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Tarballs: Beach lovers have seen it beforeJul 06, 2010 (The Port Arthur News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- McFADDIN BEACH -- Contractors are cleaning, a politician is praying and beach lovers are simply grabbing baby oil. Tar balls and tar patties have washed up in the McFaddin Beach area over the Fourth of July weekend in globs too small to affect summer fun. Tests have confirmed some is from the BP Deepwater explosion and oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, and other batches are still undergoing testing. "We saw some on the bottom of our shoes and feet. We never saw anything floating. It really happened Saturday. We went to the store and got baby oil," Kyle Segura of Port Neches said, from his Holiday Addition stay at Crystal Beach. "It was just a one day deal. Nobody cares," he said, adding that tar balls didn't affect his fun. The tar his family saw was on the shore, but he said he may feel differently if it was floating in the water where he swam. Joshua Jones of Orange said the one ball his family noted Tuesday at McFaddin Beach didn't stop his children from having a ball of fun. "It's great. We had a fun time. The kids loved it. We're planning on coming back in a couple of days. The whole time we were out there, we saw one little ball. Other than that, it was pretty clean," Jones said. Like many, Jones said he remembers when area beaches had tar on a regular basis. In the days before rigorous environmental protection, gooey masses from ship bilge cleanings could be part of a day in the sand and sun. "We're stocking the cabins in baby oil," Anne Willis of Swedes beach rentals in the Bolivar area. "You know, it's just so minimal," Willis said. "The rentals have been great. We were booked up and all our weeks ahead look good. We're not having any cancellations." Willis said about 90 rentals filled up with regulars from as far as Dallas and Houston, and some guests came to Texas to avoid the oil spill residue on shores in Florida and Alabama. Hurricane Ike devastated the area's beach houses in 2008 and about 500 new homes are now up, Willis said. "It's coming back just great," she said. Bright turquoise, yellow and green houses are replacing neutral gray, white and brown ones, she said, guessing that the energetic colors represent residents' optimism. Michael Shane Sinegal, the Jefferson County Commissioner who's jurisdiction includes the beach, said he, too, remembers tar at the beach when he was a youth. "I don't want to make light of it," he said, "at McFaddin or Sea Rim, it was really no big deal, and we'd play with it." Now, parents would consider the oil a toxin, he said. "I thought that was kind of ironic," Sinegal said by phone. He was on his way back to his district after attending an out-of-town funeral. "On the beach, we found all types of things." He said these current findings have "the right people cleaning it up as soon as it comes." "I'm hoping it hasn't spread and is being transported on vessels. Let's hope and pray that it doesn't get here," Sinegal said, adding a plea that oil stays out of the area's delicate marshes. "Our marshes are just starting to kind of come back to life," he said, referring to Ike damage. He referred to General Land Office information advising beach goers to use common sense and avoid the water if oil is seen or smelled. Kyle Carter, lieutenant junior grade with the U.S. Coast Guard's Port Arthur office, said the Coast Guard is overseeing contractors cleaning up the beach through a general federal fund set up for such needs. He had no estimate on the cost and said recently-collected tar is still being tested. "The money is ready and waiting for these kinds of issues," Carter said. "What we got was a Sunday, 3 p.m. report on large tar patties on McFaddin Beach. The first covered a 500-square foot area, basically out of that, a 10 percent coverage, chocolately like," Carter said. Miller Environmental workers simply shoveled the oil into a barrel for proper disposal that evening, and another area of about 250 square feet, with 5 percent coverage, was getting cleaned as he spoke Tuesday. Carter said he grew up in Corpus Christi, and his family's method of removing tar balls included rubbing alcohol, not baby oil. The Texas General Land offices conducted a Tuesday afternoon press conference in Austin to confirm tar balls collected from the Crystal Beach area of the Bolivar Peninsula on Saturday came from the Deepwater Horizon spill, but it is still unclear how the oil got to Texas. Testing found that the oil was lightly weathered, raising doubts that the oil traversed the Gulf from the spill source. Boats carry oil collected during the response to Texas for processing raising the possibility the oil could have been transported on a vessel, the office announced. City of Galveston officials joined the Coast Guard and Land Office representatives on Sunday to find "dime-sized to nickel-sized tar balls on both Bolivar Peninsula's Crystal Beach and Galveston's East Beach." The Coast Guard hired a contractor to remove the tar balls and a total of 35 gallons of sand/seaweed/tar balls was recovered in Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula and on East Beach in Galveston on Sunday and Monday. Crews estimate that of the 35 gallons of material recovered, there were about 7 gallons of tar balls contained within the waste material. The largest was ping-pong ball sized. Lab analysis continues on the tar balls recovered on Sunday and Monday. Patrols will continue; Galveston beaches and Southeast Texas waterways remain open. The report also noted that according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), for most people, an occasional brief contact with a small amount of oil will do no harm. Some people are especially sensitive to chemicals, including the hydrocarbons found in crude oil and petroleum products. In general, NOAA recommends that if oil contact occurs, the area be washed with soap and water, baby oil or another safe cleaning compound. The public can report an oil spill or tar ball sighting by calling the Texas General Land Office at 1-800-832-8224 or the National Response Center at 1-800-424-8802. For information about the response effort, visit www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com. To see more of The Port Arthur News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.panews.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, The Port Arthur News, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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