New Ways to Clean up Beaches and Oil

A tractor pulling a beach comber along the beach in Gulf Shores is nothing new. The city has been doing it for years. "We know how to do this and we think we've got a better way to do it and certainly much faster and we think more efficient and more effective," says mayor Robert Craft. BP clean up crews were not getting the job done so Craft took matters into his own hands. "I felt like it was our responsibility to demonstrate to them a better way to do it and show them how cause we know how and then turn it over to them to do," he says.
Ten of the machines are now headed to Baldwin County beaches. BP is picking up the tab.
Another idea may help ease concerns about the lack of boom in Baldwin County. "When I first saw it, it was like Pee-Wee Herman but when it eats oil, it's like Fat Albert," says Magnolia Springs businessman Don White. He is talking about what looks like a roll of lime green trash bags. Its actually a polyethylene boom. He showed us how it worked at Little Lagoon Pass where oil and water are trapped. It was fast efficient and he says affordable. "What's the hardest part about a spill? Get on it and get on it quick. But everybody can't afford 22 hundred pounds of boom and back it up with a sausage boom. Gosh," he exclaims," This can fit under a bow of a boat. We could do the whole Gulf of Mexico from the back of my boat."
His boom is already being used in Louisiana and Florida and he hopes it will catch on in Alabama.