BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Finally Hits Alabama’s Beaches

Glynn Wilson

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As BP’s oil slick hit the beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama, Orange Beach and some parts of Florida for the first time on Thursday and Friday June 3 and 4 since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, flocks of pelicans, brown and white, nest and fish close by on Gaillard Island in Mobile Bay. No one knows yet whether the oil and chemical slick will make it this far up into the bay to tragically effect this breeding ground, an amazing environmental success story since it was built from the spoils of a dredging project in the Mobile Bay ship channel in 1979. Both the oil and chemical dispersants are toxic to the eggs of these birds. One good soaking of this island in the oil could wipe out an entire generation of these majestic birds, just recently removed from the U.S. Endangered Species List.

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