A handful of locals, county officials and tribal representatives gathered at Carmel River State Beach to watch as The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reassessed its oil containment strategies to protect the Carmel River Lagoon, Wednesday morning. The lagoon is considered a sensitive habitat that’s at risk of an oil spill as it’s directly connected to the ocean. “If there were an oil spill offshore we would want to keep it from the shoreline as best we can and from the most sensitive sites. This is one of those sensitive sites,” CDFW spokesperson Eric Laughlin said. The department showcased a 370-foot orange, vinyl floating barrier called a boom, which would separate the Carmel River Lagoon from the ocean. It is one of three tools that would likely be deployed in the case of an oil spill, the others being a sand berm and 50-foot filtration fence. According to a spokesperson for CDFW, the boom was readjusted. As the environment is constantly changing, CDFW has to review contingency plans for more than 600 environmentally sensitive habitats along California’s Coast. “We periodically come out and test the strategies in the actual environment to make sure its the best strategy in the case of an oil spill,” CDFW Spokesperson Eric Laughlin said.”And if they need to be tweaked we can tweak them.”This was carried out by the department’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response, which manages the Sensitive Site Strategy Evaluation Program, born from a federal initiative to protect habitats after catastrophic oil spills in 1989 in Alaska and 1990 in California.
A handful of locals, county officials and tribal representatives gathered at Carmel River State Beach to watch as The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reassessed its oil containment strategies to protect the Carmel River Lagoon, Wednesday morning.
The lagoon is considered a sensitive habitat that’s at risk of an oil spill as it’s directly connected to the ocean.
“If there were an oil spill offshore we would want to keep it from the shoreline as best we can and from the most sensitive sites. This [the Carmel River Lagoon] is one of those sensitive sites,” CDFW spokesperson Eric Laughlin said.
The department showcased a 370-foot orange, vinyl floating barrier called a boom, which would separate the Carmel River Lagoon from the ocean. It is one of three tools that would likely be deployed in the case of an oil spill, the others being a sand berm and 50-foot filtration fence.
According to a spokesperson for CDFW, the boom was readjusted.
As the environment is constantly changing, CDFW has to review contingency plans for more than 600 environmentally sensitive habitats along California’s Coast.
“We periodically come out and test the strategies in the actual environment to make sure its the best strategy in the case of an oil spill,” CDFW Spokesperson Eric Laughlin said.”And if they need to be tweaked we can tweak them.”
This was carried out by the department’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response, which manages the Sensitive Site Strategy Evaluation Program, born from a federal initiative to protect habitats after catastrophic oil spills in 1989 in Alaska and 1990 in California.
Read More: State officials reassessed oil containment strategies at Carmel River State