Obama's Beach Will Be Clean, But Oil Lies Beneath Sand Nearby

The Florida Panhandle beach where the Obamas are going to spend the weekend to boost tourism in the region is indeed pristine and oil-free.

Panama City Beach, where the White House has announced the first family will be staying Saturday and Sunday, was spared the worst of the BP oil spill, sullied only by sporadic tar balls that were easily cleaned up.

Starting just 80 miles to the west, from Pensacola Beach and on to Alabama, the beaches were hit a lot worse. And a University of South Florida scientist told HuffPost those beaches, thanks to a "superficial" cleanup job by BP, remain contaminated.

In some cases, the beaches look clean at first glance - certainly as compared to when they were covered in brown oil - but they "weren't cleaned up very well," said Ping Wang, an associate professor of geology at USF whose research teams have been monitoring the shoreline.

"There are small tar balls everywhere on the back beach, and there's buried oil that wasn't cleaned up," Wang said.

According to Wang's report, at least as much oil as was cleaned up remains buried under the surface.

"The buried oil contamination has been observed up to 6 inches thick extending over a wide zone of beach," the report says. "Buried oil is much more difficult to clean because it is not directly visible and buried to various depths. In addition, buried oil will have a much longer lasting effect because it will not be weathered by the sunlight as easily as the surface oil."

Wang said the Obamas shouldn't just stay where they're based. "I think they should inspect a beach that's contaminated more than Panama City Beach," he said. "If they look carefully, if they dig a hole on the beach, they'll find what's left over from a superficial cleanup."

And that includes the kids. "If they dig a hole, they'll find oil," Wang said. "I'll be happy to go help them."

"Every minute you see a BP advertisement saying they're committed to cleaning up the coast. Well, that's not cleanup," Wang said. "They need to do a lot more."

Comments

[BannedNBoston]

12:09 AM on 08/15/2010

missing oil and corexit found!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuMj7KruXk0&feature=player_embedded

[Kassandra]

09:43 PM on 08/14/2010

I loved this since the Gulf is now so safe:
Obama's Florida trip: With BP oil spill receding, time for a swim?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0814/Obama-s-Florida-trip-With-BP-oil-spill-receding-time-for-a-swim
and written without trace of sarcasm :^)

[RightsGuy]

07:37 PM on 08/14/2010

TO TEACHERS, EDUCATORS, EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATORS, CAMP DIRECTORS and others:

Let’s teach our children and young people the truth and educate them about the dangers of oil drilling and corporate corruption! If you’re in the Gulf States, ask your students to document what they see on the beaches, in the ocean, and the effects of the disaster on people and their communities. For those who don’t live in the Gulf States, ask your students to create art projects, photography, and films about the tragedy of the oil spill.

GIVEN BP’s and THE MEDIA’S BLACKOUT AND SPIN, IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO DOCUMENT THE DAMAGE FROM BP’S OIL SPILL.

1. Submit photos, pictures, and art work to BetterGulf.org here: http://www.bettergulf.org

2. Please take pictures and videos of the damage from BP’s oil spill. Note time and place. Some smart phone cameras' GPS chip will record location even when there is no cell signal.

Get FREE SMART PHONE APPS to help document the damage of the oil spill.
iPhone App - http://foo.am/dH4
Android App - http://foo.am/dH3
Blackberry App - Point your Blackberry web browser to: http://swooshsoftware.com/SpillReporter.jad

If you have a digital video or still camera, up load your images to: http://gulfcoastspill.com
(Thanks Yobie Benjamin for this information: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ybenjamin/detail??blogid=150&entry_id=64912 )

Together we can show and document the truth.

IMAGINE IF STUDENTS OF ALL AGES FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY PARTICIPATED!

[racetoinfinity]

09:13 PM on 08/13/2010

"Every minute you see a BP advertisement saying they're committed to cleaning up the coast. Well, that's not cleanup," Wang said. "They need to do a lot more."

Another lie from BP - I've stopped counting.

The meme that everything is over - that the oil is gone, and there is a healthy ecosystem again with healthy people with no long term effects is prevalent now in the MSM, and it's another lie.

[RightsGuy]

07:39 PM on 08/14/2010

1. Get your free PROSECUTE BP bumper sticker here: http://stickerobot.com/bp/

2. Tell BP where to stick it.

Get the new BP logos that that reflect the tragic consequences of BP's reckless determination to extract oil at any cost:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/bp/rebranded/index.html?utm_source=ebulletin20100802&utm_medium=email&utm_content=bp&utm_campaign=climate

Disseminate these everywhere. We must be vigilant and do everything we can to keep this disaster in the public eye for years to come!!!

[Bernd Rickert]

08:18 PM on 08/13/2010

Obamas visit is as the pope visits a slum in a third world country, nice make up.

[xlntcat]

03:17 AM on 08/14/2010

What?

[BannedNBoston]

04:12 PM on 08/13/2010

BP has spread the blue flu and the blue plague.

