Key West tar balls not from Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill, Coast Guard says

By Press-Register staff
May 19, 2010, 10:03AM KEY WEST, Fla. — The Coast Guard Marine Safety Laboratory in New London, Conn. analyzed a sampling of tar balls discovered on Florida Keys shoreline Tuesday and determined that none of the collected samples are from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill, officials said in a news release this morning. A sampling of tar balls discovered on beaches at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, Fla., Smathers Beach in Key West, Big Pine Key, Fla., and Loggerhead Key in the Dry Tortugas National Park, Fla. were flown by a Coast Guard HU-25 Falcon jet based in Miami, Fla., to New London, Conn. Tuesday for testing and analysis. The results of those tests conclusively show that the tar balls collected from Florida Keys beaches do not match the type of oil from the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said. The source of the tar balls remains unknown at this time. Capt. Pat DeQuattro, commanding officer of the Coast Guard’s Sector Key West, authorized the use of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to commence cleanups of any oil pollution on Florida Keys shoreline and established a Unified Command comprised of various agencies that will respond to the incident. The public is asked to report the sighting of any tar balls to the U.S. Coast Guard at 1 (800) 424-8802. Any oiled shorelines can be reported to 1 (866) 448-5816. Coast Guard officials cautioned that tar balls are a hazardous material, which, while not dangerous to most people, can cause an allergic reaction and should only be retrieved by trained personnel. All beaches on the Florida Keys remain open.