Oil Arrives at Fort Morgan, Alabama
I have been walking the beach at Fort Morgan every day this week and this afternoon, as I watched a BP four-wheeler straddle and then drive over tar balls, I knew the beginning of the end of our beautiful, sugar-white beaches had come.
What made it almost unbearable for me was the fact that the workers sped down the beach on their usual patrol. I stopped a National Guard humvee and asked them if anyone had reported the oil…No, we didn’t know it was here, they said. They also reminded me they cannot clean it up. The very nice guy told me that each agency has a ‘lane’ to drive in and nobody can cross into another agency’s lane.
Whatever….Please get somebody here to clean the beach. Never mind about stepping into someone else’s lane.
Over an hour later I see the green shirts of BP workers in the distance. A lone four wheeler comes to where I had been. The same two guys I photographed earlier actually got out of their vehicle and when they saw me, started picking up tar balls. I think they got two. I turned away and began to walk…just to see what they would do. They got back in their vehicle and left. So much for BP being there to make right their mess.
I’ve never been so angry in my life. BP–if you are going to hire people, please make sure they are INVESTED in actually doing the work! Enough of this story….it is repeated over and over again here on the Alabama coast. You don’t want people to volunteer…probably because they’d make your employees look pretty bad. Get your act together!
2 Replies to “Oil Arrives at Fort Morgan, Alabama”
The ambulance driver (who sits parked, in his air-conditioned van all day in the event someone overheats from overwork), told us about the oil as I left work. I didn’t see any on the beach at my house, but this does explain the additional tire tracks. God help the turtles…
Simon, I just read your article in the Asheville Citizen-Times about how the oil spill has affected the the coast off Alabama. Tears came to my eye. My partner and I love anything to do with nature. We live in Fairview Forest on 4 acres and have a small pond with a water fall with all sorts of aquatic wildlife. We have been fortunate to have visited all seven continents, not just going to the major big cities but to see the flora and fauna. Our most amazing tree trips were an aventure cruise to Antarctica on a small ship with naturalists who gave lectures abored and off the ship. A South African Safari with a private guide. And a lodge in the Alaskan interior with a private guide teaching us about the perma frost, different types off wildlife, culminting with a flght around Denali in a small plane. I get so angry when I here of things such as this, sometime I think it would be better if we chose our leaders randomly from the telephone book, as I heard someone say. I can only pray….. Sam