Tar balls washed up on Baldwin County beaches Tuesday for the first time as officials continued to prepare Alabama's coast for the possible landfall of oil from the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Crews in environmental protection suits were on the beaches of Baldwin County, gathering tar balls that started washing up earlier in the day, Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft said.
The substance was first reported Tuesday morning, west of Lagoon Pass. Other tar balls have been reported near Fort Morgan and farther to the east near the Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores.
Tar balls started washing up on Dauphin Island on Saturday. Tests are being run to determine whether they are related to the oil spill.
Craft said he saw four tar balls while walking about 200 yards along the beach near Lagoon Pass.
"The smallest was about the size of a hamburger patty, and the largest was about the size of a notebook," Craft said. "They were big enough that people can avoid them. Right now, we don't know if they're hazardous, but we're telling people to avoid them and let the contractors clean them up."
Officials with the federal government and BP PLC have estimated that the spill has put more than 4 million gallons of oil into the Gulf since the oil rig exploded April 20.
SkyTruth, an environmental watchdog organization, has estimated that the spill is significantly larger, releasing as much as 21 million gallons of oil in the Gulf.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projections released Tuesday showed the oil staying miles away from Alabama's coast through Friday morning.
BP on Tuesday continued its efforts to try to stop the spill at the source.
An oil containment box, known as a "top hat," was lowered into the sea Tuesday night, and undersea robots will position it over the gusher by Thursday. The new device is much smaller than the one that failed over the weekend.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was in Mobile on Tuesday, said that some of the substance flowing out of the rig leak site could be natural gas, not oil.
"Some tests suggest that a lot of natural gas, as opposed to oil, is leaking out of the well," she said at a news conference at the Mobile Convention Center. "That's probably a good thing."
Here is the map of BP Oil Leak - Oil Spill In Gulf Of Mexico:
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http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/bp_sends_new_containment_to_oi.html
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