Okaloosa County Seizing Control of Oil Spill Response

Frustrated with attempts to respond to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Okaloosa County has voted to give itself the ability to do whatever is needed to protect its beaches and waters, without federal or state approval or approval from British Petroleum. This means the county will need to rely mostly on its own money and is leaving itself open to litigation from federal or state authorities.

County Commission Chairman Wayne Harris told Sunshine State News that Mike Sole, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said the state would still be willing to work with the county. He said the County Commission, which voted on the decision last night, has not received word on collaboration from the federal Deepwater Horizon Response Unified Command based in Mobile, Ala.

Right now, the county is preparing to protect the east pass to the Choctawhatchee Bay with barges, an airwall of bubbles that costs $16,500 daily, a slipnet that filters oil from water and a boom, which costs $2.8 million monthly to maintain. The Northwest Florida Daily News reports the airwall alone costs $200,000.

Harris said this will probably affect the county's chances to get BP to compensate it for its spill-response efforts.

"We're probably going to have to sue to do it, but we'll do whatever it takes," Harris said.