Locals express frustration at Oil Spill Summit in panhandle

Locals express frustration at Oil Spill Summit in panhandle

TURKEY POINT – A massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico drifted farther away from Florida’s Northwest coast over the weekend, giving emergency responders and local officials more time to prepare.

After an intense, two-hour meeting attended by a handful of officials from mostly rural Panhandle counties, it was clear they’re going to need it.

“We have a lot of unknowns that continue to haunt us,” said Scott Nelson, Wakulla County’s director of emergency management. “This event leaves us with no local expertise.”

Sponsored by Our Region Tomorrow, a group that includes eight North Florida and two South Georgia counties, the meeting drew anxious officials to a standing room only conference center at Florida State University’s Coastal & Marine Laboratory.

County emergency management directors, used to calling the shots in local disasters, are bristling at a unified command structure that has the U.S. Coast Guard, the Division of Emergency Management and BP, the company responsible for the April 20 spill, signing off on local response plans.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Steve Caskey and a top DEP administrator listened patiently while the locals vented their frustration.

Franklin County Commissioner Pinki Jackel said her board reviewed a unified command response plan for her county, found it lacking, and formed a contingency action committee that identified more fragile areas that need protection with booms.

The county submitted its plan last week to the DEP but has yet to hear back.

“As locals, we’re not going to take a back seat,” Jackel said. “We know best how to take care of Franklin County.”

DEP director of legislative affairs Cameron Cooper said that Secretary Mike Sole has given everyone marching orders to respond to requests within 24 hours.

“You said 24 hours, in front of all of these witnesses in this room,” she said. “We’re going to hold you to it.”

Former Tallahassee mayor Scott Maddox, who is running for agriculture commissioner on an anti-drilling platform, questioned BP’s role in the response.

“I think it’s unprecedented that at a time of a national disaster, a private company is making the decisions,” Maddox said. “We don’t do that with hurricanes.”