The pristine beaches along the Gulf Coast suggest a neat resolution that still eludes many Georgians touched by the oil spill that fouled the Gulf one year ago.
Rick Scali, who once cheered BP's response to the disaster, is embroiled in a legal nightmare over lost rental income.
University of Georgia marine life scientist Samantha Joye still draws barbs for suggesting that the spill devastated the deep-ocean ecosystem.
Inland Seafood CEO Chris Rosenberger frets about the long-term impact of the 200 million gallons of black sludge on the sea's food chain.
They are merely a handful of Georgians who are still feeling the tragedy's indirect impact. While many people and businesses directly affected by the oil spill have been compensated in some way for their loss, others, among them Georgia's Gulf Coast property owners and related businesses, are in legal and financial limbo.
For many fishermen, restaurateurs, property owners, scientists and beach lovers, it's the fear of the unknown that is most worrisome.
"I'd hate to lose consumer confidence, but where did the oil go?" said Inland Seafood's Rosenberger. Although his business returned to normal within six months of the disaster, he's concerned that worse lies ahead. "What is going to happen to the catch?"
Joye, the UGA scientist, is absorbed by just such questions She was thrust into the national spotlight last year when, while researching the crisis in the Gulf, she challenged BP’s estimates on the leakage and then discovered oil coating the sea bottom and plumes of submerged oil 15 miles long.
These days, she is still speaking out about the ill effects of the crisis on the Gulf. A recent Associated Press story labeled her, after speaking to several researchers, the most pessimistic among them. She maintains that she is just a realist.
“I don’t think it’s over,” said Joye, who suspects the spill has caused the deaths of dolphins, sea turtles and other marine animals. “I don’t think the ecosystem has recovered.”
Mark Link, a Georgian who owns property in Gulf Shores, Ala., is waiting for the next wave of trouble.
"BP's stance is ‘out of sight, out of mind,' but the oil is definitely still there under the Gulf, and it is dug up by these storms," Link said. "My major concern is what if a hurricane comes through? What will happen then?"
Vacationing in his Gulf Shores property two weeks ago, Link and his family could see the occasional glimmer of shiny black liquid come to the surface. The sight was a painful reminder of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that killed 11 people and damaged marine life and the coastal economy.
He lost at least half of his rental income last year after the spill, and vacation rental bookings are only now trickling back. He continues to slash rental prices in hopes of getting some traffic.
"There definitely has been some chilling effect on bookings because of this," he said.
The same goes for Lee Gall and Leo Cook, whose Okaloosa Island beachfront condo has just three rental bookings for June and July. Typically, those months would be fully booked by April, they said. In February the business partners filed an interim claim with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, a group established to distribute BP funds, but they haven't yet been reimbursed. To file the claim, the men had to show rental income for the past two years, years already hammered by a historic recession.
Cook, an attorney, and Gall, a financial services manager, last year joined a class action lawsuit filed by the Atlanta firm Taylor English Duma to recoup their losses.
The firm is representing several dozen Georgians with properties along the Gulf. Although the properties weren't physically damaged by the oil, attorney Jonathan B. Wilson says their owners have lost both income and value because of the stigma now associated with many Gulf properties.
Some of these Georgians have settled with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, but others are holding out.
Rick Scali has gotten some satisfaction from BP. The former Atlanta credit union executive received $136,000 to offset the losses from his four rental properties. Scali also manages 16 other properties in the Crystal Beach and Destin areas on the Florida panhandle. He was at one point so pleased with BP’s response to the crisis that in October he starred in a television commercial praising the company.
But he is now in tough negotiations with the GCCF over his last claim. Scali said his business was growing by 30 percent a year prior to the disaster, and he wants to recoup money at that level. The company is balking. He also worries that the company wants him to sign an agreement that would absolve BP of responsibility for any future problems that arise from the oil spill.
“I look at it as a bad dream,” said Scali, 63, who retired with his wife to the Gulf.
Steve Hill, of Vinings, is also waiting for reimbursements from the GCCF for rental income lost from his two Destin beach properties. BP responded quickly to his initial claims, a process Hill describes as "simple and very transparent." But after the process was turned over to the GCCF, Hill received just one more check and has been inundated with requests for more paperwork.
He wants to put the entire situation behind him, but feels stuck until GCCF comes through. The good news, he says, is that he's seeing an uptick in rentals for the summer.
“It looks like it will be a good year," he said. "Early bookings are pretty good, but maybe I’m basing that on what we did last year.”
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