The ludicrous British Petroleum effort at beach clean up was at it's finest today on Ft. Morgan Beach. A bulldozer and a large scoop with a contingent of more than a dozen men were working in a roughly 20 foot square area.
The bulldozer had made a pad for the scoop to sit on. The scoop had a mesh attached to its bucket so the sand filtered through and the debris left behind was dumped into a big black tarp. They'd obviously been there for a couple of hours already but had a very small pile. It was hard to see if they had gotten much tar for their efforts.
The only person working was the scoop operator. All the rest were just standing around talking, listening to their iPods.
Even worse was about a quarter of a mile down the beach. There were two four by fours with college age looking kids in them. Four or five kids. As Diane said, it looked like the school carnival when you give kids a net and they try for a treasure in the fish pond. Each of the kids had a net on a stick and stood at the waterline. Every once in a while they would scoop up a little dab of black, but they didn't have much either.
I asked one of the people driving a four by four who seemed to be more "in charge" what was up. She said this was the cleanup effort going on from Florida to Ft. Morgan. LUDICROUS!!!
I've heard since I've been here that clumps of oil keep washing in and that the sea bed offshore is coated in crusted oil. It's cool enough now for it not to stick to your shoes or feet, but the thought of the summer heat makes for a very unpleasant beach walk.
They don't seem to be making any real progress in this mess, just employing a whole lot of locals which does help the economy and is keeping some of the grumbling down.
You would think there would be a more effective way to clean this up than sifting sand by the seashore!
I know in St. Louis there are ads all over telling us the spill is over, the beaches are beautiful, come on down. I don't think any of us in the rest of the country have thought much about it recently. But it is still here, and still affecting the waters and beaches.
When Susan and I made the ferry crossing, the crew members stayed with us the whole time. I was talking to one about the spill, and he said they see the tar and oil all the time--what we read is not the truth regarding the clean up.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're having a great time--Golfers make me laugh--they are never happy. Say hi to Deb, Diane, and the other gals for me.