Gulf Oil Spill: Tired Of Waiting For Help, Florida Towns Plan To Fight Oil Alone

McClatchy:

DESTIN, Fla. -- In Florida's Okaloosa County, where the biggest threat used to be the occasional hurricane warning, county commissioners declared themselves ready to go to jail to ensure their pristine beaches and bays are protected.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[MikeHenderson]

10:37 PM on 06/30/2010

A good website for Destin, Florida is destinoilspill.com they show videos of the beaches not just pictures and show how it looks.

[treadway123]

02:06 PM on 06/16/2010

FINALLY! everyone understands this is all of our problem, an not just the President of this united states problem! He can't do it all, an can't hire enough people to do it all for us! His Authority only reach's so far! U told him to get the heck out of your Goverment, an stop makeing it bigger! Here's your chance for the states to start takeing on some of the problems yourselfs, an I sinserely hope u all finally realize that the President can't do it all alone, an doesn't have that kind of authority to. Stop complaining an start doing! Help yourself, an this President won't feel the need to make Goverment bigger to help u all! God Bless u in your clean up an good luck, an thanks for realizeing it's time U do your part to keep america clean, an voice it in D.C for clean air, clean waters, an global clean up! It's what we all need!

[ilovecandy]

12:37 PM on 06/16/2010

Beaches aren't a priority, they are easier to clean up and easier to repair in the future. I do feel sorry for the Pensacola beach people because they voted for no drilling and still got oil because of their crazy neighbors. But beaches are probably the lowest priorities. Marshes, wetland, coral reefs are more important, they are like mothers wombs to these animals, they are where life begins for many marine species. Beaches aren't.

[Someone With Inside Info]

09:37 AM on 06/16/2010

Wow, people seem to be finally understanding that nobody gives more of a flip about their own beaches than themselves. Way to go rejecting the F'd up notion that you need some bureaucrat's approval to protect your own beaches. Amazing.

[Papa Swamp]

08:32 AM on 06/16/2010

They have to....Tampa get it's fresh water from a desalination plant. Oil reaches the plant and it will clog the filters shutting it down. Same goes for the Crystal River nuclear plant...oil into the cooling water would force the reactor to have to shut down.

[cmdr hlamb]

08:04 AM on 06/16/2010

good for them......'bout time someone stopped asking permission to clean their own gulf....

[hollybork]

07:34 AM on 06/16/2010

This is truly inspiring. American ingenuity is being applied in hamlets, parishes, towns and counties across the Gulf states. Rachel Maddow (who has been absolutely brilliant the week or so) had extended coverage and comment on the ramifications of this out of control spill, which is being responded to by the people on the Coast being threatened by it. She is unafraid to show she knows technology, science, math and can master a subject. No mock, eyelash fluttering "I'm so dumb but I just think...." kind of baloney for her. She has pointed out that the oil companies put money into developing technology to lift the oil rapidly and as cheaply as possible. Their risk of catastrophic failure is on us.

I thought, listening to her last night, that given the entire oil economy we have, and the increasing risks of lifting oil on the continental shelf, we eventually must nationalize the industry. That is the only way to fairly do it when the losses from private company corner cutting and poor management are not on those companies, but on us as a whole, as a people.

As it is, BP has single handedly destroyed the Gulf of Mexico but will undoubtedly show a profit for operations in 2010. They can never repay for the loss of this precious american resource. 11 men have died, but ten thousand will sicken from the clean up and the tainted domestic water they will be drinking for the next 20 years.

[maab76]

08:43 AM on 06/16/2010

Yes, the superlatives to describe the work (and temperatment) of Rachel Maddow are endless. I start with admiration for her exhaustive research and dedication to facts, her incisive insights and the clear interpretation of those facts presented to her audience. The Republicans and Tea Baggers could take a lot of classes from her to learn how to present FACTS, not myths to the electorate.

