Governor Charlie Crist on Thursday extended the state of emergency to include an additional 7 counties, in light of the threat from oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform and reports it had now entered the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico. The additional counties now included in the state of emergency are: Charlotte, Lee, Collier, Monroe, Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.
On April 30, Crist had declared a state of emergency for Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf counties following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana on April 22, and which led to millions of barrels of oil gushing from three leaks.
Subsequently, as oil continued to spill, on May 3, the state of emergency was extended to include 13 additional counties: Franklin, Wakulla, Jefferson, Taylor, Dixie, Levy, Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota.
While oil has not yet reached Florida’s 1,260 miles of coastline, NOAA confirmed on Thursday that a small portion of the oil slick had reached the Loop Current in the form of light to very light sheens, leading scientists and other experts to project that oil could be off Florida within 5-8 days.
As a precaution and in view of the uncertainty, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson and Chairman Rodney Arreto of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced the opening of the summer oyster-harvesting areas in the Apalachicola Bay System on Friday, 11 days early.
Bronson said in a statement that such action “should be viewed by the people of Florida and the U.S. that Gulf of Mexico seafood in restaurants and markets is safe. He added that this action will benefit both the oyster industry and consumers alike.
Meanwhile, Florida coastal communities continued with their containment and clean-up preparations, as anger and frustration builds. No one is certain about the likely economic impact on tourism and related businesses, the environmental consequences and the state’s economy as a whole, as a result of the oil spill.
There are news reports that BP deliberately underestimated and lied about the amount of oil flowing into the gulf since the rig sank. Doug Suttles, BP’s COO this morning on Good Morning America maintained that 5,000 barrels of oil was entering the gulf daily and that this estimate was confirmed by the Coast Guard.
Based on satellite images and recently-released video, scientists estimate that anywhere between 40,000 to 100,000 barrels of oil a day have been entering the gulf.
There is controversy over the dispersant that BP has been using to break up the oil, given its toxicity. On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a directive requiring BP to identify and use a less toxic and more effective dispersant from the list of EPA authorized dispersants.
BP is preparing for the “top kill” next week. This entails shooting mud down the well to halt the spill completely.
The Riser insertion pipe installed over the past week-end continues to bring oil to a ship on the surface at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day, BP said. This is the total amount BP and the Coast Guard estimate is gushing into the gulf.
But still, thousands of barrels of oil continue to flow daily from the leak into the gulf.
