I have seen a lot of different situations over the 35 plus years of selling, then later manufacturing farm equipment. However, none of it compares to the scope and magnitude of the Gulf shore cleanup, following the massive oil spill. There was no template in place for such a temporary cleanup effort of this scope for BP to draw from. Throw in the heated emotions of the entire event, and it left BP in a tough position to restore our Gulf beaches and get it done fast. The entire effort was put together in a matter of weeks, and continues on through this day (Dec. 17th from when this article was written.) With government regulations, bad press, and shady contractors, I certainly don’t envy BP during this event. I do feel they are doing the best that they can, and really are attempting to restore our Gulf shores to their pristine natural state.
Our story with BP and the cleanup began when a contractor working on BP’s behalf purchased forty one tractors from a local dealership in the South. They had requested these tractors be delivered to the primary staging area in Mobile, AL, and they needed them within ten days.
The contractor had asked the salesman at the dealership if he knew of a piece of equipment that could smooth and level the sand in a fast and efficient manner. The salesman didn’t have an answer to the query on the spot, and promised to look into it.
It was our website, www.wingfields.com, that introduced the Wingfield Flexible Harrow to the Gulf shore cleanup effort. After finding that none of his suppliers could assist, he turned to other avenues to find the proper piece of equipment. The salesman had come across our site and noted that our harrow was used to level and firm soil – mainly for agricultural use.
The harrow he found on our site is mounted on a three point frame with skids to control height and is available in widths up to 23 feet with hydraulic folding wings for transport. Wanting more information, he emailed our company, requesting prices on five 20 foot models to level the beaches. After reviewing the email, I called the dealer and found an urgent need for our harrow. I recommended that we bring a unit to the Gulf for a demonstration within 2 to 3 days. I then loaded a 20 foot unit into my pickup, and at the last moment, I decided to add an optional smoothing pipe across the back of the harrow which transformed our pasture harrow into a beach harrow. We then proceeded the 800 miles to the Gulf.
I was instructed to drive to the main staging area where I first saw how large this operation was going to be. This massive field was filled with all kinds of equipment, potty houses, trailers, plus many other items. I was asked by the contractor to deliver the harrow directly to Johnson Beach on Perdido Key, FL.
Upon arriving at the satellite staging area there was a lot of activity, and a lot of amenities for the workers: a huge white tent with large tubes attached to a generator/air conditioner, several hand washing stations in front of the tent and a large box ice truck. On the asphalt behind the truck, new, big white coolers were being filled with bottled water and ice. There were two semi-trailers, tractors, trailers, and potty houses scattered about in an orderly fashion. Everything that sat on this lot was brand new, and were all flanked with orange cones for safety.
After trying unsuccessfully to find someone in charge, I was finally given a space in front of the tent to setup the harrow – after dropping the name of the manager I had dealt with at the main staging area. I unloaded the harrow and positioned it for assembly when suddenly four red cones were positioned on the corners around the work area, followed by yellow caution tape which outlined our construction area. We were safe, and so was anybody that walked by! This was my first exposure, of many, to various regulations and red tape (in addition to yellow caution tape) that would occur while assisting in the beach cleanup. I finished the setup of the harrow, left to find a hotel, and I returned the next morning for the demonstration.
That next morning, I arrived at the satellite staging area where I was faced with an entirely different group of people (that is when I found the workers were on twelve hour shifts). It was difficult to acquire the right tractor, a person who could operate the tractor, plus anyone who worked there who might know how to hook the unit up to the tractor. Clearly these were not farmers…
I finally had reached the beach, and was eager to see how the unit would perform. However, before I could get the demonstration underway, I encountered two problems in the 95 degree temperature: a park ranger from Colorado had difficulty deciding exactly where on the beach I could demonstrate the unit, and a gentleman in a long sleeved shirt wanting to mount a decibel meter on the tractor. The decibels of noise at various r.p.m. for this tractor are of course published information, generally found on each piece of literature at any dealership. But this man spent 15 minutes trying to convince the tractor’s operator that he was the only person qualified to make the determination of just how loud this tractor was. Out of frustration, I mentioned to the park ranger to tell him that if his concern was about the tractor noise, perhaps he might consider mounting the meter on the next wave and shut down the ocean first, because its noise was blocking any tractor noise!
