Cover-up? Oil reported in Florida bay, “You can’t tell me that isn’t oil”; Officials deny BP link (PHOTOS)

Retired Air Force pilot says the oil sheen was about 2500 feet wide as it approached the beach, and extended out into the bay for about 200 yards; foamy reddish brown mousse

Santa Rosa Press Gazette

Santa Rosa Press Gazette

Reports of oil on Blackwater River being investigated, Santa Rosa Press Gazette, June 19, 2010:

An oily substance has come ashore just off of Ward Basin Road in the Blackwater Bay. The property owner, Jim Melvin said he noticed the oil like substance and what looked to be sheen at around 10:30 Friday morning. "It looks like tidal foam mixed with oil," Melvin said. "It was just an awful mess." ...

Melvin, a retired Air Force pilot told the Press Gazette that when he first noticed the water in the morning, he saw what looked like a thin layer of sheen on the surface of the water. ...

When a reporter went to investigate, there were still some remnants of what looked like a shiny substance layering some portions of the water around Melvin's waterfront property in East Milton.

Melvin's next-door neighbors were out swimming and tubing near the resemblant oil. "I've lived here since I was 10 years old.  You can't tell me that isn't oil," he said. ...

In a hastily worded final update entitled, Oil threat on Blackwater is unfounded, the paper reported:

What was beleived [sic] to be oil on the Blackwater River was unfounded.

Memebers [sic] of the Florida Department of Environmental Protectuion [sic] called Ward Basin Road residnet [sic] Jim Melvin and let him know that they had responded to three locations just south of him for orange foam Friday, and no oily material was found. ...

He reported the oil sheen was about 2500 feet wide as it approached the beach, and extended out into the bay for about 200 yards.