Oil hitting Alabama beaches worst yet since spill

By JAY REEVES and RAY HENRY
The Associated Press
Saturday, June 12, 2010; 12:14 PM ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Alabama’s beaches took their worst hit yet from an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday as globs of crude and gooey tar – some the size of pancakes – lined the white sands and crews worked to try to keep a giant oil sheen just a few miles away from reaching the shore. Scientists have estimated that anywhere between about 40 million gallons to 109 million gallons of oil have gushed into the Gulf since a drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The oil washing up on Alabama’s shores was the heaviest since the rig explosion and came just as the summer beach season was picking up. During a flight over the Gulf, Sean Brumley, an aerial spotter, said he saw an oily sheen and brown patches of oil floating for miles off the Alabama coast. Boats trying to remove the oil before it hit the coast worked about three miles out. “The Gulf looks like it has chicken pox,” Brumley said. The oily sheen covered the pass leading into Perdido Bay near the Alabama-Florida state lines. Globs of brown oil floated in the still water at a marina despite miles of boom that were meant to prevent oil from reaching inshore waters. Tony Tingle, of Trussville, said it was even worse the evening before. “It was actually crude oil, not tar balls. All the cleaning crews flooded in. The skimming boats came in pretty quickly, helicopters were circling, and a bunch of boats came in. It smelled like a machine shop,” Tingle said. … The slow movement of the oil and constant preparations for its arrival were taking toll on beach residents. “It’s like waiting for someone to die from cancer,” said Greg Hall, who walks the beach each morning. …

Oil hitting Ala. beaches worst yet since spill