DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL
ONE YEAR LATER
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the lead state agency for
responding to impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill along Florida’s shoreline. In
addition, DEP is the lead designated trustee for the state of Florida on the Deepwater
Horizon Trustee Council, along with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FWC) as a co-trustee and DEP has a representative member on the Gulf
Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in Florida
By the Numbers
Oil Product Collected (as of April 11, 2011)
2,497,515 pounds
DEP Employees Worked
909 employees
DEP Staff Hours Worked
More than 142,000 hours
Approximate Miles of Coastline Impacted
200 miles
Total Feet of Boom Deployed in Florida
791,061 feet
Total Environmental Samples Analyzed by DEP (Air,
2,102 Samples
Water, Sediment)
Total Environmental Samples Collected Overall in
More than 10,000 Samples
Florida (Water, Tissue, Sediment, Submersed Aquatic
Vegetation, Tar Balls and Oil)
Overall DEP Costs (as of April 11, 2011)
$36,311,856.23
Date Oil First Hit Florida’s Coastline
June 4, 2010
HIGHLIGHTS
• DEP is sampling water and sediment along the Northwest Florida coastline
through the swim season.
• All sampling conducted and analyzed in Florida has registered below levels of
concern according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and the
Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) human health benchmarks for air, water
or sediment.
• Response continues in Florida and field teams are recovering much smaller
quantities of oil each day from Florida’s coastline.
• Any observed oil is scheduled for pick-up and properly disposed.
• Ongoing impacts are expected to be minimal and are more likely to be seen in
the western counties.
• Restoration efforts are ongoing throughout the Gulf States and are being led by
the Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council and the Gulf Coast Ecosystem
Restoration Task Force.
PROCESS
When an oil spill occurs, federal law, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA), has
established a system for federal and state agencies and the party responsible for the spill
to cooperate and restore the affected area to its pre-spill condition.
Response and restoration are two different aspects of the process created by OPA that
share the broad goal of ultimately returning the impacted area to its original state
before the spill occurred. The purpose of response is to execute an emergency clean up
and remove the oil spilled. Restoration involves the process of determining the extent of
damage to natural resources resulting from the spill and the long term process of
bringing damaged resources back to their original state.
RESPONSE OVERVIEW
DEP is working hard to ensure that the 2011 tourism season is successful for Northwest
Florida and that visitors to Florida’s beaches will find the traditional white sands to be
free of oil. DEP is sampling water and sediment along the Northwest Florida coastline
through the swim season. Based on analysis of these samples by the Florida Department
of Health (DOH), the most recent data indicate swimming in the Gulf or visiting the
beach poses no risk to human health associated with oil spill contaminants.
Florida is in a transition from the response to recovery phase. BP has committed to a
continued cleanup and will maintain personnel to handle any further oiling. DEP and
the U.S. Coast Guard are working together to ensure that the cleanup continues.
Response continues in Florida and field teams are recovering much smaller quantities of
oil each day from Florida’s coastline. A deep cleaning effort throughout the winter
months using heavy equipment was successful in removing tons of oil each day. This
effort concluded prior to spring tourism, bird nesting and turtle nesting seasons. Hand
crews are removing a few hundred pounds of oil per day and will continue monitoring
as long as there is oil to be recovered.
As of April 11, 2011 2,497,515 pounds of oil have been removed from Florida’s coastline.
A complete reassessment of the shorelines is being made by Shoreline Cleanup
Assessment Techniques (SCAT) teams. Any observed oil is scheduled for pick-up and
properly disposed. The surveying and collection process is likely to continue through
the 2011 Hurricane Season when another assessment of Northwest Florida’s coastline
will be performed.
Some Northwest Florida beaches will continue to see isolated oil impacts that are
influenced by natural tides and varying weather conditions. These impacts will consist
mainly of scattered tar balls, but may also be buried oil that may become exposed in the
sand along the shoreline. These impacts are minimal and are more likely to be seen in
the western counties.
RESTORATION OVERVIEW
Restoration is guided by the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), a legal
process to determine the type and amount of restoration needed to compensate the
public for harm to natural resources and their human uses that occur as a result of an oil
spill incident or a hazardous substance release. Assessing and restoring damages
resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is a long term process that will take
years, possibly decades to complete.
Restoration efforts are ongoing throughout the Gulf States and are being led by the
Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council and the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task
Force. Working together and alongside other groups they are evaluating and measuring
the impacts of the spill on natural resources to restore, replace, rehabilitate or acquire
the equivalent of these resources.
Trustees are preparing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement to assess the
environmental and economic impacts of potential restoration projects to satisfy
requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Florida is currently in the assessment phase, determining impacts to natural resources
and planning restoration. DEP is in the process of accumulating all oil spill related data
that has been collected in Florida to aid in this process.
