As oil washes up on Florida beaches, Maryland's congressional delegation is to get an update today (6/24) on how likely it is any of the Gulf spill will reach the Chesapeake Bay or state beaches, The Sun's Paul West reports in the Maryland Politics blog.
The briefing, featuring two former Maryland officials now in the Obama administration, also could cover what's being done to ensure the safety of Gulf seafood that gets sold in the state.
Experts have been saying for weeks it's highly unlikely any oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout off Louisiana will make it this far up the East Coast, much less into the Chesapeake. Any that makes it into the Gulf Stream at the southern tip of Florida is likely to be carried out into the Atlantic off North Carolina, oceanographers say.
Among the federal briefers, West reports, will be Eric Schwaab, assistant administrator for fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (former MD deputy secretary of natural resources) and Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, former Baltimore city health commissioenr who's now principal deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., who heads a subcommittee overseeing their agencies' budgets, invited them to speak.
(Workers clean oil washed onto Pensacola Fla beach Wednesday, AP photo)