Oil spill led to revitalization near Egmont Key

As the sun reflects off the water of Tampa Bay today, there is no sign of the accident that wreaked havoc on the area's wildlife nearly 16 years ago.

On Aug. 10, 1993, fire and clouds of smoke billowed near Egmont Key, the scene of Tampa Bay's largest oil spill. What began as an environmental crisis became a widespread effort to restore and improve Bay area beaches.

The companies whose vessels were responsible for the three-ship collision spent $65 million on cleanup and about $3 million on ecological and recreational mitigation projects. Dune restoration and walkovers, expanded fishing piers, and wetlands, bird and turtle restoration are among the projects.

"I was on my way to work and I heard on commercial radio that there had been a collision," said Christopher Rossbach, emergency response manager for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. "We quickly figured out this was big, and this was bad."

Just after dawn, two barges collided with a freighter. The rare collision of three ships resulted in about 32,000 gallons of mixed fuel and 330,000 gallons of fuel oil spilling into the Bay.

Stabilizing the vessels was the first priority. Environmental groups were concerned about the damage the oil might do to Hillsborough and Pinellas County shores. A damaged fuel tank aboard one of the barges caused most of the oil release, forming a 17-mile slick on the water surrounding the vessel.

Loaded with jet fuel, gasoline and a small amount of diesel fuel, the other tank barge ignited upon impact. It took hours for firefighters to control the flames, visible for miles from nearby beaches.

"It was a very hectic time," Rossbach said, "but it was something we had been preparing for since 1989 when the Exxon Valdez happened."

The Tampa Bay incident was the first major oil spill since the Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska.

"The amount of beach that was impacted goes for 12 1/2 miles," said Domenic LetoBarone, emergency response specialist with the DEP. "It goes from Redington Shores to the north, all the way down to St. Pete Beach."

The effect on the bay was minimal because the collision occurred at the beginning of low tide. Most of the oil was carried out to sea.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association assessed the environmental damage.

"In this case, things that were looked at were birds, oysters, marsh, mangroves, surface water, beach and sand," said Leslie Craig, habitat restoration specialist for NOAA.

The spill also affected recreation. Machinery on the beaches made access difficult.

"There were two restoration plans that came out of the damage assessment," Craig said. "One was an ecological plan and the second one was a recreational."

The projects

NOAA and the DEP are trustees on the recreational portion, which received a $450,000 settlement from the responsible parties, Bouchard Transportation Company Inc. and Maritrans General Partners Inc, representing the tankers. NOAA and the DEP, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are trustees on the ecological portion, which received $2.5 million.

In addition, the responsible companies contributed their own restoration projects, spending about $65 million on cleanup.

"As of right now, there were 24 projects total out of all of those categories," Craig said. "Twenty-three of them are either complete, or there's a couple little tiny loose ends."

Peter Van Noort admires the Madeira Beach Causeway Shoreline Restoration Park every time he walks his dog, P.J.

"This was just a barren piece of land," Van Noort said. "Now they've got a nice dock and proper facilities."

The Treasure Island Walkway Extension is the only project that remains to be completed.

"We have identified $380,000 of settlement funds for the project," Craig said. "These funds have been set aside since the restoration plan was finalized in 2000."

The trustees are waiting on a work plan for the project.

It will connect the central beach trail to other beach access points to the north and south, with a system of streetside icons that indicate parking, bicycle racks and beach walkovers.

"There will also be educational signage as kind of a secondary set of visible markers that will create a virtual trail along the north, central and south beaches," Craig said. "You can wander down through the beach in front of or behind the dunes ... and receive some amount of education about the resources as you wander down through the habitats."

The trustees divided beach activities into categories to determine the restoration sites. Boardwalks, walkways, fishing piers and fishing access points fell under recreation.

Residents and the local governments proposed the projects, LetoBarone said.

"Right now the public has basically been enjoying the outcomes of the projects because these projects vary from boat ramps to fishing piers to dune walkovers," LetoBarone said. "These are all now amenities that are integrated into the communities that were impacted."

Work not finished

When the Treasure Island Walkway Extension is done, there is a chance another project could come out of the money from the 1993 spill.

"Once that project is complete, there are some monies left over in interest that still are going to be spent," LetoBarone said.

At each site, signs say the project was paid for by money collected from the Tampa Bay oil spill.

"We'd like to replace some of those signs that are pretty degraded," LetoBarone said. "That way the public, while enjoying those amenities, can see how those amenities came about."