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/08/07/crime-century-bp-government-dont/

[its miller time]

03:48 PM on 08/13/2010

Everyone will interpret his trip as they want...this was never promoted as a "business trip". He was criticized for not taking his vacation a few weeks ago down south. Now he is spending a few days with his family and its still a bad thing, he can't win.

Does it matter why he is going, do you know when this trip was decided? Does he schedule
holidays to meet up with friends and family? Maybe a few weeks ago was the only time those
people could meet up with him and that is why he went elsewhere.

Is it possible he is saying with this trip, this crisis is now under control, which it is. Regardless of what he says about the crisis, no one is gullible enough to not realize that there is a lot of
recovery ahead. But does he point out the negative in detail or promote the region. There is more to this region, than seafood. The businesses would be happy to serve you a hamburger instead, just come down and see for yourselves. Bring your family, spend a weekend. Enjoy the sun, sand, restaurants, night life and take in the local flair.

As President if he went to a populated beach it would have to be closed down for him anyway, security risk, that would happen for any President.

Unlike Katrina, this President knows how much his visit means to the local people, business or personal, as long as it gets the word out.

[xlntcat]

03:18 AM on 08/14/2010

Fanned and faved!

[Whigist]

01:55 PM on 08/13/2010

Of course the Liberal Elite will be ok as the rest of the working slobs slum it to pay for everything.

[nmichave]

02:11 PM on 08/13/2010

That's the result of millions of working slobs voting against their own interests. The repubs are all about widening the gap between the rich and poor and they historically have taken very good care of their wealthy own and help each other to get richer and richer and richer. Voting has consequences.

[Kassandra]

09:45 PM on 08/14/2010

ALL the elites will be OK...until the COREXIT starts raining down on THEIR land

[realitycheckers]

01:33 PM on 08/13/2010

P.S. I guess this was also why reporters were being kept at a distance from those working to cover up the oil on the beach.

[tarlipps]

02:21 PM on 08/13/2010

No it was to keep stupid people away from the hazardous oil.

[Sister Bluebird]

02:42 PM on 08/13/2010

What stupid people would that be? The ones being poisoned in their own homes by fumes in the air, from Corexit and oil, burning corexit and oil? The ones fed poison fish and shrimp? Or how about the ones whose city water has been contaminated?

When your home has been poisoned and it is unsellable, because its value has dropped into the nether regions--exactly how do you find the resources to move? Especially when you have no job?


No. The stupid people are the ones who do not understand the magnitude of this situation, and the way in which it invades every aspect of our politics and our economics, and pollutes those just as thoroughly as our Oceans.

[xlntcat]

03:26 AM on 08/14/2010

Let's see. You think that it is more important for reporter's to up air space to take pictures than to allow those spotting oil so it could be skimmed prior to reaching the coast. And, of course, drunk on the rear reporter should be allowed to crawl through protected marshes that they would be arrested for crawling in if there were no oil. The reporters picture taking was far more important the saving the life of stress birds and wasting the time of volunteers who had just rescued them to have to watch them die due to the added stress of the clicking cameras. Of course, it is abhorrent they they were allowed to play in toxic waste or to swing on power lines. The same patient's rights that are upheld across the country should have been set aside so that unprofessional reporters could swarm mobile medical facilities. As far as residence of the gulf are concerned seeing the beltway media return to the beltway was good riddance to bad rubbish.

[ms winkle]

12:53 PM on 08/13/2010

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/12697/64796?RS_show_page=0

I know this seems off topic. But responding to so many posts here that seem stuck in the argument Bush vs obama. Read it, politicians are screwing us, and it will go on until we unite as the people

after 4 historic bubble catastrophes, after helping $5 trillion in wealth disappear from the NASDAQ, after pawning off thousands of toxic mortgages on pensioners and cities, after helping to drive the price of gas up to $4 a gallon and to push 100 million people around the world into hunger, after securing tens of billions of taxpayer dollars through a series of bailouts overseen by its former CEO, what did Goldman Sachs give back to the people of the United States in 2008?

Fourteen million dollars.

an effective tax rate of exactly one, read it, one percent - it paid the Treasury less than a third of what it forked over to CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who made $42.9 million last year.

fast forward, Barack Obama, whose leading private campaign donor is Goldman Sachs sits in the White House and Goldman is back

Gone Hank and Neel Kashkari; in Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson and Gary Gensler, both former Goldmanites. Instead of credit derivatives the next bubble, is in carbon credits — a trillion dollar market that barely exists but will if the Democratic Party that it gave $4,452,585 to manages to push into existence, disguised as an "environmental plan,"

[Libb Cabal]

01:23 PM on 08/13/2010

It is a mark of a weak poster when they must pull the "But Bush" to try to defend the actions of President Obama. That it is done so often indicates that the posters have no other way to defend his action.

Indeed, your post about what all politicians do is on the same track as the BushButs' posts.

This article which we are discussing isn't about all politicians. It's about the President of the United States.

I agree most politicians are ethically challenged, and way over-achievers when it comes to avarice and greed.

But we need to focus both on the individual and the group to deal with the results we, the people who worked our kiesters off to elect them, are forced to suffer because of them.

