Gerald Herbert/Associated Press
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson looks at an oil sample she scooped from the side of her boat as she tours marshes impacted from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Pass a Loutre, La. on Monday, May 24, 2010. By Dara Kam Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 10:23 p.m. Saturday, July 3, 2010
Posted: 10:00 p.m. Saturday, July 3, 2010
PENSACOLA BEACH -
The nation's top environmental regulator said she would not swim in the waters off an oil- and tar-saturated beach at a Panhandle park and advised beachgoers to trust their noses and eyes when deciding whether to plunge into the gulf.
"I haven't gone over to the water but based on the facts of this beach and the oil, no, I would not go into the water today," said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson. She spent about an hour touring Gulf Islands National Seashore on Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola Beach on Saturday.
Jackson later met with Florida and Alabama officials to discuss strategy about beach safety. She also responded to accusations by local government workers who had accused her of failing to issue water quality standards they need to decide whether to ban swimming.
Just before the Fourth of July weekend, Escambia County officials issued a permanent "oil impact advisory" warning for all of its 43-mile stretch of beaches from the Florida/Alabama state line to Santa Rosa County. Swimmers are warned to stay out of the water if they see or feel oil or tar.
On Saturday, Jackson reinforced that approach. She said that "smell and see" is the best way to tell if the water is safe.
"From a common sense perspective, there is nothing that I am going to be able to tell you in a chemical lab that you can't learn about the safety of the water … by looking at it and smelling it," Jackson said after touring the beach.
Humans can detect the smell of oil at far greater concentrations than levels that are dangerous, she said.
Jackson said her agency would issue water quality benchmarks to outline the risks for children who spend a long time swimming in waters with toxic levels of oil.
Escambia County Commission Chairman Grover Robinson said his visit with Jackson confirmed the county is doing the right thing by keeping waters open while advising swimmers of the risks.
He said EPA found hydrocarbon levels within water samples toxic for fish and other marine life but not for humans.
"This confirms that if this stuff is present you don't need to be out there in it," Robinson said.
It was Jackson's first visit to Florida since BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion began gushing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on April 20.
Flanked by EPA and National Park Service officials, Jackson strolled past cleanup workers using toy shovels and tiny fish nets to scoop and sift tar coating the national park beach. She knelt on the sand and, wearing rubber gloves, poked her finger into some tar and sniffed it.
"To have to walk this beach and look at what BP has done is infuriating. It makes me angry. … It's going to take a while to attack this issue," Jackson said.
She said BP, in charge of the cleanup, needs to spend more resources attacking the disaster.
"It doesn't take advanced degrees, it doesn't take major advances in science to realize the scope of the problem," Jackson said.
Updated: 10:23 p.m. Saturday, July 3, 2010
Posted: 10:00 p.m. Saturday, July 3, 2010
PENSACOLA BEACH -
The nation's top environmental regulator said she would not swim in the waters off an oil- and tar-saturated beach at a Panhandle park and advised beachgoers to trust their noses and eyes when deciding whether to plunge into the gulf.
"I haven't gone over to the water but based on the facts of this beach and the oil, no, I would not go into the water today," said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson. She spent about an hour touring Gulf Islands National Seashore on Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola Beach on Saturday.
Jackson later met with Florida and Alabama officials to discuss strategy about beach safety. She also responded to accusations by local government workers who had accused her of failing to issue water quality standards they need to decide whether to ban swimming.
Just before the Fourth of July weekend, Escambia County officials issued a permanent "oil impact advisory" warning for all of its 43-mile stretch of beaches from the Florida/Alabama state line to Santa Rosa County. Swimmers are warned to stay out of the water if they see or feel oil or tar.
On Saturday, Jackson reinforced that approach. She said that "smell and see" is the best way to tell if the water is safe.
"From a common sense perspective, there is nothing that I am going to be able to tell you in a chemical lab that you can't learn about the safety of the water … by looking at it and smelling it," Jackson said after touring the beach.
Humans can detect the smell of oil at far greater concentrations than levels that are dangerous, she said.
Jackson said her agency would issue water quality benchmarks to outline the risks for children who spend a long time swimming in waters with toxic levels of oil.
Escambia County Commission Chairman Grover Robinson said his visit with Jackson confirmed the county is doing the right thing by keeping waters open while advising swimmers of the risks.
He said EPA found hydrocarbon levels within water samples toxic for fish and other marine life but not for humans.
"This confirms that if this stuff is present you don't need to be out there in it," Robinson said.
It was Jackson's first visit to Florida since BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion began gushing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on April 20.
Flanked by EPA and National Park Service officials, Jackson strolled past cleanup workers using toy shovels and tiny fish nets to scoop and sift tar coating the national park beach. She knelt on the sand and, wearing rubber gloves, poked her finger into some tar and sniffed it.
"To have to walk this beach and look at what BP has done is infuriating. It makes me angry. … It's going to take a while to attack this issue," Jackson said.
She said BP, in charge of the cleanup, needs to spend more resources attacking the disaster.
"It doesn't take advanced degrees, it doesn't take major advances in science to realize the scope of the problem," Jackson said.
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