Commission chairman Smokey Parrish said he called the emergency special meeting to clear up some of the rumors that have been floating around the county because of the spill.
At this time, the groups in charge of responding to the oil spill do not feel that Franklin County will see any major impacts in the near future.
DEP chief Mike Sole said Mother Nature has been playing to our favor recently and the oil plume seems to be moving west. As long as that keeps happening the chance that the spill will impact Florida will continue to diminish. Mister Sole said if we do see some impacts over the next few months it will likely be in the form of tar balls and not the liquid oil that is currently covering the Louisiana coastline. He said the longer the oil stays in the Gulf and interacts with the sun and water, the more weathered it becomes until it becomes more solid which makes it easier to clean up.
Mister Sole said the approaching hurricane season is also not a big cause for concern at this time because the early part of the season is not generally very active and even if there were a storm, that could also work in our favor by causing more weathering of the oil.
(MAPS DEPICTING LOCATION OF OIL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO)
Mister Sole did add that even though the forecast for Franklin County is pretty good, DEP will continue to monitor the situation and will continue to be prepared and if anything changes will be ready to respond immediately.
Our waters right now are very “swimmable and fishable” and Mister Sole said he wants people to know that.
(CAPT SCOTT SCHAEFFER USCG AND GG Basala BP SECTION CHIEF)
Coast Guard and BP officials agreed with the assessment and said they are focusing much of their efforts now to the west of Florida, especially Louisiana.
In fact, they are so sure that Franklin County is not in any immediate danger that they are not staging any boom in Franklin County at this time. They say we don’t need the boom at this time, and besides boom is in such short supply that all of it is needed to help combat the oil slick further west. The Coast Guard said boom is considered a critical resource at this time and right now that critical resource is going to where the critical need is and that’s Louisiana.
County commissioners are not happy with that decision, especially since boom has been staged just 20 miles further west in Gulf County.
Commissioner Pinki Jackel said this decision is indicative of how Franklin County has been treated since the oil spill began. The county had to fight to be put under the initial emergency declaration by the state, to have access to advertising money provided by BP, and now to have boom deployed in the county. She added that she hopes Franklin County won’t have to sue just to become a staging area for boom
The board has made a formal request that boom be staged in Apalachicola and Carrabelle just in case it is needed quickly, but it seems unlikely that that is going to happen.
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