Published: Friday, December 03, 2010, 8:10 PM
ORANGE BEACH, Alabama -- City officials were checking out a mat of oily material found this week on the sea floor just off the beach in about 3 feet of water.A BP PLC test crew found the substance just east of the Cotton Bayou public beach access, Phillip West, city coastal resource manager, said today.
The mat was about 600 feet wide and very narrow, Tim Tucker, Orange Beach public works director, said. Tucker said BP crews removed about 8,000 pounds of material today and would be back at work on Saturday. He said he looked at the work today and no oil had reached the beach.
“It wasn’t floating up and it wasn’t washing ashore,” Tucker said. “BP knows exactly where it’s at and they’re working to remove it.”
West said that in the four months since the leak from the Deepwater Horizon well was stopped, some oil has mixed with other substances and become heavier, sinking below the surface.
“This wasn’t unexpected in my opinion,” West said today. “The oil just gets worked into a tar or asphalt as it rolled around, becoming buoyancy neutral or heavy enough to sink.”
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