The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
Alabama Chief Faces Jail to Save Town From Gulf Oil Spill
CARMEN K. SISSON
The Christian Science Monitor
Admittedly, the Gulf Coast hamlet of Magnolia Springs, Ala., is an easy place to overlook. Here, the mail is still delivered by boat, and the closest thing to a seafood industry is standing in line for blackfish at Jessie's, the only restaurant in town.
President Obama did not put it on his itinerary this week, and when BP workers showed up in mid-May, they laid a single strand of boom across the mouth of the bay and left. The boom floated away hours later.
Magnolia Springs isn't exactly a linchpin of the Alabama economy.
Yet if the Gulf oil spill arrives here this week as scientists have forecast, it will not find the town unprepared. A flotilla of nine spud barges - flanked by containment boom - will be waiting, ready to block the 530-foot-wide entrance to Weeks Bay.
If all goes according to plan, these rusted steel behemoths will form an impenetrable barrier, defending the estuary's 19 federally-protected species and the vital marshland which serves as a nursery for shrimp and other seafood so crucial to the Gulf Coast region.
They will also preserve an unspoiled way of life.
The blockade is being led by Jamie Hinton, the local volunteer fire chief who, at one point, was faced with the possibility of being jailed for violating the federal and state chain of command.
His resourcefulness is a parable not only of how desperate Gulf Coast communities have become to save the shorelines on which their lives have taken root, but also of the confusion that can consume and undermine such a massive relief effort.
In the end, Magnolia Springs did not need BP or Mr. Obama or the governor in Montgomery. It needed the grit and determination of the people themselves - people like Hinton, who says he will stand chest-deep in the waters of the bay, linked arm in arm with his neighbors, if that's what it takes to stop the encroaching oil from despoiling the sublime latticework of bogs and bayous that he calls home.
Hinton's plan
Soft-spoken and polite, Mr. Hinton doesn't fit the image of a rabble-rouser, but still waters run deep. He is passionate about this wildly beautiful place.
The plan he has been charged with implementing was the product of exhaustive community input. It is an attempt to defeat those forces of nature that have often defeated the Coast Guard and BP elsewhere. Boom is effective when placed properly, but even in relatively calm waters, some oil will always go over and beneath it. In Weeks Bay, where there is a constant one- to two-foot chop, booming is an extra challenge.
That's where Hinton's barges come in. Hinton hopes they will break any wave action, allowing the boom laid in front of and behind them to hold the oil.
It's not a fail-safe plan, Hinton acknowledges. He would know. He has more than 400 hours of hazardous materials training, including booming instruction. "Can't say [the oil] is going to make it through and can't say it won't," he says.
But at least it's a plan. Nobody else seemed inclined to do much of anything for Magnolia Springs, he says. When he first began gathering resources, county officials told him he was blowing things out of proportion, that it was just sweet crude.
"I don't care if it's sweet, sour, light, or black," he says. "I don't want it in my river."
Others told him the government would handle it. He scoffed. He remembered the Exxon Valdez, hurricane Katrina, hurricane Ivan. If anyone was going to save Magnolia Springs, it wouldn't be the feds, BP, or environmental activists. It would be the thousand-odd people who live here. After all, the locals knew the water - knew every twist and turn of Magnolia River, Fish River, and Weeks Bay. They would handle things the way they always did - together.
While the community struggled to get its plan approved by Deepwater Horizon Unified Command, BP workers arrived with their own plan: They laid a straight line of boom across the bay, tied it to pylons with rope, and left. Hinton tried to tell them the pylons were encrusted with barnacles, but no one listened. He knew the tossing waters would cause the sharp shells to sever the rope, and he was right. The boom floated away, and Magnolia Springs was left defenseless once more.
Instead of being discouraged, he redoubled his efforts, and by mid-May, the town's plans had been approved, along with a $200,000 grant to keep the barges manned 24/7 - a Coast Guard requirement - for three weeks. All that remained was the decision about when to put the plan into action.
Jumping through hoops
Last Wednesday, that moment came. Hinton called the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and told them the time had come to deploy thebarges.
"They acted as if they'd never heard about it," he says. "We started jumping through hoops to get the plan approved again."
Hinton and Mayor Charles Houser conferred. If the small-town fire chief blocked the bay without permission, he could be jailed or fined, but he was willing to take that chance.
In a way, the decision was an easy one. There is a timelessness to the marshes of Magnolia Springs, where ospreys glide across the water and cottonmouths slither through pitcher plant bogs. It is "the most beautiful place on earth," Hinton says, and he wants his grandchildren to see it - just as it is now.
Friday afternoon, Hinton learned his plans had been approved once more, backed by another grant that should allow them to keep the barges in place for as long as three months if necessary.
"We've done all we can do," he says.
The uncertainty leads to sleepless nights for both Hinton and Mayor Houser, who says he's confident about their course of action but still feels a queasy tension. He's frustrated by BP's overall plan for the Gulf Coast, calling it confusing and disjointed, with no clear chain of command.
"I've been in meetings with BP and they seem like they live in a vacuum," he said Friday as he stared out at the water. "They just don't get it. How can you replace this? It's our little slice of heaven."
