Traces from barge accident remain embedded in marsh
WEST FALMOUTH — Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Chris Reddy rammed a plastic cylinder into the sticky mud of the Wild Harbor salt marsh and extracted 6 inches of muck.
“Smell this,’’ he said, taking a whiff. There, faint but unmistakable, was the stench of oil.
It’s been more than 40 years since the oil barge Florida ran aground on a foggy night in Buzzards Bay, spilling close to 200,000 gallons of fuel. Some of it is still there.
At the time of the 1969 spill, lobsters, clams, and fish died by the thousands, but most people thought the harm would be temporary, reflecting what was then the conventional wisdom.
Now, as the first tendrils of heavy oil from the leaking
No two spills and no two coastlines are the same, but the long-studied Falmouth spill has helped scientists understand the vulnerability of marshland and prepare for oil disasters that coat wetlands, ooze down crab burrows, and kill the nurseries of numerous marine species
Read more-- http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2010/05/21/gulf_oil_spill_revives_capes_1969_nightmare/
Article courtesy of The Boston Globe-The Green Blog by Beth Daley-Globe Staff
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