Oil boom deployment begins in Franklin County

Fishermen and beachgoers will begin to see boom deployed in the Gulf of Mexico off of Franklin County.



Franklin County commissioners held an emergency meeting on Sunday to update the public about the ongoing work. The meeting was standing room only – with a number of Seafood workers and St. George Island residents in attendance.

The Tier 1 boom deployment, which is done in the Gulf, began Saturday with about 1500 feet of boom at Indian Pass. A company called Eagle/ SWS has also begun moving 36 thousand more feet of boom by crew boat from Port St. Joe to begin deploying at the mouths of other passes including west pass and the Bob Sikes Cut.

Once the Tier 1 work is complete, Tier 2 booming will begin which is done in the bay to protect important areas from oil.

Tier 3 work will follow which will be done by local groups to protect areas even further inshore.

About 250 thousand feet of boom will be situated in the county to be used in the various boom plans.

The local emergency Management Office is also going back to a level 2 activation on Monday to watch the oil spill more closely. That is a partial activation in which EOC personnel work 12 hours shifts 7 days a week. They also man the EOC hotline to provide local information.

If oil does begin to impact Franklin County they will move to level 3 activation which is full activation 24 hour a day.

Training will also begin on Tuesday for people who might be needed to remove tar from local beaches – the first training class will have 40 open spots. People interested in becoming involved should call 653-1661.

Commissioners have also asked that the state begin looking at the possibility of closing up local passes completely with sand to keep any oil from washing in to the bay.

They said they don’t want to close those passes now while fishermen are still working, but they want approval before the fishing areas get closed off so we don’t wind up like Louisiana where the plan to build offshore berms was not approved until it was too late.

County commissioners said they are also going to try to get more information to the public on a daily basis to stop any rumors that might be going around. There have already been rumors of tar balls and an oiled bird in Gulf County which proved not to be true. Commission chairman Smokey Parrish said people need to make sure the information they get and pass along has been verified through the Emergency Management office and he said the county will work harder to make sure the right information is getting out.

There are a number of web sites now dedicated to providing up to date information including the news page at oysterradio.com where we post all press releases sent by he federal, state and local governments as well as from BP and the Coast guard.

We also have links to dozens of other sites where information is available including the Franklin County website the local emergency management website, the local tourist development council website and the Apalachicola Riverkeeper website.

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