(GULF SHORES, Ala.) For weeks, we've seen little to no oil impact on our local beaches, but now LOCAL 15 News is investigating what is lurking beneath the surface. To the naked eye, the sand on our portion of the Gulf Coast appears to be relatively clean, after weeks of oil sludge washing up. But when the sun goes down, and a black light is turned on it's another story.
Walking along the beach during the day or shining a light on it at night, you can see that there is oil in the sand but shine a black light on it at night, and you see how much is beneath the surface. Geologists say everything that you see is glowing is oil.
Curious about our night time science project, sisters Trisha and Trina, who are vacationing in Gulf Shores, walked over to see what we were shining our lights at. When we explained what was glowing.
"Eeewww! Look at the dust!" said Trina Davis. "See! See that all over your feet? I didn't realize I had oil on my feet! It's kind of deceiving because it looks clean, but obviously when you look at our feet and you dig down there, it's not. It's just clean on the surface."
Coastal Geologist Ping Wang and his team from the University of South Florida are studying the oil spill's effects and showing us their startling findings. Though thousands of BP workers have combed our local beaches to pick the oil up, much of it is left behind. Buried a foot and half deep, we find streaks of oil. Wang says the bottom, thick layer is what Hurricane Alex deposited.
"What does this say about the clean up efforts on the beach?" asked LOCAL 15 News reporter Andrea Ramey. "Not good," said Wang. "The beach is not clean. This is going to stay here for quite a while."
On the surface, geologists say clean up crews have pulverized tar balls, leaving behind small pieces only visible with our UV rays.
"The bad part is, we don't really know if this dust of oil that mixed with the sand has any health concerns," said Coastal Geologist Rip Kirby. "We're still investigating. I wouldn't put a two year old out on the beach to let him put his sandy fingers in his mouth."
The geologists say they are taking samples of the sand and testing to see if any toxins are present. We'll let you know what they find. A BP spokesperson says different options are being reviewed but a solution on how to remove the oil has not been made.
