Feds threaten man on oiled Fl beach, Illegal to dig in the sand on the beach

No sand castles for you,or me,or anyone for that matter.
No digging?
Well thats going to put a damper on the kids summer activities in the coming years.
I guess this is a literal "cover-up",with sand.

The scale of this disaster isnt going to be known for years (IMO).

I saw that eariler today, was going to post it but I had to get to work.
Glad to see its on here.

On a side note the BP worker that stoped him the first time; if it were me he would have been told then he would have gotten the shovel to the head.

The Widlife guy was a joke.

It seems that the Government is helping BP cover their tracks literally.

Holy hell... What specific law is that then? If that were around here I'd get my media equipment and I'd go against this under thread of arrest and I'd kick their asses in court. With little help of course. There's no way in hell that could be illegal.

What a croc... That guy and the glorified park ranger need a shovel to the side of their heads. This lap dog government and their corporate masters make me sick to my stomach..

reply to post by Black_Fox


IT would be interesting to know what the reasoning behind the 'six inch rule' is. Especially if it was some bylaw passed to protect sea turtles or some such thing.

that said, are there ANY reporters with balls these days? At least they filmed it and asked a few questions.

Interesting that we all this conspiracy going on, the sheeps that we Americans has become will not question the motives, the law and reasons, just follow orders like littler slaves we are and still support the local economy going to beaches and eating the local seafood that are not only polluted but poisonous to us and our children.

Nothing to see here, just another conspiracy and not enough people with balls to find how true this issue really is.

reply to post by Black_Fox


Where is this? I will go there and film myself digging into the beach. I will be in Panama City in two weeks, there is another ATSer in Navarre Beach right now. I don't have any plans to go to Pensacola Beach, but I could get it done before the first week of October. I can't watch the video yet, can you post the location and a little synopsis?

reply to post by marg6043


I dont know why those that live in those areas dont just "mobilie" as one big unit, and go down there and start digging for the truth. -pun intended.

You get 1000 people digging at one time, what are the police going to do? arrest all 1000 people for digging?

Funny thing/sad thing is, These pigs will arrest a common citizen for checking out for oil, but wont arrest the people who are responsible for ruining that entire region.

"just look the other way and there will not be any problems".

reply to post by getreadyalready


Someone said near Ft. Pickens? I think that is at the far West point of the Pensacola Beach island? Can anyone confirm? I really don't want to drive all the way to that beach (over 3 hours), but I will definitely do some digging and filming in Panama City next weekend.

reply to post by getreadyalready


I am just blown away by the audacity of the BP worker in the first segment dictating to anyone what they can and cannot do on American soil!

Wheuu!!! Man this BS is getting deeper by the minute and yet people will just follow orders until we have no say in our future at all.

I HATE this!

Yes, go, and dig man dig!!! But it would be funny as hell if you went in FULL bio suit!

reply to post by getreadyalready


Just my two pennies

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PENSACOLA BEACH - The head of the Gulf Islands National Seashore wants to set the record straight about whether you can bring a shovel and pail to the beach.

Last week an officer stopped a Channel Three News crew from getting video of the oil under the sand.

Once again we're out here on the Gulf Islands National Seashore. I wanted to show you this sand castle out here that some one had abandoned and you can see that while they were building it, they encountered this, quite a few gooey tarballs out here on the Gulf Side Beach. We were told last week, that doing something like this, building a sand castle, was illegal.

Pat Gonzales/ US Fish and Wildlife: "You can not come out here and do your own investigation if you're looking for oil product."

That's the greeting we got from US Fish and Wildlife
Pat Gonzales/ US Fish and Wildlife: "Are you digging for oil product?" Thomas: "Not necessarily I just want to see what's there." Pat Gonzales/ US Fish and Wildlife: "Okay, I'll tell you what. If you're not going to cooperate with me I'm going to get a National Parks Service Officer out here. I'll get a law enforcement guy out here to talk to you."

Officer A. Negron/National Parks Service: "It's a National Park. You can't dig." Thomas: "So no sand castles, none of that huh?" Officer A. Negron/National Parks Service: "That's correct."

Mark Scarbrough/Tourist: "Sounds like they got something to hide, doesn't it."
Cindy Scarbrough/Tourist: "I guess they're trying to hide it."

These tourists have that opinion after they heard we were told it's illegal to dig at the beach.

Dan Brown/Gulf Islands Superintendent: "Well, that's true and not true."

Park Superintendent Dan Brown says you can't dig in areas where you're likely to find artifacts, like the Fort Pickens compound.

