USF scientists find long line of oil 6 inches under the sand at Pensacola Beach

USF scientists find long line of oil 6 inches under the sand at Pensacola Beach

www.tampabay.com

Ping Wang, 43, who has studied beaches for 20 years, dug a narrow trench perpendicular to the shoreline, about a foot deep and 5 feet long. A dark, contiguous vein of oil ran horizontally along the walls of the trench, about 6 inches beneath the surface of the sand.

The sheet of oil which was deposited on the beach at high tide Wednesday and stretched some 8 miles was covered by as much as a foot of sand at high tide Thursday, Wang explained.

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Wang said he wasn't surprised by the discovery. During a study for the National Science Foundation of oil-affected beaches in Alabama and northwest Florida, he found buried tar balls after cleanup crews had left.

USF Coastal Research Lab geologist Rip Kirby raised another issue with the cleanup on a trip to the shore late Thursday night, when he shined an ultraviolet light on the sand. Flecks of orange — which Kirby identified as oil, or volatile organic compounds — were scattered across the beach. Some dime-sized flecks were spotted on the footpath leading over the dunes, 100 yards from the water — an indication that unregulated foot traffic was contaminating clean sand. Closer to the water, tiny specks of oil covered the sand.

"It's the way they're cleaning it," he said. "They're scooping it up with nets and shaking it. Yes, they're removing the tar balls, but they're also coating clean sand with oil."

Those tiny flecks can't be seen with the naked eye.

"People need to know," Wang said. "The beach is not going to be the same for a long time."

So even if the sand looks clean, it is not. The method they are using to clean up what's showing, in my opinion, is misleading the public into thinking that the sand is clean when it is not.

Not to mention the fact that when a storm hits the beaches and creates violent waves that crash on the beach, it will disturb the lower layers of oil that they are just leaving there.

This is like wiping your kitchen counter tops with a dirty sponge - just because they look clean, you think they are clean. Clean-up? Nope...

www.tampabay.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 26/6/2010 by Iamonlyhuman]

I thought you might find this relevant to your post.

www.youtube.com...

It seems to me that in the name of profits, (for the tourism industry in the gulf) they are sugar coating the sand with more sand to hide the devastation of the oil coming to shore.

Because people most of the time act like cattle they will do what is been told to them and bath themselves and their children in the polluted waters of the gulf.

It is very sad that only those that are following the whole disaster will stay away from the pollution and poisoning in the water and for those in the Louisiana coast is also pollution and poisoning in the air.

I do not doubt for one money that the whole issue of cleaning the beach is to make it look attractive to unsuspected visitors.

[edit on 26-6-2010 by marg6043]

Well I'm sure someone will start to notice when the kids are digging for their sand castles and start eating the interesting stuff beneath the sand.

reply to post by merka


People are stupid, it was videos coming from Florida of parents complaining that their children were getting oil and tar in their heads from the water and still they let children in the waters.

How stupid is that.

'Ponies and balloons' is fast becoming the most accurate description of this entire debarcle.

People are stupid, it was videos coming from Florida of parents complaining that their children were getting oil and tar in their heads from the water and still they let children in the waters.

They are not stupid. They are ignorant because our Big Government and BP have refused to provide the truth. These people are 100% sure that their government is "taking care of them." They are fully confident that BP is doing everything they can and that they care about "the small people".

These beach goers are behaving normally according to the best available information they have: propaganda from BP and the politicians.

They are the victims.

Blame the Board of Directors of BP, the ones responsible for the destruction.

They're showing right here that they aren't really cleaning up....didn't we all already see this: www.abovetopsecret.com...

They're just covering it up in sand, and taking their 50 minute mandatory breaks per hour. I mean COME ON.