Surviving the Spill: A Community Comes Together
By Emily Lullo
Pensacola has a long history of resilience. When hardships hit this seaside town—be it hurricane damage or economic instability—the community has always found ways to band together to ease the burden of hardship on the greater community by mobilizing relief efforts directly after a disaster. The aftermath of the Gulf oil spill has been no exception. Almost immediately following the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, local individuals, families and businesses started asking what they could do to improve the situation in the Gulf of Mexico.
Local groups, individuals and businesses quickly began to take action. Some focused on cleanup and volunteer efforts, others sought to educate the public. Individuals formed groups to voice their opinions to area officials. Some groups have even sent representatives to Washington D.C. to lobby on their behalf to pass bills that would work for a rapid transition to cleaner energy, highlighting the disastrous effects of dependence on oil. Other groups and people have focused efforts on the more immediate issues.
One group that has stepped forward in the effort to raise funds and awareness for a variety of victims is Cox Cable. Cox’s human resources director Sheila Nichols says Cox employees are a community-oriented group, and many came to her asking what they could do to help with the situation in the Gulf. Employees’ activism combined with Nichols’ research and ended up forming a huge relief effort for the Gulf Coast propelled by volunteers.
“In early May, employees came to me and really wanted to get involved. They wanted volunteer to do beach cleanups, and they wanted to help with the animals that could potentially be impacted or have us create events that could assist monetarily in helping with long term rehabilitation of the animals as well as other victims,” says Nichols.
After doing some research, she found opportunities for Cox employees to train to work on the beach as well as looking for other opportunities to help. One of the first major actions she took was organizing a supply drive for the Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida and the Wildlife Refuge of the Emerald Coast.
Tristate Bird Rescue was contracted by BP to work with birds impacted by the oil, so Cox got a list of needed supplies and provided it to the public. The response only got bigger and broader from that point, when Cox Florida joined forces with its Louisiana counterpart to form the Save Our Shores Gulf Relief Fund, which is a multifaceted effort that works on everything from wildlife impact to educational and awareness campaigns.
The three components of Save Our Shores are assisting victims of the spill, creating unique events for fundraising, education and awareness, and providing opportunities for volunteering. Social networking has played a huge role in Cox’s and the SOS response. Though the group started out as a vehicle for employees and locals to respond to the oil spill, it rapidly became a starting point for people from around the country who wanted to help.
“Since the list was published on the SOS Facebook, and we’ve also been Twittering the needs, people from across the country have been calling to see what they can do,” Nichols says.
An example of this is Brandon Boyd, a car dealership owner from eastern Virginia, who called Nichols to see how he could assist. He created a full media campaign through the dealership to collect wildlife supplies for sanctuaries and had delivered two Uhauls stuffed with items like cat and dog food, bird seed, canned vegetables, paper towels and dishwashing and laundry detergent. Walgreens also held a nationwide drive for supplies at stores and collected items for the cause.
SOS also takes monetary donations, which can be made through the website, or even just by texting 27722 to make a $10 contribution, which so far has raised more that $10,000. SOS has joined with the Cox systems in Phoenix, Tuscon, Kansas, Arkansas, Omaha and Virginia have joined the effort by running a public service announcement featuring New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees to promote the effort.
“Those funds will be utilized to aid victims of the oil spill like fishermen and charter boat captains, and the money will be distributed through a non-profit,” says Nichols. “It’s to assist individuals and businesses that are most impacted by the oil spill.”
SOS has also hosted many unique events to educate and raise awareness to the general public, as well as hosting free family events to thank volunteers for their efforts in the cleanup. More events are planned for the future, as Nichols says the group will continue to work toward a clean, safe Gulf.
“We’re in this for the long haul,” she says.
When the leak was capped, residents breathed a collective sigh of relief, but there is still plenty of work for weary residents. Some are looking to the future of energy in the U.S., after this blatant reminder of the dangers of continued reckless use of fossil fuels.
Chasidy Fisher Hobbs is the Emerald Coastkeeper and an instructor at the University of West Florida. An organization called Clean Energy Works organized a trip to Washington, D.C., and groups went to talk to different legislators about transitioning to cleaner energy, using the oil spill as a springboard for discussion on the devastating effects of oil dependence.
“We were going in hopes that a comprehensive climate and energy bill was going to be brought to the floor to vote,” she says. “Unfortunately, we learned just before leaving that they weren’t going to bring the comprehensive bill, but it looks like they will be voting on several smaller bills.”
Hobbs says she knows it would be impractical to insist legislators stop the use of fossil fuels altogether, but she feels that fossil fuels could be used more responsibly and that now is the time to start working toward a nation of clean energy technology.
Hobbs’ role as Coastkeeper has changed over the last few months. When the spill first began pouring oil into the Gulf, she worked to push for volunteer training and also attending meetings to fight for a local contingency plan that was better fitted for the needs of this event than the one that had initially been in use by the U.S. Coast Guard and BP.
“Our area contingency plan was created in the early nineties with very little input from locals,” she says. “So Escambia County came up with a better plan that was much more protective of our inland resources. The plan was to cut the oil off at the passes.”
Once that plan was accepted, her role became to spread information and educate the public through community meetings. Hobbs is still working on behalf of the Gulf by continuing to provide informational resources and working with other Coastkeepers along the Gulf on a campaign to try to get the EPA to remove chemical dispersants from its list of approved means of dealing with an oil spill. Hobbs also continues to do presentations for groups, send information to her email list and hand out copies of Sound Truth & Corporate Myth, a book about the Exxon-Valdez oil spill by marine toxicologist Riki Ott, who Hobbs calls “the Erin Brockovich of Exxon-Valdez.”
Randy McGuffin is another important name in the effort to clean oil from our fragile water systems. He works for local company DO2E and almost a decade ago, he invented a machine that aerates bodies of water. Originally intended for aquaculture purposes, the High Volume Floating Aerator is built with no moving parts to essentially suck in water from below the surface, oxygenate it, and push the oxygenated water out nearer to the water’s surface. Adding more oxygen to waterways is not only beneficial to sea life in that it makes conditions more viable for plants and animals, it also forms a wall of the moving water in front of the contraption.
It’s this “water curtain” that has piqued the interest of area officials, because when placed at the entrance of especially vulnerable waterways in Escambia County like the entrances to Little Sabine or Bayou Texar, the machines can effectively keep any oil from passing by. What’s more, the oxygenating effects of the contraption can actually benefit local waterways even when the oil spill is no longer a threat.
A demonstration of the system in action was recently conducted at the entrance to Little Sabine Bayou in Pensacola, Fla. BP Execs were on site and plan to take it to Washington for approval by the DOD for military use in oil spill clean-up internationally. Dr. Kirk O’Reilly, Managing Scientist for BP & Exponent Corp was also on site to view the system and he will be charged with introducing it to the DOD. Dr. O’Reilly is a recognized expert in bioremediation, environmental chemistry, and innovative remedial technologies.
The Gulf of Mexico has proximity both physical and deeply emotional to residents of the Gulf Coast, which speaks to why so many have stepped forward to protect this precious resource. It’s the proverbial backyard of Pensacola, a source of local delicacies as well as of deep-rooted pride. In a city that’s rebuilt after destruction and bounced back from adversity so many times, it’s no surprise that a threat to the Gulf and beaches has galvanized so many to take action. The Gulf may have been marred by oil, but this tragedy has shown light once again on a brighter side of Pensacola: a community of survivors, caretakers and fighters who will guide it to a greater future.