He doesn't know why we were stopped on the beach.

Dan Brown/Gulf Islands Superintendent: "There's no regulation or anything that would prohibit people from digging other than for the things already mentioned that would disturb natural and cultural features."

Dan Thomas/[email protected]: "So then, what happened last week when they told us that?"

Dan Brown/Gulf Islands Superintendent: "Um, well, probably some incomplete information on the part of those field staff."

Dan Thomas/[email protected]: "Were they told to stop people from digging by anyone in the Federal Government?"

Dan Brown/Gulf Islands Superintendent: "I don't have any knowledge of that. No."

Dan Thomas/[email protected]: "So they weren't ordered to go out and stop a news crew from trying to get a story out."

Dan Brown/Gulf Islands Superintendent: "I'm not aware of that, no."

Dan Thomas/[email protected]: "And once again, just to be clear the Superintendent of the park says people are welcome to come out here and build a sand castle on the beach

www.weartv.com...

Oh and I also noticed how the BP workers must have taken orders from the spies here on ATS and made it clear they were using shovels!!!

But "What" were they doing? That was crazy!

ci.ftlaud.fl.us...

Here is a city ordinance in Ft Lauderdale that prohibits digging. It is part of the restrictions against camping and camp fires. 7.4(h)

I'm having trouble finding anything about rules for the beach in Pensacola, Ft. Pickens, or Escambia County.

Ah HA! Found something. Seems like the Park Ranger is misinterpreting the rule.


Fed rules limit oil dig on Pensacola Beach

And digging deeper than 6 inches to clean BP's oil out of the sand on Escambia County beaches won't happened until BP gets a federal waiver from the Department of Interior, Melick said.

"It's an archaeological issue," Melick said.

The cleanup might disturb cultural sites protected by the national historic preservation act, he said.

Apparently BP has been limited on how deep they can go for the cleanup, but this doesn't limit what tourists can do on the beach!

reply to post by getreadyalready


Park Superintendent Dan Brown says you can't dig in areas where you're likely to find artifacts, like the Fort Pickens compound.

But where they were digging they should of been alowed to dig in the sand based on the news report

reply to post by Cloudsinthesky


LOL! Great timing Clouds! That is just what I was reading from an article dated Sept 4. Your narrative and my edit went up about the same time. Nice work!

I have a feeling someone was trying to tweak that rule to fit their agenda, but the Park Rangers and County Sheriffs would probably fold if their authority was challenged. They are very authoritative until they run up against someone with more information than them. No cop wants to make the news doing something stupid.

reply to post by getreadyalready


great find!

So, is this one of the beaches where they were bringing in sand? That sure would help create that six inches.

looks like they took my advice and claimed it were sea turtles.

He has spent weeks making phone calls and sending e-mails and trying to navigate the bureaucracy of Unified Command to solve the elusive answer as to who is saying "No." Along the way, he was pointed to the Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Both agencies denied it was them. And Lee was told nesting sea turtles were the reason the beach could not be cleaned deeper.

Oh, but wait, what does the Department of Interior have to do with it? Is that the 'cultural resource issue'?

Finally, on Thursday, he had a breakthrough when a BP environmental official visiting Pensacola told Lee it was the Department of the Interior putting the brakes, digging deeper to recover sunken oil.

"I sent an e-mail to Sen. Bill Nelson's office telling them what a governmental fiasco this has been," Lee said. "It's funny from the outside, but it's sad to me."

Maybe everyone should send Sen. Nelson an email

billnelson.senate.gov...

billnelson.senate.gov...

reply to post by Black_Fox


Digging in the sand is illegal at a publicly funded beach? WTH is wrong with America and these officers that enforce these laws. Like the sand won't fill in on the next tide or something. It sounds like they do not want anyone to see the oil.

Isn't it a common past-time to use metal detectors on beaches? I would think going below six inches for metal fragments is a given considering the weight of metal and the liquefaction of sand during the rise and fall of the tides.

This is ridiculous! A call to all the Southerners to get out there and claim their beaches is in order, to claim and demand an answer!

reply to post by getreadyalready


Right on and that makes better sense since the BP workers were stomping to death many endangered and vulnerable species, but you know as well as I that that was not the concern or intent of the BP lacky verbalizing the reporter just looking for a story.

If I lived in the USA and near the area, I'd be organising a sandcastle competition. Get hundreds or even thousands down there with spades. With cameras too. Either it is illegal to make sandcastles on a beach, and illegal to photograph in a public place, or it is not.