About 50 people turned up at the courthouse annex in Apalachicola last night to listen to updates and ask questions of some of the people taking part in the cleanup and monitoring efforts after the BP oil spill.
Representatives from a number of state and local agencies attended the public forum, including the Florida Department of Agriculture, The US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Environmental Protection, The US Coast Guard and a company called Polaris which is overseeing beach monitoring and cleanup along the Gulf Coast.
The basic message from all of the groups is that they are seeing very little impact in Franklin County from the oil spill.
Jason Maddox who is heading up local beach monitoring said that there are crews on the beaches every day but they are not finding anything.
Since the oil spill about 403 pound of oil has been removed from beaches reaching from Franklin to Bay County.
As you move west, however, the amount increases to nearly 1.3 million pounds in Escambia County.
The same message was given out about water quality and seafood safety; researchers are taking hundreds of water and seafood samples but are not fining any evidence of oil or of the dispersant that was used to clear the oil from the surface of the Gulf.
The crowd that attended the forum, however, did not seem to believe that everything is as rosy as it is being portrayed.
A number of seafood workers at the meeting said they have seen signs of oil in the bay but said every time they report it their reports are dismissed by the groups that are supposed to be monitoring the situation.
One man brought pictures of what he said was an oil slick – but the coast guard representative said judging by the color the pictures were likely of an algae bloom.
The Coast Guard did agree to go out on the bay with oyster harvesters today to investigate their claims.
A number of people were concerned about the long term monitoring plans – when asked how long the monitoring of the gulf coast would take place – the answer was basically “as long as it takes.”
Questions were also raised about the long term impacts of the oil spill on the reproductive success of various species along the gulf coast including birds, sea turtles, and even oysters.
One oysterman said they are already seeing a major decline in oyster spawning and he fears that next year will be very tough for oyster harvesters.
A marine biologist attending the meeting also expressed concerns about the long term impacts of the oil spill on various species –pointing out that in past spills, many of the affects on animals were not seen until years after the actual spill.
Beginning later this month, BP is going to begin a new program called NERDA which stands for Natural Resource Damage Assessment.
During that program, the public will be asked to provide ways they think BP can help mitigate the impacts of the oil spill.
Ideas can range from places where Bp can fund new boat ramps and beach access to ways they can make up for lost opportunities like the loss of funding for the oyster relay project this year.
The first meeting on the NERDA program will be held on November 30th on Okaloosa Island and others will be scheduled along the Gulf Coast.
There will also be an web-site set up to discuss the program and how to submit ideas.
For people who have ideas they would like to submit now, however, you can send your ideas to this e-mail address:
daryl.boudreau@dep.state.fl.us.
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