Oil slick headed for Florida shores

From My Fox Tampa Bay
Updated: Monday, 26 Apr 2010, 6:47 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 26 Apr 2010, 6:47 PM EDT

Chris Chmura
FOX 13 News reporter

TAMPA - This week, offshore oil drilling opponents might gain some sticky black evidence to make their case that additional drilling is too risky for Florida.

Oil spewing from a sunken rig off Louisiana could reach the Gulf coast within three days, federal officials said Monday.

The sunken rig is south of Mobile, which neighbors Pensacola.

A severed well about a mile deep is belching 42,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf each day, creating an thin but wide slick that now covers 600 square miles.

"We're on water responding to the oil spill, we're attempting to secure the source," said Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry, who is coordinating the response.

Florida is not officially part of the response, but communication links have been established.

"We are in constant contact," said Dr. David Palandro, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Research Scientists who serves on the state's oil spill response team.

Palandro said predicting the path of the oil is difficult, since factors such as wind, waves, currents, and temperature are all factors in driving the slick.

"A spill where you have significant oil leakage over some period of time is very tricky to work with," he said. "Because you're not sure exactly what you're dealing with. Nor do you know how long you're going to be dealing with that problem."

Drilling opponents have been quick to seize on the spill as evidence that expanded drilling is too risky for Florida's pristine, tourist-rich coastline.

"We don't need it off of our coast," said U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, an ardent opponent of drilling expansion. "If that kind of oil rig was close to our shores, you can imagine what it would do to our tourism economy... what it would do to the beaches."

A recent Quinnipiac University poll, conducted prior to the spill, found 64 percent of Floridians supported expanded drilling off Florida's coasts.

Governor Charlie Crist's office said on Monday that he is monitoring the spill, but it had not changed his mind about exploring additional drilling.

"The Governor is certainly concerned about the impact of the recent oil spill and the potential impact it could have on discussions to drill off Florida's coast," said spokesman Sterling Ivey. "He continues to be open to the idea as long as precautions are taken to protect Florida."