Today, three miles of beach between the Pensacola Beach Pier and the Fort Pickens National Park were covered with tar mouse–a pudding-like oil/water mixture, a situation report from Gov. Charlie Crist’s office said. It is the largest assault of oil and tar to hit Florida’s beaches since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and began gushing oil 65 days ago.
Dime to 5 inch-sized tar balls and tar patties continue to be found in northwest Florida the report said. Clean up crews were on site to clear away the oil and tar waste and the Miami Herald reports, eight tons of waste were cleared from Florida panhandle beach.
According to the NOAA oil plume model, the oil plume is 5 miles from Pensacola and projections show that there would be direct onshore impacts to the Walton Bay County Line through Friday.
But even as oil and tar pushed in larger quantities to Florida shores, the collection of oil from the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico suffered a major set back, after a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) bumped into one of the vents that allow the excess oil to come out, leading to the removal of the containment cap.
With the removal of the containment cap, thousands more gallons of oil is spewing from the the gusher. Estimates of oil leaking from the well have been put as high as 100,000 barrels per day.
Meanwhile, according to the national Incident Commander Thad Allen, a record 27,097 barrels–a combination of 16,668 barrels from the Discover Enterprise (through containment cap) and the Q4000 flared off natural gas and oil amounting to 10,429 barrels were collected up to mid-night Tuesday night.
Commander Allen said that an attempt will be made to reinstall the containment cap and begin collecting oil later today. He also said that BP anticipates that by next Tuesday, 53,000 barrels-a-day could be collected.
