According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, currently Deepwater Horizon is not discharging any oil into the Gulf of Mexico. BP well
Oil 125 miles off St. Andrew Pass
Bay County beaches remained clear throughout the holiday weekend, Bay County Emergency Services Chief Mark Bowen told the Bay County Board of County Commissioners at their regular meeting Tuesday.
“The NOAA trajectories show the oil well away from Bay County shores,” Bowen said. “It’s about 125 miles south-southwest of the pass. I anticipate that in the coming days the weather will continue to be favorable for us.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, state emergency management officials had received one report of about a dozen small tarballs being collected at Shell Island.
Bowen said BP contractors continue to scour Bay County beaches for signs of oil and worked through the holiday weekend doing so, though no significant amounts of product were recovered. He said some 1,000 contract employees are currently working here, with approximately 750 on duty during daylight hours and another 250 working at night.
Bowen added that crews were working to open Lake Powell so that rainwater collected there may escape — he said the waterway would be closed again to protect it from oil intrusion after it sufficiently drains.
Bowen also reported to the board that the U.S. Coast Guard and BP officials at the highest levels are currently reviewing the pass project for reimbursement to Bay County. A BP official publicly committed to paying for the approximately $3 million effort at a meeting a couple of weeks ago.
“I don’t see any impediment to getting to that public commitment that BP already made,” Bowen said. He said that the state and federal permits were received as quickly as they were is promising. “I expect to hear back on that very shortly.”
Last week, responders received a rash of reports of oil sheen and mousse off Bay County beaches late Thursday and early Friday morning. None of the reports, however, was determined to have been oil product, but rather was found to be naturally occurring substances such as seagrass and algae. Click here to read a press release about discerning oil from naturally occurring substances.
Seagrass easily confused with oil product
According to Mahan, some of Mother Nature’s look-a-like oil spill products include:
Oily Sheen on the Water’s Surface: A silvery or rainbow-colored sheen on the water surface may be related to a petroleum product; however, it may also be related to natural biological sources such as the presence of iron, decomposition of organic matter, or the presence of certain bacteria. Naturally occurring sheens are usually silver or relatively dull in color that breaks up into small patches of sheen when disturbed. Petroleum sheens tend to be shiny, rainbow-colored and if disturbed the oil patches will come back together.
Tar Balls: A general description of a tar ball is weathered oil that has formed a pliable ball, varying in size from a pinhead to about a foot across. Sheen may or may not be present around them. At this time, we have had a number of confirmed tar ball reports in the Florida Panhandle. However, before real tar balls were coming ashore, initial tar ball reports in Destin were identified as skate egg cases. Also pieces of peat and small sea cucumbers have been called in as possible tar balls.
Foam Lines/Mousse: Oil, or sheenoriented in lines or streaks out on the water can easily be confused with algal/vegetative scum collected in tidal convergence lines. Sometimes called streaks, stringers or fingers, they are commonly found floating in near and offshore Gulf waters. They are often a collection of seagrasses, Sargassum/seaweeds and protein scum/foam moving with the tides and wind.
Dark, Oil-like Patches of Sand on the Beach: Several reports of black oil-like patches on the beach have been reported in the Florida Panhandle. When investigated, the dark patches of sand were found to be caused by ‘June Grass’ clumps of sea grass or several different types of algae that wash up on our beaches in June and other times of the year. These algae and sea grass, as they are moved back and forth by the wave action in the intertidal zone, break up into small dark pieces and can leave behind an area of dark-colored stained sand.
Other Sightings/Rumors: In early May, in the Destin area, a common rumor making the rounds was that sharp glassy fragments washing up on local beaches were fiberglass remains of the booms used to collect the oil out in the Gulf. When investigated, the fragments were the exoskeletons of an animal called a pterpod. Commonly called sea butterflies, these marine snails shed their exoskeleton when they die. The pointed part of the shell can prick people’s feet if they step on them. However, they pose no threat to people.
