A tar ball washed ashore near the Treasure Isle subdivision in Lake Pontchartrain as people fish near the Rigolets in Slidell on Monday. (Matthew Hinton - The Times-Picayune)
Seems to me the picture shows something other than a tarball. The tarballs I saw on the beach years ago, were solid objects. What's pictured is what I would call a viscous oil patty, something less than a solid.
From NOLA:
Showing just how unpredictable and all-consuming the massive Gulf oil spill can be, tar balls and small sheens of oil have entered Lake Pontchartrain and are hitting Texas shores for the first time.
John Lopez, director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation's coastal stainability program, spotted the first tar balls in the Rigolets Pass on Sunday. By Monday, the blobs of oil had washed ashore as far west as Treasure Isle in Slidell.
Cleanup crews used nets to scoop up the tar balls throughout the day, collecting more than 1,000 pounds of oil and waste. BP also deployed 19 manual skimming vessels and four decontamination vessels to the area, and placed 600-feet of hard and soft boom at a choke point in the Rigolets to prevent more oil from entering the lake. Cleanup efforts are expected to resume today.
Lopez said oil made its way into the lake because of winds from the far edges of Hurricane Alex last week as well as sustained east and southeast winds during the weekend. The winds from Alex pushed a large amount of oil into the Mississippi Sound for the first time, and the east winds during the past few days pushed oil into Lake Borgne, the Rigolets and eventually the eastern stretches of Lake Pontchartrain.
....
"It has a fairly tortuous route to get to the lake, and that's why we're at day 70-something of the spill, and we're just seeing the oil reach Lake Pontchartrain," Lopez said. "This oil we're seeing probably headed east toward Alabama and Florida before it came this way. It's traveled probably at least 100-200 miles, depending on how far east it went."
Also on Monday, The Associated Press reported that Texas crews were removing tar balls from the Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island.
The Texas landfall and the encroachment into Lake Pontchartrain weren't unexpected, but they were staggering nonetheless, as the previously spared gateways to the highly populated areas saw the first physical evidence that they would not be immune.
The coastline from Texas to Florida, a vast area, is now affected by the gusher. Staggering, indeed, but entirely predictable, although, from the beginning, there were those who said, "It may not be that bad." I never said such a thing, because I knew it would be that bad and, very likely, worse. We have not yet seen the worst.
It took 70 days to get there, and it's still leaking. Probably means more than 70 more days behind it. I agree, you probably have not yet seen the worst of it. Know that our prayers are with the Gulf States now.
ReplyDeleteViscous Oilpatty sounds like a name from a 19th century novel.
ReplyDeleteGod help us, as the wound keeps bleeding.
Wade, thank you. I appreciate the prayers more than I can say.
ReplyDeleteArchdeacon Viscous Oilpatty?
Tobias, thanks. I'm laughing through my tears.
Wade is right of course, but then who knows how many days there are lined up beyond that till it is fixed?
ReplyDeleteThat patty is revolting.
Cathy, the patties are a revolting mess, and, according to those who have been close to them, they smell nasty, too.
ReplyDeleteSeems like this one is part of the oil that was treated with dispersant. I think the oil company thought if they dispersed the oil we would not notice - but that made things worse. We used to have tar wash up on the Oregon coast (all the motels had signs to check your feet for tar before entering). The oil tankers would scrub out the oil when they were out at sea off the coast. Just enough of a taste of that to have some small idea of your tragedy.
ReplyDeleteWhat you all said!
ReplyDeleteMimi, sometimes laughter is the only way to deal with such madness.
ReplyDeleteI think "the Venerable Viscous Oilpatty" has a nice ring to it. Of course, I'm reading Barchester Towers at the moment, so it fits in nicely...
"...Mr. Oilpatty paced the floor of his study with measured steps. The recent disastrous interview with the Bishop had upset his accustomed equilibrium, and, as was his wont, he rehearsed the whole affair in his mind, in an effort retroactively to justify himself for his ill success. But to no end. He was forced at last to admit that not only had he failed, but that he was wrong; entirely, utterly, and completely wrong..."
Something like that?
Ann, I'm told that the reddish color and the consistency of the patties is due to the dispersants, which also cause the oil to form droplets which sink. Just because the oil is not visible, doesn't mean it's not there, but, of course, BP's trying for the out-of-sight, out-of-mind fix.
ReplyDeleteTobias, the Venerable Viscous Oilpatty is better. Alliteration adds just the proper touch. And the quote is perfect.
When I first began to pay attention to the wider church outside of my own parish, the shenanigans in the Church of England were not nearly so puzzling as the carryings-on in the Episcopal Church, because I had read Trollope.
Not too far down the coast is the beautiful Fontainebleau State Park. Dad lived right across the highway from their main gate and I have hiked and biked down to the shore from there many times. It has all kinds of wildlife. One winter day, we spotted a Ross' Goose that was way out of his range swimming about where a bayou enters into the lake. It pains me to think about what might be destroyed. I thought the lake would be spared. Somehow, it never occurred to me that the spill would enter Pontchartrain, even though on some level, I knew that it had a direct outlet to the Gulf.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, Boocat, lovely Fountainbleau State Park. So many places affected.... Who knows where the damage will end?
ReplyDeleteJust before Katrina and the federal flood, through the efforts of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, the lake was cleaned up nicely for swimming and fishing, and then toxic waste was pumped into the lake after the flood. The lake recovered rather quickly from the dump and was moving toward being safe again, and now this.