[take10]

01:51 PM on 06/16/2010

The hate hole in teabaggers prevents logic from making a difference in their thinking...

[Lisa Clayton]

09:48 AM on 06/16/2010

Faved and fanned.

[maab76]

07:06 PM on 06/16/2010

Thank you!

[CrazedSurfer]

07:20 AM on 06/16/2010

Good decision. You'll die on the vine waiting for DC to actually do something.

[Siebenstein]

04:46 AM on 06/16/2010

exactely

[tlgeiger62]

06:49 AM on 06/16/2010

That's twice ... it's spelled E X A C T L Y

[Siebenstein]

04:45 AM on 06/16/2010

'Going it alone' is exactely what BP and the administration want Americans to do. Wonderful, another disaster left to Jane and Joe.
What exaxctely are you guys paying taxes for?

[WarmGingerTea]

12:13 AM on 06/16/2010

Kudos to our commissioners. This action comes on the heels of the oil slicks that washed up on Orange Beach after the Coast Guard failed to close Perdido Pass, an action that I still don't understand. These are not major shipping lanes - they are mostly recreational. The big concern here in Okaloosa County is securing the Destin East Pass, which flows into the Choctawhatchee bay. As has been noted so often, the beaches are easy to clean up, but the wetlands off the bay .. not so much. I've been designing booms in my head in case we have to boom the small swampy wetland behind my house. If the oil passes into the bay and were to wash into that little swamp (created by Hurricane Opal a few years back), we'll be sniffing VOC's for months....

I really would like to know why the Coast Guard didn't close Perdido Pass .... http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/booms_a_bust_as_oil_spill_seep.html

[TheSheeple]

11:52 PM on 06/15/2010

Floridians better slow down and take a breath here. They better ask Arizonians what happens when you stop waiting for BO to actually do something. Florida better get back on the reservation or be ready for the boycotts!

[Someone With Inside Info]

09:43 AM on 06/16/2010

Too true. It's not because Floridians don't like the idea of oil on their beaches or that it's been 50-something days with little help from DC or BP, it's because of latent racism.

[treadway123]

02:13 PM on 06/16/2010

This spill in the gulf is completely different than Arizona stomping on the constitution an Federal Laws! what arizona did was a Racial profileing Bill that could have been avoided if they fought for an help raise their voice's for legitament immigration reform bill to be done properly by thier politicians. This was a Political stunt by politicians who wanted to "look like they were hero", who made it profoundly worse for their state! That is what laws are about. Cleaning up these beach's is finally bringing the states to realize that the Presidsent is not Magical, an his office has limits, as well as man power is limited--------an Guys I am proud of u getting off your butts an doing the cleaning yourself! There is no reason why every state/it's people should not be out there now an helping yourself finally! God Bless an good luck!

[ladcrp]

11:40 PM on 06/15/2010

Wear gloves.

[Paladine]

11:01 AM on 06/16/2010

and respirators...

[ilovecandy]

01:10 PM on 06/16/2010

And don't destroy the environments because you're not trained.

[treadway123]

02:19 PM on 06/16/2010

Ya, an not sit on your butts an hands like the GOP an do nothing like our freind ilovecandy an siebenstein thinks is the best way to help your state an it's people in this disaster that has hit your beach's ! God Bless u all that have stood up, taken shovel an pal in hand to help yourselfs,your kids future,land,beach's an states! More power to ya, an good luck. wish I was there to help ya all!

[truthtone]

11:14 PM on 06/15/2010

Well done the good people of Destin! I wish I was there to help.

[bascombe]

11:10 PM on 06/15/2010

this is because BP has been allowed to manage this whole disaster.

[bannorhill]

03:44 PM on 06/16/2010

Obama does not want the responsibility of having to fix the problem

Instead he wants to fix the blame.

[bascombe]

08:40 PM on 06/16/2010

Obama is NOT responsible for fixing the peoblem. Obama is responsible for making BP fix the problem.