Oil located 30 miles off Bay County, few reports of product washing ashore as of Thursday afternoon
Independence Day events still a ‘go’
Hey everyone, long time, no post. Been busy answering the phone. I wanted to take the time to post some of the comments we are getting from our guests concerning what they are seeing in PCB…
Elaine Culpepper writes;
We arrived at PCB yesterday June 25, we are staying at Aqua. The water is crystal clear, no tar balls in sight anywhere where we are, it is beautiful. BTW, we have been on the beach an swimming in the water twice already.
Christy Ellard writes;
We are currently staying in Panama City at The Calypso. THERE IS NO TAR BALLS HERE!!! 
Denise Olver writes;
We haven’t seen any tarballs or evidence of oil. Been here since Saturday and its as beautiful as ever! Few afternoon storms and some seaweed, but we’re enjoying our vacation tons!
I would also suggest heading over to the PCB Daily Facebook Page and see what they are posting there. It is a great resource and what my facebook page wants to be when it grows up
Here are a few postings;
This is a photo submitted by Danny Hunter staying at Aqua Beachside Resort on the 11th floor showing people in the water at Panama City Beach Florida. He says the water looks nice and what little tar balls that are washing up are quickly removed.
Panama City Beach on 6-23-10
Sert Gator – Geosptial Assessment Tool for Operations and Response
Check this site for a fantastic interactive map of the oil spill conditions.
Panama City Beach – CNN featured Panama City Beach in a story about tourism and the message is that there are tar balls but is it easily cleaned up and the beaches are fine.
Hooray for CNN showing what is really going on in PCB
This is a repost of an article from Panama City’s News Herald
PANAMA CITY — Crews will begin to construct a gated boom system Wednesday morning to close off St. Andrew Pass to oil, county officials said.
It will take at least 20 days, weather permitting, to drive steel pilings into the pass and string a 6-foot curtain of rugged plastic and fabric across them, Bay County Public Works Director Ken Schnell told county commissioners at a special meeting Tuesday.
A 400-foot-wide gate in the boom, which will be made of a 30-inch plastic float and a 48-inch fabric skirt, likely will be opened to traffic with outgoing tides, he added. Eighteen pilings will extend at least 10 feet above the high-tide mark.
Although the county didn’t yet have a permit for the plan, commissioners voted Tuesday afternoon to start immediately on the project and pay its $2.8 million price tag, along with its $8,300-a-day maintenance and operation costs. Emergency Services Director Mark Bowen hoped Bay County might be able to get a reimbursement agreement from BP within a month.
“We’re following the rules, but we’re not letting the rules delay what we need to do,” Bowen said about the lack of a permit, which he said he hoped to have by the end of the day. “And cost certainly is an issue, but we’ve got to do something.”
Commissioner Jerry Girvin agreed.
“The fact is, we may or may not get reimbursed for this,” Girvin said. “But we do not have an option.”
The boom system is as unique as the pass it’s designed to protect, Bowen said. Attempts to block bays in western Florida have not been successful; Bay County has been trying to learn from those counties’ mistakes and develop a blockade that will work in St. Andrew’s especially deep and fast-moving waters, he said.
This “rugged” boom should be able to stand severe weather and waves, Bowen added.
The steel pilings likely will be difficult and costly to remove from the pass — commissioners wanted to include those expenses in any reimbursement requests to BP — but Bowen was more concerned with the immediate future.
“We have to view this as if it’s going to go on much longer than August,” he said.
The blockade will not stop tar balls from getting into the bay, Bowen added, but he said he hopes other oil products will slide off the skirt and pool on the gulf side of the pass, where skimmers will be at work to collect oil.
Favorable winds continued to push oil farther away from Panama City on Tuesday, and only scattered tar balls were reported in Bay County. Dime- and nickel-sized tar balls were found near Front Beach Road and Dement Circle, and mostly dime-sized tar balls were found near the City Pier in Panama City Beach, according to the state emergency response team (SERT). Aircraft reconnaissance also spotted about a 1,000-foot circle of tar balls and rainbow sheen about 5 miles west-southwest of St. Andrew Pass, SERT reported.
“I would wager a very strong bet that there are multiple tar balls in St. Andrew Bay,” Bowen said. “When we see them, we’re going to jump on them; we’re going to clean them up and that’s the best we can do.”
