Oil spill update

The stories in the paper this morning indicate that the oil spill in Buzzards bay, while bad, is not likely to be the disaster feared. At the same time, it is having far reaching effects. One report that surprised me was that eggs in two piping plovers nest on Horseneck Beach had oil on them. I have yet to see any nests or eggs - that is, usually they are fenced off when found and I haven't seen the fencing up yet so I assumed there were no nests yet.

I can't imagine the oil getting on the eggs directly, since the nest are on the beach, but above the high water mark. Obviously the oil could get on a plover and then be transferred to the eggs. So does this mean the oil actually reached Horseneck? (I saw no sign of it yesterday.) Or does it mean the birds flew to where the oil is? (I didn't know they ranged that far afield while nesting - I assumed they fed near the nests. For a bird on Horseneck the nearest obvious oil is Barney's Joy and that's a couple miles away.

This spill dumped 15,000 gallons of thick oil in a relatively quiet bay with lots of sensitive estuaries. That could spell disaster, but the amount spilled was relatively small. (A spill in Rhode Island a few years ago was closer to 250,000 gallons - but that spill was in the ocean with more wave action to dissipate it.) One good thing about this spill was the thickness of the oil. It seems to make it a little harder to spread and a little easier to find and clean.

In the final analysis, however, it makes you think every time you consider driving a car or turning up the thermostat. And one of the interesting sidelights to all this is that people here have been debating the establishment of a windmill farm in nearby Nantucket Sound. People are concerned that the windmills, built in the water, would be an eyesore and environmental threat. Perhaps so - but they would provide a renewable source of energy that would lessen the need for oil-carrying barges to wend their way through sensitive area such as Buzzard's Bay.

Posted by Greg Stone at April 30, 2003 07:36 AM