Finally, with decisions and concessions made, my long awaited harrow demonstration could begin. After a few passes, I had the harrow, the tractor, and the operator adjusted, and was satisfied with the results. I had the driver make a pass just above the high tide level in the loose sand. This pass would simulate how the surface of the beach would appear after each oil cleanup operation was completed. It did not seem many people were watching the demonstration, but I was pleased with the way the sand was groomed using the Wingfield Beach Harrow. I was very hot, was given a bottle of water, and returned to the beach-front hotel that I had found late the night before in Orange Beach, AL.
This large hotel was 10 floors high and one half block wide, but only had five vehicles in the parking lot on June 24, 2010. This indicated how devoid of people and tourists this area was. Normally, it would be packed. It reminded me of entering New Orleans seven weeks after hurricane Katrina to retrieve my daughter’s car, except there was no visible sign of damage here, just an eerie lack of people. Fifteen minutes after I got into the hotel room, I received a call from the dealer (who was supplying the contractor) and he gave me an order for six more 20 foot Wingfield Beach Harrows. After several negotiating calls, and with my understanding of the urgent need for our product, I agreed to deliver the units to the beach in seven days.
We are a small company with dedicated employees which allowed me to leave our plant five days later with the complete order and the paint still drying along the way. The next day and 800 mile behind me, I was assisting with the setup.
Following these deliveries, I would call down to the Gulf dealeship for feedback on how the harrows were performing and was told they had no information, good or bad, on the harrows. By the end of July, I was contacted by a different dealer near the Gulf asking about a harrow exactly like the units that were being used for the cleanup effort. He only had a picture of our harrow working on the beach and asked certain questions to verify we were the manufacturer. After confirming we were the harrow manufacturer, he placed an order for the same model for the city of Orange Beach, AL. They wanted the harrow to maintain the eight miles of beach the city was in charge of. We have remained in contact with their beach department and they are completely satisfied.
After that sale, we hadn’t heard anything until Wednesday, October 13th at 10 AM. That morning I received a call from a person who was in the BP purchasing department. This was my first contact with anymore directly or indirectly from the company itself. He asked if we were the manufacturer of the harrows that were being used on the beach and asked if I knew where they were located now. I had told him that I had not seen or heard anything about them since I had delivered the six units the end of June. He had stated the contractor in charge of the cleanup was cancelled soon after the oil stopped floating onto the shore; and that now, BP was directly in charge of any future oil removal from the beach. He said he would research the location of the harrows and call me if he had any questions.
Within ten minutes of our first call, he called back to tell me that the original harrows belonging to the terminated contractor had been moved to a location in Houston, TX. This contractor was expecting BP to pay a premium price above list price for these used harrows, harrows for which BP had already paid a hefty lease payment to the contractor. No wonder this cleanup is going to drain BP, and this is just one example!
At this time, with 99% of the visible oil at the beach surface removed, BP was committed to removing the oil below the surface of the beach itself. BP was digging test holes in the sand to determine which areas would need to be tilled with a moldboard plow to a depth of 12 to 18 inches. The plow would expose the dry oil pieces which were then sifted manually, and removed. This operation left a very rough surface and every day the beach had to be plowed, oil removed, and leveled only at low tide and before high tide. I was sure our harrow would do the job, but I recommended a 10 foot model to the man in charge, due to the smaller areas in which they were operating. He stated he would need to contact five other people in his company via email for an agreement before he could even place the order and asked how soon two units could be shipped. I told him he needed to give us a purchase order by 4 PM that day, since we already had a truck heading south to attend the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA. I told him that we could deliver the units two days later, if he could meet that deadline.
Within four hours our company received a purchase order for two 10 foot beach harrows, and with this, BP faxed the papers for us to become a vendor for BP (this showed us how desperate they were for the harrows, as normally this procedure would take weeks to finalize). There were five pages of instructions, with the first page coming from BP’s legal counsel notifying us that we would have to keep all paperwork, correspondence, as well as emails – as long as we both shall live. The information required for us to provide a full page of department numbers, assignment numbers, signatures, and titles on each individual invoice, and this was before any equipment was even listed.
Two afternoons later, I was entering BP’s temporary compound. It was quite an interesting experience. Two or three guards at the entrance were there to sign you in and then call to the headquarters building for permission to enter. I was directed to go to the office to obtain clearance for a place to unload, and to arrange for workers to assist with assembly. The five workers they sent along to “help” rode up on a brand new RTV without any tools, not even a wrench among them. However, they did have a government safety officer watching over them like a cat ready to pounce. Finally, with our safety assured, the harrows were assembled, the paperwork was signed in triplicate, and I proceeded onto the farm show in Georgia.
