More than a week has passed since Alabama’s beaches have seen significant oil, but despite warnings along the Gulf Coast, some swimmers are taking their chances.

News Five in Mobile collected samples of water and sand from Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Katrina Key and Dauphin Island and had a local lab test them.

Water and sand along Alabama’s coast should contain no more than five parts per million of oil or petroleum, according to Bob Naman, an analytical chemist. But some of the samples tested much higher, from 16 ppm to 221 ppm.

Even more disturbing is what happened to a sample collected from the Dauphin Island Marina near oil containment boom. It contained so much methane that the test tube exploded, according to this report from the local television news station.

Tags: Tests Show Gulf Water Unsafe Despite Appearances

This entry was posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 9:18 am and is filed under BP Oil Spill, Environment News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.