Oil spill impact in Florida

Due to the high heat index, the nighttime cleanup of tar balls from Northwest Florida beaches started on June 16.

Tar balls and tar patties ranging in size from less than 1cm up to12cm continue to be sighted in widely scattered areas of Northwest Florida, with the heaviest impact seen in Escambia, Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa Counties.

Perdido Pass and Pensacola Pass are being closed with the tide to prevent oil from entering inland waters. Boom is scheduled to be deployed across each Pass at flood tide (incoming) and removed at ebb tide (outgoing).

In accordance with established plans, protective booming, staging, and boom maintenance is being conducted along the coast from Escambia to Franklin County, with a total of 365,810 feet of oil containment boom already deployed in the state.

The Vessels of Opportunity Program (VOP) has deployed 290 vessels in Florida and 313 Qualified Community Responders are actively working the cleanup efforts in coastal Panhandle communities.

According to the NOAA oil plume model, the oil plume remains 52 miles from Mexico Beach and 248 miles from St. Petersburg, with noncontiguous sheens and scattered tar balls closer.

Coastal regions near and west of Panama City may experience shoreline impacts sometime during the day Friday, June 18.

Scattered patches of sheen and tar balls remain in the Loop Current Ring. Observations continue to indicate that the Loop Current Ring has detached from the Loop Current, meaning that any scattered patches of sheen and tar balls will likely remain in the Loop Current Ring.

BP provided a $100,000 grant through a Memorandum of Understanding with Volunteer Florida to maintain a database for the registration of volunteers. The company also issued a $25 million block grant to Florida, to be allocated toward booming and a second $25 million grant to Florida for a tourism advertising campaign. The third $25 million allocation Florida received from the oil giant was for the state’s preparedness and response efforts. The company has reported processing 14,788 claims with approximately $12,649,270.59 paid out.

The fishery failure declaration for the Gulf of Mexico includes Florida, providing impacted and eligible commercial fisheries the opportunity for federal support; however, it does not close fisheries.