The initial phases of two emergency restoration projects related to seagrass restoration
and dune and marsh vegetation that include sites in Florida have been approved by BP.
Restoration work on these projects will begin once final sites are determined.
DEP is accepting restoration project ideas for projects located in eight Northwest
Florida counties - Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Franklin and
Wakulla. Proposed projects will be submitted to the Deepwater Horizon Trustee
Council, which will decide which projects qualify under the Oil Pollution Act. Selected
projects will be presented to BP, the responsible party, for final approval and funding.
FUNDING
DEP has three different grants to cover specific agency costs related to the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill. Costs include, but are not limited to: salaries, travel, equipment,
sampling efforts, studies etc.
DEP Costs
As of April 11, 2011
Grant Purpose
Total
Any agency costs related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
$4,549,446.88
Any boom related expenditures. Grant is closed and is no
$30,201,030.83
longer incurring costs.
All restoration costs related to the Natural Resource Damage
$1,561,378.52
Assessment (NRDA). Florida has been allotted $8 million for
this purpose and can reapply for more funding when it is
necessary.
*Note: The first two grants are managed by the Division of Emergency Management. The funds
are drawn from the $50 million given to the state of Florida by BP for response efforts in Florida.
AFFECTED COUNTIES
Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Franklin and Wakulla counties are
the eight counties included when referencing Northwest Florida. Confirmed oil from
the spill was found as far east as Franklin County and boom was deployed as far east as
Jefferson County. Approximately 98 percent of the recovered oil product has been from
the Escambia County shoreline, with diminishing amounts moving eastward.
Escambia
2,446,205
Pounds of Oil Product Collected by County
As of April 11, 2011
Okaloosa Walton
Bay
Gulf
Franklin
34,415
12,589
3,856
323
126
Total
2,497,515
*Note: Santa Rosa County figures are included in Escambia County due to their limited coastline.
ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLING
Environmental Samples Collected in Response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
May 3, 2010 to March 31, 2011
Sampling Purpose
Water Sediment Waste
Tissue
Air
Total
Baseline Assessment
304
287
591
2010 Beach Monitoring
499
16
27
542
2010 Clean Sand
Sampling
Product Sampling
Proximity Sampling
2011 Beach Monitoring
2011 Clean Sand
Sampling
Targeted Sampling
Air
Total
134
310
210
57
56
4
1,379
534
134
32
13
32
380
210
36
36
17
72
17
100
100
77
100
2,102
Water/Sediment
DEP began collecting pre-oil spill impact samples at beaches throughout the Gulf Coast
the first week of May 2010. These results are being used, along with the results from
other samples collected by Federal agencies, in the NRDA process to help determine the
level of environmental restoration necessary in Florida.
Once oil reached Florida’s shores, DEP began conducting sampling of Northwest
Florida beaches for oil spill contaminants to determine any potential public health
impact. Detectable levels of oil contamination have not been observed in water samples
since mid-July 2010. Beach monitoring for oil contamination was suspended during the
cool weather months and resumed in early February in preparation for the 2011 swim
season. Results to date have found no appreciable oil spill contamination in the beach
water or in visibly clean sand samples.
All sampling conducted and analyzed in Florida has registered below levels of concern
according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and the Florida
Department of Health’s (DOH) human health benchmarks.
Air
Both DEP and EPA conducted additional air monitoring in response to the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill. DEP collected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) ambient air
samples in Fort Walton Beach and East Point through September 20, 2010. EPA
collected VOC and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) ambient air samples at
the Pensacola Naval Air Station and at St. Andrews State Park in Panama City.
In addition, EPA mobilized the Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzers (TAGA), a selfcontained mobile laboratory to conduct real-time VOC monitoring of outdoor emissions
from various environmental sources along the Gulf Coast. TAGA monitoring consisted
of 25 sampling days along the Florida Gulf Coast and found levels well below any that
would cause temporary discomfort, irritation or other minor effects.
All sampling results collected showed values well below levels of concern for public
health.
Dispersants
Dispersants were never used in state of Florida waters. Trace amounts of
Dioctylsulfosuccinate-NA (DOSS), an ingredient of the Corexit dispersant, have been
detected in less than 10 samples to date. DOSS is also found in many popular consumer
products such as paints, sunscreens, shampoos and lotions and other pharmaceutical
products. DOSS analyses are being performed weekly through the 2011 swim season at
more than a dozen popular Northwest Florida beaches as part of ongoing beach
monitoring.
All sampling conducted and analyzed in Florida has registered below levels of concern
according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and the Florida
Department of Health’s (DOH) human health benchmarks.