Oil cleanup a dirty job and a sticky situationGRAND ISLE, La. — It is tedious and monotonous labor — heaving oil-soaked sand into plastic bags. Shovelful. After shovelful. After shovelful. After shovelful.
But most of all, it’s hot, horribly hot. Just ask the crews hired by BP to clean beaches fouled by the nation’s worst oil spill. When the oil is thick as brownie mix, or in liquid pools subject to splashing, they are sealed inside protective uniforms that zip up to the neck. No exceptions, even when temperatures near 100.
“Man, you really sweat in the white suits,” cleanup crew member Kathy Flannigan, 53, said, describing what it’s like to wear the paperlike protective garb used when the oil is thick and not likely to fly about.
“But the yellow plastic suit is wicked,” she said of the thicker uniform used when the oil is liquid. “In that suit, you look like a chicken and cook like one!”
When the heat index hits triple digits — an easy thing to do in monsoon season — BP safety rules require that cleanup crews alternate between 20 minutes of hard labor and 40 minutes of cooling off and hydrating under shady tarps. That routine hasn’t won the crew much sympathy — or thanks.
“It drives locals crazy,” said Bridgeside Marina owner Budd Vegas. “These crews don’t seem to be working hard enough. Their hearts aren’t in it.”
The crew members see things differently. “We are part of history. We are doing our part,” said Fecundo Gonzales Jr., 40, who sought the job when construction work dried up. “This job is worth it because we have to rid this state of spilled oil, and eventually we will.”
But so far the victories are few.
At a recent sunrise, 14 dusty yellow buses rumbled out of a base camp at Grand Isle State Park, packed with 800 workers psyched up to attack the oil. But just as the buses neared cleanup sites, lightning snaked across the gunmetal sky.
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