Jackson Free Press

More than two months after the Deepwater Horizon sank in the Gulf of Mexico and millions of gallons of oil began spewing into the waters, on Sunday, Mississippi began to feel the pain of its neighboring states as tar balls and blobs of oil washed onto her shores. Oil was reported in Jackson County near Ocean Springs, on the beach in Pascagoula and Biloxi, and "masses and streams" of oil showed up south of Pascagoula in the Mississippi sound, reports The Sun Herald.

Until late last week, the state had not seen oil on its beaches through a combination of wind, tides and barrier islands. The streak of luck ended when a large patch of oil entered the Sound despite the best efforts of a fleet of boats and aircraft watching for it, ready to begin clean up efforts.

"The amount of oil moving into Mississippi waters has greatly increased in the last several days, and the prevailing winds that cause the oil and its residue to move in our direction are predicted to continue—at least until the middle of the week," Gov. Haley Barbour said in a statement. "We continue to press the federal Unified Command and BP to increase the amount of resources available to attack the oil beginning as far south as possible, through the passes, into the Sound, and in the mouths of the bays.

Funding for coast clean-up operations are in the hands of BP, and state officials and the Coast Guard waited Sunday for BP contractors to arrive.

"We cannot clean up or catch the oil until BP gets here. They have all of our people," Earl Etheridge, a spokesman for Mississippi's Department of Environmental Quality told Reuters. "We want to clean this up now. Maybe this will amp up BP's effort but we can't do anything because they have all the money."

Previous Comments

ID

158377

Comment

So, Mr. Barbour, is it this or is it that????

Author

justjess

Date

2010-06-28T10:13:09-06:00