So, I went back to the beach just north of Santa Barbara today. I was actually a little surprised. The beach is not clean at all. And there is still an oily smell. Mind you, this is not either of the beaches that were closed, El Capitan and Refugio. This is much further south (10-20 miles) in North Goleta, what is called Santa Barbara Shores County Park/Ellwood Beach.
I was shocked by what I saw. There were like these blacks strands of what looked like glass chips, and numerous blobs of oil amongst them. On closer inspection, the strands are actually little oil chips or blobs. The strands continue along the beach pretty much continuously. I have been going to this beach for many years and while there was always a little beach tar, I have never seen anything like this. And this is supposed to be a beach not even effected by the spill.
It looks to me that stuff is still washing ashore and I am not talking about a little bit of stuff. I would advise everyone to stay out of the water there.
I've got about another 11 photos, but won't post them unless someone asks. They are mostly worse than the one above, having bigger blobs of oil.
I'll be contacting Sen. Boxer (Feinstein is useless, but that's another story), Congr. Capps and some Co. Supervisors about this tomorrow. They need to get someone out here and clean this up and monitor if oil is still coming out of the water, I think.