Once I woke up, Kevin and I went over to Pensacola Beach. I wanted to take some pre-oil spill pictures. The experts are predicting that the oil will start coming ashore here on Monday or Tuesday which is later than what was originally predicted. The wind speed/direction has changed in favor of keeping the oil out to sea and away from Florida longer.
Pensacola Beach was beautiful. The sand was perfectly white, and the water looked crisp, blue, and very inviting. However, you could see hazy skies in the direction of the blown oil rig- which was thick smoke from where they are trying to burn the oil while it is still out to sea. We picked up seashells on the beach, and I even found a perfect sand dollar! I have never found one before! There were also these things on the beach called sea butterfly exoskeletons. When these tiny little shrimp sea creatures die, their exoskeletons fall off and wash ashore. They are kind of sharp and hurt a little when you step on them. Kevin has never seen them on the beach before, but the newspapers say that this is a natural occurrence and has nothing to do with the oil spill. On Friday evening, residents of Pensacola (including Kevin) could smell a kerosene type smell in the air.
Also in preparation for the spill, they are placing booms to protect fragile areas of the ecosystem- such as seagrass beds, reefs, and inlets. We saw a bunch of them around Pensacola. They look like giant orange floaties but will act as a barrier to the oil to try and keep it from washing ashore.
On Friday evening, Kevin and I attended a class about handling oil so that we could become volunteers when the oil reaches land. By taking this class, we are registered volunteers for the front line fight against the oil once it reaches the shoreline, or so they say. Okay, some say that we need to be certified via this class, and then other organizations say you need a different class, and still some information being passed around is that no volunteers will be allowed to help on the beaches. It is very frustrating.
We did learn a lot though, and I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens. We will also have to wait and see if we will get called to help if anything does happen. I do not like waiting! I want to do something to help NOW!
In the class, we learned a lot about oil, and heard a lot about tar balls. We learned that the longer the oil stays out to sea, the better. The crude oil that is leaking into the Gulf directly at the oil rig site is the most dangerous stuff. It has harmful additives like toluene, hydrogen sulfide, and benzene which can cause significant health problems. However, the most harmful parts of the oil (harmful to humans that is) are the first to evaporate off of the oil. so by the time, the oil reaches land, it will be weathered and not that dangerous to humans. So the people working on the spill closest to its epicenter actually have to wear respirators. The guy giving the lecture said that crude oil is actually relatively stable and that if you had the choice to drink a cup full of oil or pesticide.. you should pick crude oil. Gasoline is actually more dangerous than crude oil because it has more benzene. He agreed though that a spill of this magnitutde- it will be next to impossible for it to not reach Florida and that it will have a drastic impact on the environment for years to ocme.
We also learned about the dispersants which they are using are about as bad on paper as the oil.. but that the risks to leaving the oil in the water without breaking it up poses a greater threat. The dispersants work just like detergent (well it is detergent) and the detergent molecule pulls apart the oil. This is how "the sheen" is removed from the oil. The smaller the oil particles the faster bacteria can eat it. When the bacteria eats the oil, the only by-product is carbon dioxide. At one time, bacteria were being added to the oil spill, but I learned that the bacteria occur naturally and if no human intervention was done with the oil spill, eventually bacteria would eat all of the oil. The dispersant dissolves into the water and hoepfully takes the oil with it for the bacteria to digest. It does not eliminate the oil outright. The dispersant they are using is Corexit.
Most of the interventions being done at present are to aid in and speed up this process. This is what is at least being done at the surface. Also, strong waves and currents, while they make it harder to keep the slick at bay- also help to break up the oil. As pieces break up from the slick, tar balls form. Also, burning the oil- as they have been doing somehow aids in the formation of tarballs. These are buoyant but do not float at the surface so they are not as readily seen. They also will be the first parts of the oil spill to wash ashore.
Pretty much all we heard about in the meeting was tar balls this and tar balls that. It seemed that all of the other volunteers there knew a lot more than we did! We are still not even exactly sure what a tar ball is! Also, the weathered crude oil will be more like tar than an oil slick, so it will be sticky tar washing up on the shores.
They think that by June, the spill will be much worse than the Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in Alaska in 1989. I found out that small scale oil spills actually happen all over the world during the year- but this one is different because it is not just a one time thing. The oil keeps pumping out of the well, so it is a more gradual process, and that's why nobody is completely sure how to fight it. If the oil cannot be contained, the spill could be really bad for the next 6 months or more.
We also learned about the booms. If we had a boat, we could potentially make $2,000/day from BP to place the booms and make sure that they stay in place.. because once a boom goes into shore with the tide- it is not really doing much good now it is? We briefly considered buying a boat :)
Since oil mostly floats on top of the water, most of the things being done on land right now are trying to prevent the oil from reaching the shore int he first place. This is done with a boom. The orange part floats on top of the water and underneath that is an anchored screen about 4 feet long. The booms are tied off to channels or anchored into the sand to stay in place. That is why rough seas hinder their use and placement. Also, once the oil is caught with the boom, ships can come in and suck the crude oil off of the water.
We learned that when the crude oil is removed from the beach it will just be dumped in a landfill because weathered crude oil cannot be refined. It is also vitally important that the oil does not reach land because in the marshy areas which are common down here- any efforts to clean the oil will also destroy the ecosystem.
We saw a demonstration of wearing personal protective equipment to handle the oil in class. It was a big white suit, boots, gloves, and goggles- even though you can supposedly touch the weathered oil, they want to be safe. This equipment will be provided to volunteers... and I really, really, really hope that I get to wear one!!!!
