BILOXI, Miss. – Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) staff through aerial surveillance with the Mississippi National Guard, MDEQ response staff, and Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Teams (SCAT) have observed the following Tuesday (as of 7:30 p.m.) and sent to Unified Command for review and appropriate response:
Flight information:
*No significant amounts of oil or sheen observed.
Additional information from MDEQ staff:
· Sporadic tar balls along the beaches in Jackson County. Cleanup crews were seen at Pascagoula Beach, no tar balls were noted upon inspection of the cleaned area.
· Sporadic tar balls with less than one percent coverage along the beaches in Harrison County. Cleanup crews were present on the beaches, no tar balls were noted upon inspection of the cleaned area.
· In Hancock County, sporadic tar balls with less than one percent coverage along the beach. Clean-up crews present on the beach.
· SCAT team performed beach assessment along the north side of Sand Island. Tar balls and mousse patties were seen continuously along the shoreline. The most concentrated area was located between N30 13.440, W88 30.884 and N30 13.585, W88 31.375. SCAT team performed beach assessment of Petit Bois Island, and sporadic tar balls with less than one percent coverage were noted on the eastern side of the island. Cleanup crews were seen on the western side of Petit Bois Island.
· SCAT team performed beach assessment from Heron Bay to Jefferson Davis Avenue in Long Beach and reported mousse balls with less than one percent coverage except for a half mile stretch near Pass Harbor that exhibited five percent coverage. At Hayden road, near the Pass Christian-Long Beach line, small mousse balls were noted in the tide.
· Another SCAT team performed beach assessment in Grand Bay and sporadic spots of trace amounts of oil were observed in the marsh grass. Sandy spots exhibited less than one percent coverage of mousse patties ranging from two to three centimeters in size. The team noted dead vegetation on the shore that contained scattered oil. During afternoon observations in Grand Bay, the team reported a two to three meter band of fresh mousse patties in the middle intertidal zone with approximately two percent coverage ranging from one to eight centimeters in size; the upper intertidal zone had a three to four meter band of sandy mousse patties with less than one percent coverage over the band width. Further observations, noted several sections of marsh that had been splashed with oil during high tide with most of the splashes very small in size.
Mississippi Skimmer Activities
*Mississippi skimmers cleaned a total of 100 gallons of oil today: 50 gallons at Bayou Caddy and 50 gallons at Point Cadet.
Patches of tar balls and weathered oil are skimmed and corralled by Vessels of Opportunity and BP contractors. Skimming is used to remove streams of emulsified oil, tar balls, and tar patties. Tar balls and mousse patties on land are removed with shovels and rakes.
Source: Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality