Goo is gone, but worries about oil's effects aren't

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The once-blackened beaches are white again and enticing visitors to wiggle their toes in the sand.

Most of the signs of the nation's worst oil disaster have gone. The memories of thousands of dead birds, dolphins and turtles along the Gulf coast are just that - memories of an environmental nightmare that turned into an economic one as well.

Giant mining-type machines that tried to get the gunk out of the sand have gone, replaced by workers on foot or all-terrain vehicles.

What remains from 205 million gallons of crude - the occasional tar ball on the sand and tar mats lurking in the water - is "a minor inconvenience," officials say. It's nothing like the disaster it was last year as spring became summer.

As businesses try to get back to normal nearly a year later, the weather is perfect. Beaches are packed. Business again is booming.

"Spirits are high," said Gordon Goodin, a former commissioner in Santa Rosa County. "Everybody is looking forward to a great summer. We're on the way to good times."

Then again, those are the same kinds of thoughts folks in the Panhandle were experiencing 12 months ago before the Deepwater Horizon well blew out April 20. The explosion killed 11 workers and sent a torrent of oil spewing into the sea for months, fouling scores of miles of beaches.

"We felt exactly this way a year ago, and then it was like somebody turned off the lights at the end of the month," Goodin said.

BP continues to work with those whose lives were touched by the oil.

As of last week, the company had paid $3.8 billion in damages to people and businesses along the coast - $1.5 billion in Florida. Yet officials in Florida, including Gov. Rick Scott, have been criticized for not being aggressive enough in pursuing damages from the oil company.

BP and Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer who has handled the $20 billion claims pot for the company since August, have come under fire.

They have been criticized for a lack of transparency and for dragging their feet on processing claims. The attorney general in Mississippi has accused Feinberg of being slow on claims to force people to settle with a quick-pay option that includes a promise not to sue.

Feinberg, whose monthly salary from BP has jumped from $850,000 to $1.25 million, and other oil company officials have denied those allegations.

Keith Overton, president of TradeWinds Island Resorts on St. Pete Beach, has spoken highly of Feinberg in the past. But he's still waiting on more money to flow from BP.

His company received $1.2 million last year in an emergency payment. But condominium owners at the resort haven't been reimbursed, he said, and the hotel still is negotiating its final settlement.

"We're not even close," Overton said of the gap between the TradeWinds and BP claims adjusters. He wishes the two sides could reach a resolution soon.

"We'd love to get back to worrying about the future instead of the past."

He's not the only one.

Fred Simmons is still waiting to be made whole.

Nearly a year after oil invaded the white sands of Pensacola Beach, Simmons is struggling on several financial fronts.

After all, visitors to the beach are his life. They put money in his pocket and food on his table. They help pay his bills.

They stay in his hotel and at his beach houses. They eat and drink at his bar and grill. Some even fall in love with his piece of paradise and buy a house from him to stay forever.

"I wish it had never happened," Simmons said of the BP disaster. "It was going to be a record year for us. It's been tough to swallow."

Simmons has received about $300,000 to compensate for his revenue shortfalls. But he says he is due a lot more.

"Totally, I am due another million bucks in actual documented losses," he said. "I hate to get into litigation. That would be two or three or five years down the road or 20 years, like the Valdez."

He may have no choice, however. He is tired of waiting.

"They're claiming they are going to make us whole," he said. "I'll believe it when I see it. It's this forever wait."

Simmons has defaulted on some of his loans, and his credit has taken a hit because of that.

That may result in another claim against BP.

"A big part of my business in real estate is buying properties," he said. "I don't have the ability to go and borrow money anymore.

"What's a man's credit worth?" Simmons asked. "I don't know how you put a number on it."

When it comes to numbers, many of them in Escambia County are up this year.

Proceeds from the toll booth to get onto Pensacola Beach are way up, said Buck Lee, executive director of the Santa Rosa Island Authority.

The same is true for island fees, which in February climbed 49 percent from the same period last year. Those are fees assessed to beachgoers whether they are staying in a hotel, buying a bathing suit or eating a fish sandwich.

"We think our March figures are going to be just as good," Lee said.

Sixteen cleanup workers are on duty in the morning and another 16 in the afternoon, in case oil turns up, the authority official said.

"Right now, our beach is beautiful. It's white," Lee said. "It's maybe the cleanest it's ever been. It's in great shape."

During March, residents from 48 states stopped by the beach visitors center.

"The people coming in aren't asking about the oil or anything," he said. "They are asking about where to eat."

Since the oil debacle began, two hotels have opened. Hotel executives say they are seeing more advance reservations than before.

"They realize the oil is gone from our sand," Lee said. "They can swim in the Gulf."

Most of the oil may seem to be gone, but the studies continue, and many questions remain.

Researchers at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg and Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota are trying to figure out the ramifications of more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf.

The university, which linked hidden underwater plumes of oil far below the surface to the BP spill, still sends research vessels out to sea. Mote has automated vehicles cruising the Gulf floor looking for signs of oil.

The vehicles haven't turned up any evidence of oil, said Kumar Mahadevan, president of Mote.

"I think it's a big unknown," he said of the effects. "Long-term impacts are the ones that are going to bite us. Those are not easy to track."

A good example, Mahadevan said, is what happened to the herring fishery in Alaska after the 1989 Valdez spill. It took three years for signs to show that the population had been seriously affected, he added.

"We have a lot of fisheries here that immediately you won't know about," he said. The underwater vehicles roam around in water that is just 100 feet or 200 feet deep. They can't get into the deep canyons of the Gulf, where some people fear that oil - and an environmental nightmare - might loom.

Mote scientists continue to conduct studies. One is checking out the effects on sharks. Another is trying to look at oil and sediments. Still others are worried about the coming sea turtle nesting season.

"It will take a few years for us to figure out the impact," Mahadevan said. "I think it is too early to say what the impact has been."

Carol Dover has seen enough BP newspaper advertisements and television commercials to last a lifetime.

As the one-year anniversary of the oil disaster nears, the company is saturating markets with messages meant to improve its tainted image.

BP says it is committed to restoring the Gulf and the environment, and helping to rebuild the economy. It also talks about learning from its mistakes.

"This was a tragedy that never should have happened," one newspaper advertisement reads. "Our responsibility is to learn from it and share with competitors, partners and regulators to help ensure that it never happens again. We know we haven't always been perfect, but we are working to live up to our commitments, both now and in the future."

Dover, the president and chief executive officer of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, wishes BP would steer more money toward marketing the entire state, not just Northwest Florida, which received a pledge of $30 million recently from the oil giant.

"I get sick and tired of seeing their commercials of all the great deeds they are doing," Dover said. "It's pretty disheartening. I appreciate they have to build their brand, but they could build ours while they build theirs at the same time."

Future advertising, Dover said, is crucial. After all, tourism officials don't know how many people decided last year to go to another vacation destination, such as Myrtle Beach, S.C., where Dover said business was up 300 percent.

The fear is they may fall in love with the new place and never come back to Florida.

"That will be critical," Dover said of the advertising effort down the road. "That will be the lifeblood. If we don't keep the money coming in, that will be catastrophic. We have a brand to rebuild. We do have concerns that the brand got damaged."

Keith Rupp has worked as a television producer in Tampa and for three former members of Congress.

Now he's working for BP, trying to get the word out that the company is committed to righting its wrongs.

He's a spokesman for the Florida branch of the Gulf Coast Restoration Organization in Mary Esther in Okaloosa County.

"The key message we have is we're here," Rupp said. "We've created this organization to fulfill long-term commitments."

He lists the positive things that BP has done since the well explosion: There was $32 million paid to promote advertising in Florida last year; $20 million over three years to make sure the seafood is safe; $10 million for a National Institutes of Health study; $3 million to the state Department of Children and Families to examine mental health; and $30 million announced recently to bolster marketing of the Northwest Florida counties hit hardest by the oil.

Rupp discounts those who criticize the company for spending money on its own advertising.

"The company has a responsibility to promote messages about itself," he said.

He said it is hard to track how many people may have skipped Florida vacations and damaged those in the hotel and tourism industry along the Gulf seashore.

"We want to make sure that everything is driven by data," Rupp said. "We're looking at bed-tax receipts, who is here, how long."

He said trouble spots with oil remain in Escambia County.

"The number of tar balls has really decreased dramatically," Rupp said.

There are also tar mats offshore. Some are the size of a tabletop, others the size of a mattress.

He admits he's not sure which is more important to focus on in the recovery, the economy or the environment.

"There's no way to say one is more important than the other," he said. "We are committed to both aspects."

D.T. Minich is worried about the flashback effect this week.

The executive director of Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater knows the media will descend upon the white sands of Panhandle beaches to do anniversary stories on the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

File images of blackened beaches and oiled birds again will be broadcast to homes across the country and the world.

"I'm worried ... about how far and wide and deep the coverage goes," Minich said. "That is what is very worrisome for me. We know it's coming. We know it's inevitable."

Just like when the oil first started flowing, he worries that potential visitors in Europe or other overseas locations will associate the onetime stain of Northwest Florida with the Tampa Bay area as well. Or the entire state.

"We have had a really good winter season, but we are concerned about the anniversary and the resurge on the misperception that things were affected down here," Minich said.

He's also troubled by the $30 million heading only toward the counties most affected by the oil.

"That shouldn't be used to market just those seven," he said. "That should be used for a bounce-back for all of Florida. Those seven counties will just market in their drive market, which doesn't do anything for us.

"It's a state issue, not a seven-county issue."

The local tourism agency received $1 million from BP in August for advertising. A month later, the agency asked for $3 million more. They have received no response from BP.

"I wish they were spending for us what they are spending on those ads of their own," Minich said. "They should allocate that for us."

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