This is what 3 gallons of oil looks like
Slick from spill stained waters off Deerfield Beach in March
A slick of hydraulic oil marred the waters off South Florida on a sunny day, and aerial images showed how far a little bit of oil can spread.
The spill — believed to be up to three gallons — covered a swath of sea from Hillsboro Beach to Deerfield Beach. But where did it come from? Deerfield Beach snapped the images on March 19 and began looking into it.
Eastman Aggregate, a company hired for a beach-renourishment project in Hillsboro Beach, blamed an equipment failure that resulted in up to 3 gallons of biodegradable hydraulic oil going into the ocean, the company said in a report.
Broward gave a violation notice to Eastman on April 6, noting an inspection revealed it didn’t have the telephone numbers of required contacts listed in its plan for emergency events. Eastman avoided sanctions because it demonstrated it fixed the problem.
Mac Cerda, town manager of Hillsboro Beach, said the town kicked in extra funding to have an environmental engineer “oversee and protect the coastal environment” during the beach-renourishment project. But Cerda believes the county’s notice was incorrectly submitted, and the engineer will request that it be voided.