BP clearing tar balls dumped on Alabama shore by Lee

Credit: Associated Press
Photo at link.
Cleanup crews pick up oily tar balls along the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala., on Wednesday, Sept. 7. City officials said they believe the tar balls are from last year's BP oil spill, and they were dredged up from the bottom by Tropical Storm Lee. They say tests will be performed to verify the source of the tar balls.

JAY REEVES | Associated Press
Published: September 07, 2011

GULF SHORES, Ala. — BP workers used fishing nets to scoop tar balls off Alabama's Gulf Coast beaches Wednesday after the white sands were fouled by gooey, dark gobs churned up by heavy surf from tropical system Lee.

Both the company and area officials said it would be days before tests determined whether the tar balls were from last year's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but BP contractors were removing the pollution anyway.

Grant Brown, a spokesman for the city of Gulf Shores, said residents have feared more oil remains on the Gulf's sandy floor despite months of cleaning, and the appearance of tar balls after Lee only reinforced those concerns.

"It's more proof that there still are offshore tar mats and it's washing ashore ... and it's going to continue, it looks like, coming to shore ," said Brown.

Meanwhile, thousands of Alabama residents remained without power Wednesday as a result of Lee. Alabama Power Co. officials said about 200,000 were without power after the storm hit over the weekend and that about 52,000 remained in the dark Wednesday afternoon, mostly in the Birmingham area.

Alabama Power spokesman Ike Pigott said the outages occurred because of high winds and torrential rains in the Birmingham area when the tropical system collided Monday with a cold front. He said getting all of the power restored has taken time because "we had significant trees down."

On the Alabama coast, with the summer tourist season over, relatively few tourists were on the beaches as the cleanup began. Crews walked the beaches using nets to pick up hundreds of tar balls, which were dumped into large plastic bags and hauled off the beach for disposal.

BP spokesman Justin Saia said teams were evaluating the condition of Gulf beaches following the storm.

"As these teams report results of their assessments over the coming days, response teams will be mobilized as necessary to respond to these affected areas," he said.
http://www2.oanow.com/news/2011/sep/07/ ... r-2375509/


[quote]Whistle blower to testify on oil spill worst fear:
BP deliberately sinks oil with Corexit as cover up
Maryann Tobin,
June 30, 2010 - .
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Whistle blower to testify on oil spill worst fears: BP is deliberately sinking oil with Corexit to hide it for financial gain
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GULF OIL SPILL >>

Testimony before a Senate investigative panel this week is expected to reveal what many have suspected about BP all along; they don’t care about the environment, the animals that are dying, and the lives that are being destroyed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

In a shocking interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on June 29th, Allegiance Capitol Corporation V.P. Fred McCallister said that BP is deliberately sinking oil with the toxic chemical disbursant Corexit, to hide the size of the oil spill. By sinking the oil before it can be collected, BP won’t have to pay fines on it.

McCallister said, “Everybody in Europe, where the standard practice is to raise the oil and collect it, is scratching their heads, and quite honestly laughing at what’s happening in the Gulf.â€