{"id":35945,"date":"2014-04-11T09:45:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T14:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=35945"},"modified":"2014-04-11T12:43:19","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T17:43:19","slug":"experts-fear-impacts-of-oil-cleanup-on-texas-gulf-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/04\/11\/experts-fear-impacts-of-oil-cleanup-on-texas-gulf-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts Fear Impacts of Oil Cleanup on Texas Gulf Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_35958\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Workers scraped oil-drenched sand from the beaches of Matagorda Island.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P1120973.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-35958\" alt=\"Workers scraped oil-drenched sand from the beaches of Matagorda Island.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P1120973-620x465.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P1120973-620x465.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P1120973-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Mose Buchele<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers scraping oil-drenched sand from the beaches of Matagorda Island.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>MATAGORDA ISLAND, TX &#8212; Recovery efforts continue weeks after a barge accident in the Houston Ship Channel dumped tens of thousands of barrels of oil into Galveston Bay. That oil kills wildlife and damages the environment. But some are worried the cleanup itself could also disturb the ecosystem along the Texas Gulf Coast. Nowhere is that threat more apparent than in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fws.gov\/refuge\/aransas\/\">Aransas National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Every morning this week, hundreds of workers have gone out to\u00a0Matagorda Island, a part of that refuge, to try to remove the oil. On a recent tour organized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the response team appeared to work with great care, gingerly scraping thin layers of oil-drenched sand away with shovels, then depositing it into nearby excavators for delivery into larger dump trucks. Over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.khou.com\/news\/texas-news\/Oil-spill-clean-up-Ten-tons-removed-from-Matagorda-Island-254301561.html\">ten tons of sand<\/a> has been removed so far.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/144229217&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_artwork=true\"><\/iframe>Randal Ogrydziak, the U.S. Coast Guard captain who is one of the coordinators of the spill response, likens the painstaking process to shoveling a gravel driveway after a snow storm.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u201cYou can think of it as the snow is the oil &#8212; not that thick &#8212; the driveway is the good sand underneath, and you just want to take bad stuff and get rid of that, and leave the good sand,&#8221; Ogrydziak says. &#8220;We don\u2019t want to dig up the whole beach here. That\u2019s not what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35966\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Randal Ogrydziak, the US Coast Guard Captain who is one of the coordinators of the spill \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P1120978.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35966\" alt=\"Randal Ogrydziak, the US Coast Guard Captain who is one of the coordinators of the spill \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P1120978-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P1120978-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P1120978-620x465.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Mose Buchele<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Randal Ogrydziak, the US Coast Guard Captain who is one of the coordinators of the spill<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ogrydziak&#8217;s concern that the cleanup could do &#8220;more damage than the oil&#8221; is not limited to the sand.\u00a0This thin barrier island, like the rest of the National Wildlife Refuge, is not meant for people. Now it&#8217;s home to ATVs, bobcat excavators, dump trucks, helicopters, and hundreds of response personnel. They \u2013 and the oil \u2013 all arrived right as migratory animals are passing through on their annual trip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe oil spill could not have happened at a worse time,&#8221; says\u00a0Nancy Brown, a spokesperson for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. \u201cYou have these birds that have migrated literally across the Gulf of Mexico. They arrive here, they are exhausted, [and] all they want to do is get something to eat, get something to drink, rest, and then continue their migration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Brown says if they\u2019re constantly being disturbed by the cleanup activity, &#8220;they\u2019re not only not eating, they\u2019re wasting calories trying to get away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They can also be spooked from their nests by the activity, leaving eggs and young animals vulnerable to predators. Workers here say they\u2019re doing their best by limiting trips to and from the island, being careful with vehicles, and enforcing a \u201cflight ceiling\u201d on helicopters so they don\u2019t disturb the birds.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35968\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"After the oil was pushed ashore, it was covered by a layer of sand, making it more difficult to detect.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P11209901.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35968\" alt=\"After the oil was pushed ashore, it was covered by a layer of sand, making it more difficult to detect.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P11209901-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P11209901-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/04\/P11209901-620x465.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Mose Buchele<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">After the oil was pushed ashore, it was covered by a layer of sand, making it more difficult to detect.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Of particular concern is the endangered whooping crane. This refuge is home to the only naturally-occurring flock of those birds in the world. Around 300 whooping cranes winter here, and many have not yet left for their summer grounds in Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Right as the cranes leave, the Kemps-Ridley sea turtle arrives. That\u2019s also an endangered species. It lays its eggs on the same beaches \u2013 now oily beaches \u2013 where the response crews are working with excavators and dump trucks to remove the oil.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Edwardson, a Fish and Wildlife Biologist, says it will be difficult to measure the full impact of the spill and the recovery efforts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever understand it,&#8221; says Edwardson. &#8220;There\u2019s some stuff to document and it\u2019s easy to document. But there\u2019s also the potential for oil to be here for years, so it&#8217;s possibly going to be an ongoing response.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MATAGORDA ISLAND, TX &#8212; Recovery efforts continue weeks after a barge accident in the Houston Ship Channel dumped tens of thousands of barrels of oil into Galveston Bay. That oil kills wildlife and damages the environment. But some are worried the cleanup itself could also disturb the ecosystem along the Texas Gulf Coast. Nowhere is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[132,376,102,90,176],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35945"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35974,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35945\/revisions\/35974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}