Gulf oil spill update: July 9, 2010, most Texas tar balls not from BP, NOAA weekend forecast

Oil tar balls in seaweed on McFaddin Island, TX    Credit: AP Photo/The Beaumont Enterprise, Guiseppe Barranco 

July 9, 2010 – Today, the Coast Guard and Texas officials released new information about the source of tar balls which hit Texas beaches over the last few days. New test results indicate most of that oil was not from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Listed below is the original information from the Texas General Land Office and the Coast Guard, then below each section is the updated information, as of today, regarding the source of oil that has impacted the Galveston and Port Arthur areas on the Texas coast.

Reported earlier:

Yesterday, the Coast Guard confirmed that oil which washed ashore on McFaddin Beach, Texas, on Monday was connected to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. McFaddin Beach is near Port Arthur and much closer to the Louisiana/Texas border than Galveston which was the first area in the state to be impacted by the oil spill.

New today:

The tar balls from McFaddin Beach have been confirmed as coming from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, so the reported information about McFaddin Beach above is correct. However, the sentence about the Galveston area is not correct. (See next section.)

Reported earlier:

Tar balls were found on Texas beaches around Galveston over the 4th of July weekend and again Tuesday and Wednesday. The new oil is also from the BP oil spill disaster. It had already been announced that all tar balls collected from the Crystal Beach area of the Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston's East Beach on Saturday and Sunday came from the Deepwater Horizon spill.

New today:

The tar balls found on Crystal Beach and Galveston East Beach are not from the BP oil spill. A Coast Guard spokesman said that the mistake was made in a Houma, Louisiana lab. New results from the Coast Guard lab in Virginia show that only the samples from McFaddin Beach were related to the Deepwater Horizon.

In the forecast below, NOAA predicts that strong coastal currents may carry more tar balls to Texas. 

NOAA oil spill forecast for July 10-11, 2010:

"Winds are forecast from the SE and will decrease in magnitude by Thursday to 5-10 Knots, then become weak (<5 kts) and variable Friday and Saturday. Remote sensing imagery and overflights observations have indicated scattered areas of potential oil remaining in Chandeleur and Mississippi Sound, which will continue to threaten the coastlines of MS and AL west of Mobile Bay. Models continue to indicate winds and currents are moving oil from the source region west around the Delta and then to the north. There may be potential new shoreline oiling in the area between Barataria Bay, LA and Caillou Bay, LA. No oil has been observed west of Caillou Bay since Monday. However, models indicate that any oil in this region would be subject to rapid westward movement by strong coastal currents which could continue to result in scattered tarball impacts to Texas."

View full-size NOAA oil spill forecast maps for July 10 and July 11, 2010.

NOAA has also released a new forecast model for South Florida and the Florida Keys, with as high as an 80% chance oil will reach Florida Keys and Miami. See map at NOAA.

Read new fact sheet "What to Expect in South Florida from the Deepwater Horizon/BP Oil Spill."

More Texas environmental news reported this morning:

Rio Grande flooding: Updates from Del Rio, Amistad National Recreation Area, Laredo (pictures)

Read the latest oil spill updates:

Gulf oil spill update: More tar balls hit Texas, NOAA forecast, oil on Orange Beach (pictures)

Gulf oil spill update: Where the oil is, where it's been and where it's going, NOAA maps (video)

Gulf oil spill update: BP oil found on Texas beaches, threatens Lake Pontchartrain

Gulf oil spill update: Airship to join response, A Whale in rough waters, empty beaches (pictures)

Gulf oil spill update: A Whale skimmer test continues, oil pushes into Louisiana marshes (pictures)

Gulf oil spill update: EPA news, NOAA map, what South Florida can expect, oiled beaches (pictures)

Read about the skimmer "A Whale" and see a slide show of 20 pictures, plus video:

Gulf oil spill: Will it go to work? World's biggest oil skimmer reports for duty (video, pictures)

Gulf oil spill: A Whale, world's largest skimmer now being tested in the Gulf of Mexico