Escambia County Commissioner Grover Robinson testified on July 21 before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science And Transportation, Subcommittee On Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard. Here is the full text of his testimony:
On behalf of Florida’s 67 counties, and more specifically the eight Gulf Coast counties in Northwest Florida, I would like to thank Chairman Begich and the committee members for the opportunity to address the Senate Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee this afternoon.
I stand before you today as a seventh generation Floridian and Escambia County resident. Over nearly 200 years, my family has survived and thrived in Escambia County through a civil war, countless hurricanes, and various cycles of economic booms and deep recessions. However, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 has rocked our community like no other event.
As chairman of the Escambia County Commission I found myself at the epicenter of Florida’s oil spill response for the last 14 months. It is my experiences during that time that I would wish to share with your committee today for suggestions related to OPA reform, as well as suggestions for monies for clean water act penalties.
In April 2010, the United States and the Gulf Coast faced a crisis unlike anything we have ever seen. The tragedy that struck that day took 11 lives, countless jobs and caused extensive damage to our coastal resources.Florida is experienced with disasters and Escambia County is no exception. Each year we prepare and respond to hurricanes that threaten our homes and beaches. Florida’s emergency response teams are the best in — in the country and arguably the world. City, county and state first responders practice and prepare year round to respond and recover from potential disasters.
Shortly after the oil spill, Escambia County was given 48 hours to prepare for oil on our beaches. Our county did what we were trained to do — we declared a state of emergency which predated the State of Florida and prepared a — a plan to block oil from entering our more fragile inland water estuaries.
Within 24 hours of Escambia County declaring our state of emergency, the State of Florida declared a state of emergency and we were introduced to the Unified Command Structure.
With the threat of oil imminent and a plan in place we were ready to do what was needed to protect our environment and ultimately our economy. Yet, we were stopped and instead and told that we must accept the protection plans of experts that had never stepped foot in Escambia County and knew nothing about the tidal flows and intricacies of our bays.
Now instead of putting up boom and protecting Pensacola Bay and the Perdido Bay Passes, we were arguing with strangers about what was best for the local waterways.
This system of a federal-down approach set up through the Oil Protection Act of 1990. OPA simply did not work in disaster situation. While there are many aspects of OPA that are effective such as Command Structure for Federal Waters and the National Resource Damage Assessment, otherwise known as NRDA process, the response process in local jurisdictions must be changed.While I recognize the Stafford Act which is implemented during natural disasters it could not be applied uniformly to a man-made disaster. There is a fundamental element that should be applied regardless of the cause.
It is that local experts need to be included in determining the response and recovery plans for local jurisdictions. The very people that have lived and made their livelihoods in their community are best suited to know where priorities must be placed and what is needed to provide adequate protection to the environmental resources of that community.
I would no more pretend to know how to adequately respond to an oil spill in the Gulf of Alaska or even how to defend Cape San Blas in Gulf County Florida than an outsider would know how to protect the gulf shores and estuaries in Escambia County.
Ultimately the oil that was 48 hours off shore actually ended up taking 30 days to make it to our beaches. This should have allowed us ample time to implement plans to protect our passes and waterways. Unfortunately, OPA prevented us from effectively implementing our plans until July by which time the well was already capped. We spent the first 75 days using inadequate plans provided to us by Unified Command that were not effective and wasted money.
My essential point today is local government provided better protection to the estuaries of Perdido and Pensacola Bays and the citizens of Escambia County, as well as provided cost savings to Unified Command and even British Petroleum. The only thing that prevented us from this protection was OPA.
I’ve said many times, including to Admiral Landry, it is my belief that the coast guard and other federal agencies were staffed with good people who wanted to do the right things for our community and nation; however, they were prevented by the rules presented in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
Therefore, OPA reform must be enacted to allow for more effective and coordinated defense of our environmental assets by local, state and federal jurisdictions working together. Local government has a place in the planning, coordination, communication, and implementation of disaster strategies and decisions and its omission will lead to failure as seen in May and June of 2010.
I would like to close by saying that there’s still time to make some of this right through the NRDA process and the clean water act.
Through the NRDA process, NOAA, DOI and other state trustees are conducting studies to identify the extent of resource injuries, the best methods for restoring those resources, and the type and amount of restoration required. This process so far has been inclusive and collaborative and for that we are grateful.
I’m also pleased to say that Escambia County is recovering and our beaches are as beautiful as they ever were. But as with most tragedies, while we may recover on the outside, the scars never leave us.
Prior to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, I operated a successful real estate business started by my late father in 1977. Like so many other businesses I filed and received a claim due to the oil spill, yet my business has not fully recovered. So much so that ultimately, my wife and I had to make the hard decision to merge our — merge with another firm after 34 years of existence.
I am not alone. There are countless small businesses out there that have suffered a similar fate. Any funds received due to fines from the clean water act, should be directed to the coastal counties that were impacted from the spill so that investments can be made for the long term recovery of this region and our communities, both environmentally and economically.
We must take — we must now turn this disaster around and seize the opportunities before us. We must take the opportunity to learn from our mistakes and reform OPA.
We must take the opportunity through the NRDA process to help our environment fully recover from the tar on our white sand. And we must take the opportunity to use the clean water act fines to invest in the Gulf Coast and help our economies not just to survive this disaster but to thrive — to thrive in spite of it.
Thank you for the work that each of you do for our country and its citizens and thank you for the time today to hear my testimony.