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Oil Spill Threatens Nassau County Shore

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Nov 23, 2007 3:52 am US/Eastern

Oil Spill Threatens Nassau County Shore

Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Miles of gorgeous white beach have been tainted with thick, black oil. The U.S. Coast Guard says the oil is washing up in Nassau County along stretches of Long Beach and Atlantic Beach.

Oil is coming in with ocean waves, fouling some of the busiest beaches in Nassau County. Containment and clean up teams worked in the sand until sunset tonight, making plans for morning in the driving rain. So far they don't like what they're finding. 

"It's a heavy oil, kind of like tar," U.S. Coast Guard Commander Kevin Burke told CBS 2 HD. "It's probably 3000 feet wide by 1500 feet long."

The surf has been high this holiday and on Thanksgiving morning surfers reported finding the oil in the water and on the beach. Some of it on the beach is number 6 fuel oil, and it comes out like globules. You can smell it when you pick it up - it's the kind of fuel that would power an ocean-going ship. It could have been dumped off shore or could be bubbling up from a submerged wreck. In any event there's 3,000 feet of it in Atlantic Beach, and another 1,500 feet in Long Beach.

The two spots need to be cleaned up, and 40 workers will hit the sand again at daybreak hoping that's all there is.

"We should have it all cleaned up by Monday, provided there's no additional oil," said Charles Hamilton of the NYS DEP.

A big if, that has beach dwellers worried.

"We hopefully would expect they would take better care with the boat traffic coming in and out," said Long Beach resident Mike Sclafani. It's pretty similar to what happened out west, and that was pretty bad."

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