Manatee County Steps Down Oil Spill Response as NOAA Opens Waterways

BRADENTON – The Manatee County Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management has reduced its allocation of resources to the gulf oil response, citing the low probability of local impact. Weekly conference calls, meetings and SITREPs have been reduced to an "as needed" basis, as the closest oil found to our sector’s ”trigger line“ has been 93 miles away.

Meanwhile, NOAA has reopened 26,388 square miles of Gulf of Mexico waters to commercial and recreational fishing. The reopening of a third of the overall closed area was announced after consultation with FDA last week.

Since mid-June, NOAA data and United States Coast Guard observers have shown no oil in the area. Additionally, trajectory models put the area at low risk for future exposure to oil, and fish caught in the area and tested by NOAA experts have shown no signs of contamination.

With the well capped and relief wells nearing completion, efforts have been directed toward beach clean-up. Skimming has been scaled back due to a lack of collectible oil being found in the waterways. Scientists have competing theories as to where much of the oil that has spilled, but not been collected, has disappeared to.

Oil will evaporate, especially on the water’s surface and microbes and bacteria that already exist in the ocean will also ”clean up“ a significant portion of any oil spill, but the big question that looms is how much of the oil has collected on the ocean floor and beneath it, where it is thought to be capable of the most damage.

While it is encouraging to witness the first significant signs of positive progress since the spill began over 100 days ago, it will be many years before the full extent of the damage caused is completely understood, and even that assessment presumes that the capping and relief measures will continue to be successful. Nonetheless, it does seem as though the very worst part of this diseaster could be behind us, at least in the short term.