Students study the N.C. coast

The (Raleigh) News & Observer has an interesting piece on college students and professors studying the N.C. coast to get a "baseline" for the just-in-case chance that Gulf oil makes it this far. (Fingers crossed that it won't!)

Seven people walked the 50-meter-long seine net into chest-high water, then slowly returned to the beach with scores of Florida pompano, striped mullet and gulf kingfish, among others.

Destined for labs at UNC Wilmington, the fish, along with water and sediment samples gathered nearby, will be used to create a baseline measurement of what the coastal environment is like now, unsullied by oil from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico or anywhere else.

The oil apparently has not left the gulf. State officials who gathered last week at UNC-Chapel Hill for an oil-spill forum were told that the probability of crude reaching North Carolina was extremely small.

"It's beyond remote now," said Kenneth Taylor, disaster response coordinator for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. "The oil is breaking up in the gulf all by itself."

But that does not mean the science has stopped. On Wednesday, about a dozen researchers, many of them students, worked with UNC Wilmington professors to gather samples. N.C. Sea Grant provided $6,000 for the research, which will eventually encompass visits to six beaches, from Ocean Isle to Hatteras.

...

In the weeks immediately following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the gulf, scientists along the East Coast began forecasting the oil's movement. The National Center for Atmospheric Research released a computer model that showed how currents could bring oil to North Carolina waters, though the conditions that would have made that happen haven't materialized.

This week, Gov. Bev Perdue signed into law a bill that lifts the cap on damages that can be recovered as the result of an offshore oil spill. She had previously directed state officials to update the state's oil spill contingency plan to prepare for the unlikely event that the leaked BP oil makes it to North Carolina.

In June and July, the state gathered extensive samples of sea life from 34 spots up and down the coast. Oysters, shrimp, crabs and a wide variety of fish were collected as part of a separate effort to create a snapshot of an oil-free environment.

Even if tar balls never reach the North Carolina coast, the samples gathered and the science collected from them will not go to waste.

(Image via the N&O)

State planning to deal with oil (if necessary)

Oil from the BP spill in the Gulf may or may not make its way up to the North Carolina coast. But if it does, state officials are ready.

"North Carolina has a plan for dealing with the possible incursion of the BP Deep Horizons oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico into the state’s coastal waters," says the Washington News.

"That plan may be found on the N.C. Department of Crime Control & Public Safety’s Web page under the heading for the Division of Emergency Management, said department spokesman Ernie Seneca. The department’s Web page may be found at www.nccrimecontrol.org. ...

The plan was developed in the “remote chance some of this oil will make its way up here,” Seneca said in an interview with the Washington Daily News. ...

Meanwhile, the state is preparing to act if oil threatens its waters.

“North Carolina has an oil spill-response plan that defines roles and responsibilities for responding agencies,” Seneca said. “The state of North Carolina is closely monitoring BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. State and federal agencies are coordinating plans to be fully prepared to respond in case the oil reaches our state. The U.S. Coast Guard is currently projecting that there is a remote chance that the oil could reach this far north and threaten North Carolina’s coast.”

North Carolina’s plan makes the Coast Guard the lead agency in charge of oil threatens coastal waters, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the lead agency in charge if oil threatens inland waters. The N.C. Department of Crime Control & Public Safety, which includes the Division of Emergency Management, is the lead state-response agency. The N.C. State Emergency Response Team, headed by the state’s emergency-management director, assists federal agencies, coordinates state preparations and response activities and works with local communities and responders.

Glad to hear that state officials are planning ahead. Hopefully it is unnecessary planning.