Pensacola, Fla.,None — WFTV went to Pensacola Beach Friday and found much of the oil is just being covered up, rather than being picked up. One of the worst beaches in all of Pensacola is now covered with clean up workers, but is it too little too late?
On Monday, WFTV's cameras captured huge pools of oil just sitting on the beach with no workers cleaning up anything. Friday, WFTV dug into the sand to find that oil is now layered six inches or more into the sand.
"That's amazing that it would be even that deep," Pensacola resident Joan Comblidge said.
Comblidge went to see the contamination for the first time Friday. The white sands are now brown after the oil was covered over with more sand, a fix that didn't work very well.
WFTV reporter Steve Barrett saw oil slick in the waves as they moved. He also noticed crews, who are supposed to be cleaning the mess up, just sitting there. About 100 yards away, a federal park was still covered with oil pools and the U.S. Parks Service admits they're overwhelmed by oil.
"We can't get all of it, because we can't possibly get that many people out there. It takes a while," said Adrianna Hirtler, National Parks Service.
WFTV wanted to know what the effect of that much oil layers on our beaches is.
"We just don't know, because we haven't experienced anything quite like this before," Hirtler said.
After three days at a standstill due to Hurricane Alex, some skimmer ships were finally able to get back out on the water Friday and start scooping up oil in the Gulf.
Friday is the 74th day the oil has been flowing from the well that ruptured. The government estimates more than 140 million gallons of crude oil have spilled into the water since the April explosion.
WFTV
