 barrels per day.
This event has been designated a Spill of National Significance.
Unified Area Command continues with a comprehensive oil well intervention and spill
response planning following the April 22 sinking of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon
drilling rig 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.
More than 24,000 personnel are working the on and offshore response.
Oil-water mix recovered: approximately 18.5 million gallons
Response vessels available: more than 5,511
Response aircraft available: 66
Dispersant (in gallons): approximately 1,171,000 deployed
There is no planned use of dispersants in Florida waters.

Florida Specific:
A large plume of weathered oil was detected nine miles south of Pensacola Pass.
The plume is two miles wide and goes south for 40 miles.
An additional plume of non-weathered oil was verified through state reconnaissance data.
The plume is located three miles south of Pensacola Pass. Response assets, including skimming vessels, have been dispatched to the area.
Dime to five inch-sized tar balls and tar patties were found in widely scattered areas from the Florida state line to Okaloosa County.
Tar ball and tar patty findings are more concentrated in the western-most Florida counties.
Clean up teams continue to be on scene. Heavy impacts, in addition to tar balls and tar patties, have not been reported in Florida at this time.
Perdido Pass and Pensacola Pass will be closed with the tide to prevent oil from entering inland waters.
Boom will be deployed across each Pass at flood tide (water coming in) and removed at ebb tide (water going out).

Oil Containment Boom (in feet) total: 331,240 deployed in Florida.

In accordance with established plans, protective booming and boom maintenance is being conducted in the coastal areas of Bay, Escambia, Franklin, Gulf, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, and Walton Counties.
354 vessels are registered in Florida for the Vessels of Opportunity program.
324 Qualified Community Responders are actively working the cleanup efforts in the
Florida Panhandle.

3 staging areas are in place to protect sensitive shorelines in Florida.
According to the NOAA oil plume model, the oil plume remains 80 miles from Gulf

The Small Business Administration has issued an Economic Injury Disaster
16 Florida National Guard (FLNG) personnel on duty; additional personnel
are en route to the State Emergency Operations Center.
13,240 volunteers have registered to respond to Deepwater Horizon.
Mobile Unified Command, 28 Forward-State Emergency Response Team
Florida Peninsula Command, Miami 7
St. Petersburg 0
Area Command in Robert, Louisiana 2
Escambia 1
The Agency for Workforce Innovation and Regional Workforce Boards are working in Florida communities to identify and fill jobs related to Oil Spill. Florida Department of Children and Families has begun to assess potential mental health impacts of oil spill.

Syndromic surveillance has been heightened in 6 coastal counties from Escambia to Gulf, monitoring for potential health effects.
All State sampling data collected is reported at www.nrdata.org.

County, and 280 miles from St. Petersburg, with non contiguous sheens and scattered tarballs closer. The NOAA uncertainty line extends east to Destin.
Offshore, scattered patches of sheen remain in the Loop Current Ring with evidence that it has begun to reattach to the main Loop Current.
Trajectories indicate that these patches of sheen will remain in the Loop Current Ring. Observed tarball fields are not likely to reach the Florida Straits in the next 3-4 days.

Volunteers and Donations is providing consistent messaging to Florida volunteers, “All oil-contaminated materials will be handled by trained, paid workers and not by volunteers.” Business, Industry, and Economic Development has launched a national radio and print advertising campaign for Florida tourism.

BP is providing a $100,000 grant through a Memorandum of Understanding with Volunteer Florida to maintain a database for the registration of volunteers: go to www.VolunteerFlorida.org and click “Register to Help.”

Conducting daily reconnaissance flights and patrolling shoreline from Escambia to Gulf counties for impact.
Real time reconnaissance reports are being entered into the GATOR web mapping application at http://map.floridadisaster.org/gator/.

The Boom Coordination Cell continues to coordinate additional boom requests.
BP issued a $25 million block grant to Florida; first priority is booming. BP issued a second $25 million grant to Florida for a national tourism advertising campaign.
BP issued another $25 million to Florida for the state’s preparedness and response efforts.
BP claims in Florida total 12,088 with approximately $8,099,535.33 paid.



The Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are closely monitoring health and environmental impacts to Florida. See the
website below for current advisories or link to the DOH Impacted Beaches website.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/health.htm
The fishery failure declaration for the Gulf of Mexico includes Florida, providing impacted and eligible commercial fisheries the opportunity for federal support; it does not close fisheries.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. That is interesting if a bit misleading.

"There is no planned use of dispersants in Florida waters."

But they are spraying dispersant directly into the oil at the well head, so the dispersant is floating around where ever the oil is. Thus it IS in the water and the currents will carry it along with any oil or even without oil.
I find it chilling to read this, however:Dispersant (in gallons): approximately 1,171,000 deployed

The map and discussion of the booms does not include the fact that the booms have been widely reported to be unattended, improperly placed, washed ashore, etc and not very useful.

The report seems to be sourced from the Unified Command people, which is controlled by BP, thus unreliable.

[nashville_brook]

2. there's a lot misleading in there...i did the math on the booms situation, and it's grim.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I can't tell if they are deliberately trying to ruin the Gulf

or if it is possible to have so many many many inept and don't give a damn people involved in this mess.

[nashville_brook]

4. i think there's a lot of frustrated, disempowered people surrounded by gatekeepers

who are looking out for BP's bottom line.