rss
mobile
Feeds
But putting a plan into action before the oil gets here is not really an option, some officials add.
"There are any number of things that can be done with an oil spill. The number one thing being booms," said Paul Rasch, emergency management coordinator for the Town of Hilton Head Island. "But to put those out well in advance, in the open ocean, is not really a viable thing."
Spokesmen for S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the U.S. Coast Guard station in Charleston said their agencies are not yet actively preparing for the oil's arrival. If the time comes, both said their agencies have plans for containing oil spills that would be put into effect.
But relying on existing emergency plans was not good enough for members of the state's House of Representatives who adopted a resolution last week requiring DHEC to draw up a plan specifically for oil coming from the Deepwater Horizon spill.
"This is going to have to be a statewide preparation," said Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, who sponsored the resolution. "This is not some shrimp boat that sank. We are going to have to prepare like we have never prepared before."
For some worried about Beaufort County's coast, part of waiting to see what happens is hoping nothing does.
"We have to look at the experiences and what others have faced and learn from their actions," said Jeff Atkins, park manager at Hunting Island State Park. "Most of all, we just have to keep hoping and praying that it doesn't come this way."
A state oceanographer said last week that current conditions in the gulf and the geological features of the state's coast make it unlikely oil will arrive anytime soon, despite a dire model released Thursday by the National Center for Atmospheric Research that suggested oil could spread up the East Coast.
Oil would have to enter three different currents to get close to our waters. Even if it gets that far, South Carolina's coast might be less vulnerable than other areas because the Gulf Stream, which runs along the continental shelf, is relatively far away -- 50 to 60 miles offshore -- according to Sasha Yankovsky, physical oceanographer and assistant professor at the University of South Carolina.
But local conservationists say the oil would not need to reach Beaufort County's shores to damage the local environment and economy.
"The main concern is there could be a massive die-off of wildlife," said Carlos Chacon, manager of natural history at the Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head. "It would obviously be devastating for the area, as it has been for New Orleans. Everything they have there, we have here."
David Harter, president of the Hilton Head Island Sportfishing Club and vice president of the island's Reef Foundation, said the north-flowing Gulf Stream brushes against waters closer to shore and creates a rip line teeming with ocean life. Weeds and debris accumulate along the rip line and resemble floating reefs.
"They can go down hundreds of feet," he said. "If the oil comes here, where do you think it's going to go? Into the rip lines."
Harter said juvenile sea turtles and deep-sea fish also make their homes in these floating masses of weeds because of the nutrients concentrated there.
Boats passing through the Gulf Stream, storms or strong winds from the southeast also could bring oil closer to land, according to Harter and Yankovsky.
Local and state emergency responders say there is little to do now but wait and see.
"It's just like when a storm forms off the tip of Africa," added Todd Ferguson, Beaufort County's emergency management director, who began watching the Atlantic Ocean for tropical storm activity as the hurricane season opened this week. "I'm monitoring it then; whether it approaches or dissipates, I'm monitoring it."
Ferguson added that his agency would follow the lead of the U.S. Coast Guard and DHEC. Whatever support those agencies requested would dictate the actions Ferguson's staff would take.
