Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill One Year Later

Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, Santa Rosa Beach

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the lead state agency for responding to impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill along Florida’s shoreline. In addition, DEP is the lead designated trustee for the state of Florida on the Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council, along with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) as a co-trustee and DEP has a representative member on the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force.

Highlights

• DEP is sampling water and sediment along the Northwest Florida coastline through the swim season.
• All sampling conducted and analyzed in Florida has registered below levels of concern according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and the Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) human health benchmarks for air, water or sediment.
• Response continues in Florida and field teams are recovering much smaller quantities of oil each day from Florida’s coastline.
• Any observed oil is scheduled for pick-up and properly disposed.
• Ongoing impacts are expected to be minimal and are more likely to be seen in the western counties.
• Restoration efforts are ongoing throughout the Gulf States and are being led by the Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council and the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force.

For detailed information on response and restoration activities from DEP view the full DEP Deepwater Horizon One Year Later summary. FWC has also produced an FWC Deepwater Horizon One Year Later summary.