Skin rash and blisters after wading and walking in Mobile Bay, Alabama, on May 11. (Photo: Sheri Allen)
by Riki Ott
Marine toxicologist and Exxon Valdez survivor RikiOtt.com
Pensacola Beach, FL — When Ryan Heffernan, a volunteer with Emerald Coastkeeper, noticed a bag of oily debris floating off in Santa Rosa Sound, she ran up to BP’s HazMat-trained workers to ask if they would retrieve it.
“No, ma’am,” one replied politely. “We can’t go in the ocean. It’s contaminated.”
Ryan waded in and retrieved the bag. That was Wednesday, June 23, the first day visible oil hit Pensacola Beach. Ryan had been swimming off the beach the day before, as she said, “to get in my last swim before the oil hit.” The trouble is that not all of the oil coming ashore is visible. Dispersed oil – tiny bubbles of oil encased in chemical dispersants – are in the water column. On Thursday Ryan was treated at a local doctor’s office for skin rash on her legs.
Three days later on Pensacola Beach, I watched BP’s HazMat-trained workers shovel surface oiled sand and oily debris into bags early in the morning. The workers followed the waterline like shorebirds, scurrying up the beach in front of breaking waves and moving back down with receding waters.
The late morning sun retired the workers to the shade of their tents and the job of “observing,” while it brought out throngs of beach-goers — children, parents, grandparents — who happily plunged into the “contaminated” ocean without a second thought.
I was astounded. Why did people think the ocean was safe for swimming? (FULL STORY)