[tarlipps]

02:25 PM on 08/13/2010

70 % of us don't even bother to vote so we screw our selves really, a mutual masturbation thing I guess.

[Sister Bluebird]

02:44 PM on 08/13/2010

I don't agree. I interpreted this to be an attempt to show that this is a concerted effort by Corporatists who infiltrate both parties in order to exploit the American People--specifically the Working class and the Middle Class. To me this looks like a classic example of Wealth Extraction.

[Blufftonian]

12:12 PM on 08/13/2010

Ramadan Kareem.

[1088]

11:59 AM on 08/13/2010

This is the worse time of year to come to Florida on vacation! It's hot and very uncomfortable walking in the hot sand with that hot sun piercing on you. The best time to come is in the months of December thru April! Right now it's in the 90's which is hot! You cannot tolerate that for 1 hour outside without any shade.

[ekg]

01:12 PM on 08/13/2010

You're kidding, right? There are people, like myself, that love this weather!

[GraphicMatt]

03:22 PM on 08/13/2010

Feel free to move to Florida......as a native Floridian I can assure you that being on the beach here in December is 1000x more pleasant than being on the beach today.

[4peace]

09:07 AM on 08/14/2010

I doubt she is kidding. I tell anyone wanting to visit FL in the summer to think twice about it and try to come in the winter - that is the time to appreciate FL. It has been particularly intolerable this summer. You are the exception - not many people love this weather.

[realitycheckers]

01:32 PM on 08/13/2010

I must agree. My own countless trips have always occurred late September when temperatures can still be in the high 80's or more. I love the sun, but it does wear you down far more quickly than a more "civilized" temperature. :)

[eleanorhawking]

11:55 AM on 08/13/2010

One day? 27 hours? They're going to haul that whole group down there for one measly day? I can see that they're feeling the heat, but is all that expense really worth one frakkin' day? It looks desperate and foolhardy. Who is advising these people?

[jrfromdallas]

11:58 AM on 08/13/2010

Bernie Madoff?

[Takebackourmoney]

12:05 PM on 08/13/2010

All that expense of seeing Bush flying around over NO and people are standing on top of their homes with water rushing all around them.

[eleanorhawking]

12:13 PM on 08/13/2010

As I said in an earlier post, it's painfully obvious that all you're going to hear today in defense of this is "What did Bush do?". Bush is no longer the President, and that excuse is getting old, stale and trite. Obama WON. This is now his par-tay, along with all the responsibilities and criticisms that come with it. Get a fresh talking point, and then get back to me, or don't.

[Libb Cabal]

12:58 PM on 08/13/2010

You are correct to make this comparison. How sad it is that Obama is as elitist, disconnected, and cruelly uncaring as GWBush was.

[Ron333wood]

11:54 AM on 08/13/2010

I've been reading a lot of criticism of the Obama's for going to Florida for a day and then going to Martha's Vineyard. There is a reason why Florida is so popular in the winter/spring months and why all those people flock to Florida for THOSE months and then... go...home. Florida weather, in August, is not a "drawing point" oil or no oil.

[eleanorhawking]

11:59 AM on 08/13/2010

Spain was hotter than heck too, but that didn't stop them.

[chiara12]

12:11 PM on 08/13/2010

Were you in Spain with them? Have you been to Spain? Much of Europe travels to the South of Spain/Portugal/France during the summer. Not really an odd thing. Does not have the humidity that Florida has.

[GraphicMatt]

03:25 PM on 08/13/2010

As a native Floridian I can honestly say sure, Florida is a beautiful place but Spain is an AMAZING PLACE! No comparison.

[Libb Cabal]

01:01 PM on 08/13/2010

Oh, yes. Let's not inconvenience the leader of our country and his family, who are living the high life on our tax money, by having them vacation in a tragically impacted Gulf Coast. Never mind that the damage is as extensive as it is because Obama cared more about not inconveniencing BP than aggressively protecting our natural resources and the lives and futures of our people.

It would be great to see the family out there right after dawn, when it is a little cooler, spending an hour picking up oil.

HAHAHAHAHA! Only if they can reach down from their sedan chairs to do it.

[Ron333wood]

01:43 PM on 08/13/2010

Had he not gone...you would have complained. Because he DID go, you HAVE complained. Had he gone and stayed, you would have found something to complain about..."his security won't let anyone else use that beach while he's there." "His presence is disrupting their economy. Is there any complaint that you won't make toward this President? Have you gone to Florida...even once...to encourage the people that are dealing with this economic disaster?

[tarlipps]

02:30 PM on 08/13/2010

Hi Glen....................

[Pagoas]

11:31 AM on 08/13/2010

sorry, barrack... and i know beepee's masters are making the decisions, but even bill cosby didn't convince me to that "new coke" was better, either. although we now know that it was just coke's way of introducing hfcs to market.

i'll wait until a few years and a few hurricanes blow the oil and dispersants around a bit more before i consider going back down there.

[Pammy1151]

11:40 AM on 08/13/2010

ahhh don't you like us rednecks here in Florida?

[GraphicMatt]

03:27 PM on 08/13/2010

Do us Floridians a favor.....just don't come back period.