Oil And Hurricanes: What About This Year?

If a tropical storm or hurricane were to hit the Gulf Coast, would we have to worry about oil on our beaches from last year's spill?

That's what mayors of area communities like Dauphin Island would like to know.

Alabama mayors said they were not invited to take part in planning for this type of situation.

The Coast Guard, BP officials, and FEMA held a meeting in New Orleans Wednesday to talk about that possibility.

But, mayors, like Dauphin Island's Jeff Collier, said they weren't invited.

Collier said, "I was made aware of it (the meeting) just in the last day or two. I wish we could have been invited, because, I think, we being on the front line, we deal more hands-on, when we have such a thing as a hurricane or a tropical storm."

The mayors of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores said they weren't invited, either.

Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said, "We've been asking for a meeting and for answers since last July, and we can't get them to do anything, and, they finally have a meeting and, they don't invite the folks who actually have first-hand experience with clean-up."

Collier and the other mayors said they had a number of questions they would like to have asked at that meeting.

Collier said, "The concern that we may have, oil and oil debris, mixed in to that hurricane debris, would put a whole new spin on things. How do you handle it? How do you collect it? Where do you dispose of it? Obviously, the cost would probably go up."

Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Kraft said, "If we get a churned up Gulf, the tar balls get worse, and, if we get a storm, it's going to be dramatically worse: that's the assumption. And, it will be moved further inland."

Kennon said, "We need a plan, and we don't need to start work on the plan the day after the storm, or the night of a storm. It needs to be in place."

Collier said he expects state environmental officials to tell him and the other mayors what came out of the meeting.

He said "I'm hopeful that they came up with some conclusions today, because, we are right in the middle of storm season, and we need to get these answers as soon as possible so that,,if we have an event, we'll know how to react."