Copyright 2010 Christian Science Publishing Society
All Rights Reserved
June 15, 2010
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Todd Seaney on
-
hooray for the little guy... its nice to see someone knows how to take action without setting around for weeks or months having meetings, and then more meetings to discuss the first meetings. Sometimes you have to act to actually get a job done. If this does not work for his community it can be no worse then if they would have set around and waited for big government to "rescue" them in the first place. Nice to see someone still realizes you have to try to help yourself. I pray for them and all along the gulf coast
-
Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
-
Nice to see someone actually take action instead of waiting for (expecting, blaming) the government. The chief at least has the power of his convictions to take the risk and a stand. Good luck to him.
"Others told him the government would handle it. He (Chief Hinton) scoffed. He remembered the Exxon Valdez, hurricane Katrina, hurricane Ivan. If anyone was going to save Magnolia Springs, it wouldn't be the feds, BP, or environmental activists. It would be the thousand-odd people who live here. "
There is no small irony in this situation (and of that along the gulf coast). If one believes that there should be less/smaller government and less government intrusion into private business and less worry about the environment in exchange for more/cheaper oil then "accidents" such as Deepwater Horizon must be acceptable as the cost of doing business (un-/less regulated, no government interference/oversight, lessened/absent safety measures, inability to quickly identify and rectify any problem).
"Drill, Baby, Drill!" was a 2008 Republican campaign slogan originally used at the 2008 Republican National Convention[1] by former Maryland Lieutenant Governor, current RNC chairman Michael Steele.[2] The slogan expressed support for increased drilling for petroleum as a source of additional energy.
"Palin responded by saying, "The chant is 'drill, baby, drill.' And that's what we hear all across this country in our rallies because people are so hungry for those domestic sources of energy to be tapped into."[7] October 2, 2008, at the vice-presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.
"Drill, baby, drill! And drill now!" Steele memorably chanted at the Republican National Convention in 2008. "Do you want to put your country first? Then let's make decisions about our security based on what keeps us safe and not on what's politically correct," he told the crowd.
And during that year's vice presidential debate, Palin told Joe Biden, "You even called drilling -- safe, environmentally-friendly drilling offshore -- as raping the outer continental shelf. There -- with new technology, with tiny footprints even on land, it is safe to drill and we need to do more of that."
'Be careful what you wish for...lest it come true.'
-
Permalink Reply by Ron Arsenault on
-
It's very nice to see that someone has the gall to act instead of just complain about how unprofessionaly BP is handling their own disaster.I just hope that other communities will react in the same way as chief Hinton has and at least try to do something to block of this mess from their shorelines.
So...for the sake of the environment...and common sense,may chief Hinton's actions serve as actions to follow because if you wait for government rescue or from BP,it appears you will be waiting for a very long time.
...WAY TO GO CHIEF HINTON...
-
Permalink Reply by Roy Walker on
-
ASSHOLES ALL OF THEM ......................you go chief you da man ,fire chiefs rock!!!!
-
Permalink Reply by Mark Klaene on
-
I was in a committee meeting once that was floundering for progress. Finally 1/2 through I jumped in and took control. We accomplished everything that was asked of us and on time. At the end of the meeting the state police chief that was in charge of the event said , he was worried that we would not meet our objectives--until the fire chief took over---
Well that , and this example is a tribute to all you folks
Fire ground commanders know how to look the seemingly impossible task in the eye, develop a plan, and put it in to action. For the volunteer chief we also have to do it with almost no resources, enlist the community and use a lot of "outside the box" thinking. It may not always be clean and pretty , it may not even be scientific and occasionally it doesn't even work but we sure as heck are not going to stand around and do nothing.
Thanks Chief Hinton -- you make me proud to say I am a volunteer fire chief
-
Permalink Reply by Bill Brierton on
-
If the feds, BP or whoever can't, won't or give a damn about the little guy then if the little guy takes care of things himself, then officials should just go away and leave the chief and his community alone.
-
Permalink Reply by Robert Mccarraher on
-
hes a brave man
-
Permalink Reply by Russ on
-
brings to mind my favorite bumper sticker. GO CHIEF!
- Attachments:
-
-
Picture 041.jpg, 352 KB
-
-
Permalink Reply by Mike "Lapo" Lapotasky on
-
Get em Chief! Show them that firefighters are not dumb grunts, but critical thinkers that assess, calculate, and then ACT with urgency, purpose, and communal interests! We are used to doing other people's jobs for them and cleaning up someone else's mess. Maybe we should get the government to spend 1 billion dollars paying volunteer and paid firefighters to come down and help you guys! Let me know Chief!
-
-
Exactly. You didn't care before. You care now? After its too late? I think that is called embarassment!
-
-
Nope. Not ALL fire chiefs rock!
-
Permalink Reply by Capt.Alex Arnold on
-
If I were living in Alabama, I would be right there next to Chief Hinton I would also be right there next to him in a cell afterwards. I'm not a very good harmony tho..."Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. No one knows my sorrows..."
Be safe everyone (especially the Gulf crews), and learn something new today.
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