After the show, I returned to the Gulf to see how the units were performing. I found out the harrows had been in use the entire time, as the cleanup effort was a 24/7 operation. I went to a section of open beach where it was just workers and equipment. There I had the opportunity to talk to the men operating the harrow, see for myself how the unit was working, and was able to take pictures of the beautiful condition it was leaving the beach. All was well.
The next morning I drove to the beach where another harrow was working. This beach was parallel to apartment buildings close to the beach. Only about 20 feet of actual beach was available to beach goers and tourists, and the rest was cordoned off with yellow caution tape for several hundred feet. Here there were numerous safety people in yellow vests overseeing the operation. I saw one person in a yellow vest whose entire job was to escort people from an apartment complex across the work zone to the beach, and back again when they were finished relaxing on their 20 feet of beach. It was here I noticed the harrow wasn’t adjusted properly, and I stepped over the tape to advise the driver. Big mistake! Immediately, a safety person escorted me to the other side of the tape. After some time I was able to signal the operator to drive along the caution tape so I could adjust the harrow. While I was doing the adjustment, a safety person instructed me that I had to quit interfering with the harrow – as an EPA official was wanting me to leave the beach for holding up the cleanup effort. Although my adjustments would actually speed up the process, you just can’t get through to some people.
Two weeks later, I received a call from the manager of the main BP staging area. He said that BP had decided to remove oil particles to a depth of 4 feet, whether it was from their spill or earlier deposits – they were taking no chances. They had a total of 35 miles of beach that needed to be worked; and he ordered four more harrows, to be shipped ASAP. Understanding the urgency and dedication BP had been showing, we once again rushed out the units and they were up and running inside a week.
Then following week, we received a call from a contractor who was doing beach cleanup work for BP on Dauphin Island, AL, just west of the BP cleaning area. After viewing the leveling and finish our harrows had provided for BP’s operation, they ordered four 10 foot beach harrows for the deep cleaning operations that BP insisted they perform on the beach, for which the contractor was responsible for. All of these harrows were shipped in four days.
During the last 60 days (Oct. 15 – Dec 15) we have delivered sixteen of our 10 foot beach harrows to level and smooth the beaches along the Gulf coast. So far, everyone who has operated the units have had nothing but praise.
I am impressed with what BP has done, so far, to clean and improve our Gulf shoreline. They have insisted that all workers be friendly and polite to all people using the beach during this crisis and have strived to return our beaches to their natural pristine beauty after each cleaning operation. It seems fitting that a quality American made product is being used in the cleanup of our beaches, and the Wingfield employees are proud our harrow was chosen to assist in the restoration of beautiful Gulf region. The only ugly things that remain for us seem to be the attitudes of those government safety officers, and I surely can’t do a thing about them…
-Dean Wingfield
© 2010
When Wingfield Harrows Met the Gulf Cleanup Effort
January 10, 2011…almost 9 months after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Long after the majority of the world has turned their attention to other stories, the disaster continues along the Alabama Gulf Coast. I have been documenting the spill and recovery since it happened and today was as bad as I have seen it along the Alabama coast since it first began washing ashore. It’s just 60 degrees cooler so the oil is hardened instead of liquified. The crude oil smell was present and seeing tons of hardened crude oil along the beach was heart-breaking and maddening.
With powerful winter wind and waves, oil that sank to the bottom (NO…it did not evaporate or get consumed by oil-eating microbes) is being washed ashore. Large chunks of it are washing up on the beach at the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge between Gulf Shores and Ft. Morgan, Alabama. In addition, oil that washed ashore during the summer that wasn’t cleaned up, was buried by sand. The powerful surf is uncovering thick layers of it.
I saw a total of 5 birds on the mile stretch of beach I visited today. Five birds in a national wildlife refuge. They included one sanderling, one willet and three herring gulls, one of whom was sick and couldn’t fly even though he tried several times to get air-borne. There were a few pelicans flying offshore…over the caramel-colored foamy water. The smell…that horrible smell of hot diesel…was strong in places. No wonder wildlife is, for the most part, avoiding the beach. Hopefully they have gone far away from the toxic waste dump formerly known as a wildlife refuge.