Pensacola Beach was beautiful. The sand was perfectly white, and the water looked crisp, blue, and very inviting. However, you could see hazy skies in the direction of the blown oil rig- which was thick smoke from where they are trying to burn the oil while it is still out to sea. We picked up seashells on the beach, and I even found a perfect sand dollar! I have never found one before! There were also these things on the beach called sea butterfly exoskeletons. When these tiny little shrimp sea creatures die, their exoskeletons fall off and wash ashore. They are kind of sharp and hurt a little when you step on them. Kevin has never seen them on the beach before, but the newspapers say that this is a natural occurrence and has nothing to do with the oil spill. On Friday evening, residents of Pensacola (including Kevin) could smell a kerosene type smell in the air.
Also in preparation for the spill, they are placing booms to protect fragile areas of the ecosystem- such as seagrass beds, reefs, and inlets. We saw a bunch of them around Pensacola. They look like giant orange floaties but will act as a barrier to the oil to try and keep it from washing ashore.
On Friday evening, Kevin and I attended a class about handling oil so that we could become volunteers when the oil reaches land. By taking this class, we are registered volunteers for the front line fight against the oil once it reaches the shoreline, or so they say. Okay, some say that we need to be certified via this class, and then other organizations say you need a different class, and still some information being passed around is that no volunteers will be allowed to help on the beaches. It is very frustrating.
We did learn a lot though, and I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens. We will also have to wait and see if we will get called to help if anything does happen. I do not like waiting! I want to do something to help NOW!
In the class, we learned a lot about oil, and heard a lot about tar balls. We learned that the longer the oil stays out to sea, the better. The crude oil that is leaking into the Gulf directly at the oil rig site is the most dangerous stuff. It has harmful additives like toluene, hydrogen sulfide, and benzene which can cause significant health problems. However, the most harmful parts of the oil (harmful to humans that is) are the first to evaporate off of the oil. so by the time, the oil reaches land, it will be weathered and not that dangerous to humans. So the people working on the spill closest to its epicenter actually have to wear respirators. The guy giving the lecture said that crude oil is actually relatively stable and that if you had the choice to drink a cup full of oil or pesticide.. you should pick crude oil. Gasoline is actually more dangerous than crude oil because it has more benzene. He agreed though that a spill of this magnitutde- it will be next to impossible for it to not reach Florida and that it will have a drastic impact on the environment for years to ocme.
We also learned about the dispersants which they are using are about as bad on paper as the oil.. but that the risks to leaving the oil in the water without breaking it up poses a greater threat. The dispersants work just like detergent (well it is detergent) and the detergent molecule pulls apart the oil. This is how "the sheen" is removed from the oil. The smaller the oil particles the faster bacteria can eat it. When the bacteria eats the oil, the only by-product is carbon dioxide. At one time, bacteria were being added to the oil spill, but I learned that the bacteria occur naturally and if no human intervention was done with the oil spill, eventually bacteria would eat all of the oil. The dispersant dissolves into the water and hoepfully takes the oil with it for the bacteria to digest. It does not eliminate the oil outright. The dispersant they are using is Corexit.
Most of the interventions being done at present are to aid in and speed up this process. This is what is at least being done at the surface. Also, strong waves and currents, while they make it harder to keep the slick at bay- also help to break up the oil. As pieces break up from the slick, tar balls form. Also, burning the oil- as they have been doing somehow aids in the formation of tarballs. These are buoyant but do not float at the surface so they are not as readily seen. They also will be the first parts of the oil spill to wash ashore.
Pretty much all we heard about in the meeting was tar balls this and tar balls that. It seemed that all of the other volunteers there knew a lot more than we did! We are still not even exactly sure what a tar ball is! Also, the weathered crude oil will be more like tar than an oil slick, so it will be sticky tar washing up on the shores.
They think that by June, the spill will be much worse than the Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in Alaska in 1989. I found out that small scale oil spills actually happen all over the world during the year- but this one is different because it is not just a one time thing. The oil keeps pumping out of the well, so it is a more gradual process, and that's why nobody is completely sure how to fight it. If the oil cannot be contained, the spill could be really bad for the next 6 months or more.
We also learned about the booms. If we had a boat, we could potentially make $2,000/day from BP to place the booms and make sure that they stay in place.. because once a boom goes into shore with the tide- it is not really doing much good now it is? We briefly considered buying a boat :)
Since oil mostly floats on top of the water, most of the things being done on land right now are trying to prevent the oil from reaching the shore int he first place. This is done with a boom. The orange part floats on top of the water and underneath that is an anchored screen about 4 feet long. The booms are tied off to channels or anchored into the sand to stay in place. That is why rough seas hinder their use and placement. Also, once the oil is caught with the boom, ships can come in and suck the crude oil off of the water.
We learned that when the crude oil is removed from the beach it will just be dumped in a landfill because weathered crude oil cannot be refined. It is also vitally important that the oil does not reach land because in the marshy areas which are common down here- any efforts to clean the oil will also destroy the ecosystem.
We saw a demonstration of wearing personal protective equipment to handle the oil in class. It was a big white suit, boots, gloves, and goggles- even though you can supposedly touch the weathered oil, they want to be safe. This equipment will be provided to volunteers... and I really, really, really hope that I get to wear one!!!!
At this point though, it is questionable if I am going to get to help at all. This makes me really sad. It is great that it is taking so long for the oil to reach land... but I really wanted to help!!! Also, for helping with the wildlife they are wanting only certified people. I have a little bit of training from the places that I volunteered with .. so I am hoping that by some miracle- I will still get to help!
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