A study released by the Gulf Coast Incident Management Team last week says the cleanup of oiled beaches along the Gulf of Mexico may have gone as far as it can without beginning to have negative impacts.
The study finds that the human health effects from short and long-term exposures from the remaining oil are below federal benchmarks for concern and there is only a minimal risk of oil leaching into groundwater from buried oil.
The study does point out some areas of concern including the danger of shore birds eating tarballs or contact between buried oil and sea turtle eggs and hatchlings but says those issues will need more study to fully understand the risks.
The concern raised by the report is that the current shoreline cleaning has reached a point where crews, heavy equipment and continued scrubbing might cause more damage to the ecosystem than leaving what oil is left alone.
If you would like to see the entire study for yourself, we have put a link to it from the news page at oysterradio.com.
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