BP has promised to eventually dole out $500 million toward study from the wake from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Florida wants $100 million of that pie. And now.
Leading the charge could be the dean on the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Sciences, William Hogarth. The request follows a wave of media coverage that has carried USF’s name in the New Zealand Herald to Al-Jazeera to Rolling Stone.
The proposal calls for the $100 million to become split between 21 Florida colleges and marine science organizations, as soon as achievable. Hogarth and leaders from other schools, operating under the umbrella with the Florida Institute of Oceanography, had been spurred to action after talking to BP leaders last week.
“We felt like it’d be 2011 ahead of we’d see anything, and we felt like that was way as well late and none of us have a lot money correct now,” he mentioned. “So we all sort of pushed back and made it really clear that we need to have it now, we will need it fast-tracked… I feel they got that message quite loud and obvious.”
U.S. Rep Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, met with two BP executives Wednesday to ask for $100 million for Florida universities. And Gov. Charlie Crist sent a letter to BP in support in the institute’s request. He wrote:
Florida’s interests are urgent and unique… The potential impact of the spill on our economy, habitat and coastal communities demands that our state use a leadership role within the response.
BP didn’t have a very obvious answer Wednesday.
“The board hasn’t been established yet, nor the process to solicit grants,” said BP spokesman Mark Proegler. “We certainly welcome that proposal.”
The Florida Institute of Oceanography, led by Hogarth, is housed at USF. It is comprised of colleges such as Florida State University, the University of Florida and Eckerd College, and groups which includes the Mote Marine Laboratory along with the Department of Environmental Protection.
The idea would be to do investigation that makes the greatest use of materials, facilities and scientists all over the state. The group wants to monitor waters independently, document evolving conditions and develop technologies that detect oil spills just before they trigger irreversible harm.
Every organization has submitted a private exploration plan. They tend not to know yet how the money would be split.
Marine exploration isn’t affordable. A single day trip on USF’s analysis vessel, Weatherbird II, expenses $6,500.
One hundred million can be a conservative request, Hogarth said.
“Florida’s got a lot of coastline.”
USF has been outspoken about its research using the media since the start with the spill, hosting news conferences and answering questions at all hours. But it wasn’t trying to make use of the spotlight to obtain investigation funding, Hogarth says.
“I usually do not consider we looked at it from that standpoint,” he stated. “We have been just there. We had the vessel, we had been in the best location at the right time with a lot of expertise.”
On Tuesday, researchers held a news conference to confirm the existence subsurface oil and to criticize BP for its refusal to offer oil samples.
Castor, in her meeting with BP executives Wednesday, urged them to comply with USF’s request.
A sample is vital in scientists’ attempts to link clouds of subsurface oil within the gulf towards the oil spewing through the destroyed rig, explained David Hollander, a chemical oceanographer leading USF’s study.
BP vice president David Nagel and BP spokesman Ray Dempsey claimed there need to happen to be a miscommunication and they would ensure a sample got to USF, Castor mentioned.
Meanwhile, the researchers will not want to be glorified on the heels of tragedy.
“Given the option of being the college nobody knows while using gulf the way it was, they would take that,” claimed USF spokeswoman Vickie Chachere.
When she started functioning at USF in 2009, she took a tour from the marine labs.
“I was blown away by what I saw down there and who I met,” she said. “The level of expertise which is down there has usually existed. We tend not to like to make use of the words ‘world class’ because that’s significant, but undoubtedly, they are actually world class researchers all along. They have just quietly gone about their work.”
Months ago, Hogarth lamented that nobody knew about the program.
At a recent oil spill news conference, helicopters hovering overheard, Chachere leaned in to him.
“Dean, I believe they know we’re here now.”