The sense of panic that swept through the Florida Keys following last week's rumors of the Gulf oil spill's imminent arrival was nearly gone Tuesday as BP sent its white knight to assure folks that everything would be fine.
The BP guy, Keith Seilhan, showed up wearing a t-shirt and carrying a backpack. It was perfect: most of the folks in the crowd had on t-shirts, shorts, baseball caps.
Seilhan fit right in and said all the right things. He smiled when a few barbs were thrown his way. He played the role of the concerned junior executive who was not responsible for what some are calling the nation's biggest oil spill disaster, but could sure carry a message back to his boss.
Seilhan was sitting with almost every local public official you can name in the Florida Keys. It was surprisingly civil. He was treated gently.
The Keys had been under threat for several weeks. The culprit was the blown well head as a result of the Deep Water Horizon explosion in the far north end of the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists had predicted the resulting oil slick could make it as far south as the Keys, flow around Key West and head up the East Coast of the U.S. The result of the oil flow, environmentalists believed, would be an oil slick invading the Keys mangroves, marinas, and beaches.
Seilhan was one of the scheduled speakers at the county commission workshop. Nothing formal, just remarks, but what he said was soaked in by the attentive crowd of charter captains, fishing guides, motel operators, restaurateurs, and just plain folks from up and down the island chain.
"We are not in immediate danger. What is not going to hit the Keys is a large black pool of oil. It is not likely to happen at all. I do not think it is possible to be honest with you," BP's man said. If oil does happen to get into the Loop Current, according to Seilhan, by the time it gets to the Keys, if ever, it would be "Weathered Oil."
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What Seilhan was saying was exactly what Tom Hill from Key Largo Fisheries had been saying for the last couple of days. He admits that he had been "real concerned" about the oil. Now Hill had concluded that if the oil ever got to the Keys, it would be not much more that some tar balls.
Between the ability of the Gulf to absorb the oil, the sun burning off the surface oil, the ongoing containment effort, and the Gulf wave action, the oil would pretty well dispersed, he said.
Fishing Guide Greg Pope, on his way into Tom Hill's fish house, said he doubted the oil would ever make it to the Keys, much less up the Atlantic side of the U.S. "Highly unlikely," he said.
The slick is 400 miles away and the light sheen that makes up the eastern side of the huge spill is 90 miles away from the loop current.
Seilhan told the group that BP will resolve the impact on commerce and would be on scene for a full scale clean-up if oil did impact the the coral rock and mangroves that ring the Keys.
"We will seek restitution, we will knock on your door," Commissioner Mario DiGennero proclaimed from the dais. Keys hotels, motels and tourist attractions say they are beginning to lose business even though the spill is a long way off.
With the meeting over, the BP man was chatted up by members of the crowd and meeting participants. Was there a sigh of relief? Kind of, for now. BP's man had done his job.
Hank Tester has been covering news and politics in South Florida since 1992.
