'THIS IS OUR DEFENSE': Walton County will defy state, lay hay on incoming oil (PHOTOS)

In defiance of Florida Department of Environmental Protection wishes, Walton County emergency officials are determined to use hay to protect their beaches from sludge.

The DEP responded late last week to Walton County’s action plan for containing oil reaching its shores from the Deep-water Horizon oil spill in Louisiana.

To see photos of booms and bales in South Walton, click here.

To see maps of the projected path, click here.

To see Monday's photos from ground zero in the Gulf, click here.

Read the action plans for Okaloosa and Walton counties. »

For now, Emerald Coast beaches are unspoiled. See the photos »

Agency heads were critical of the idea of attacking incoming oil when it was still well off shore by spreading hay in the Gulf of Mexico to absorb it.

The DEP, which has final say in oil spill preparation planning, claims the hay would be ineffective and add to the mess the spill will make.

Michael Barker, head of Walton County’s Emergency Operations Center, said Monday that the county is committed to its action plan.

“The unified command in Mobile has done us no good whatsoever and we’re getting no guidance from DEP,” Barker said. “Nobody else has come up with a better plan, so absent any kind of guidance from anybody, this is our defense.”

Barker said the county prefers a bigger mess to clean up offshore than one that defiles its miles of pristine beach.

“They say it will make a bigger mess,” he said. “Our thing is we want to protect the sand on that pretty white beach.”

State Sen. Don Gaetz had spoken with Mike Sole, the secretary of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, about the Walton County plan and learned of the DEP’s objections to the use of hay.

Sole’s conclusions were that Walton County’s testing of the absorbent qualities of hay is “not real world,” said Gaetz, R-Niceville.

“The oil would be too weathered to be soaked up by hay,” Gaetz said, quoting Sole.

Experts describe weathered oil as oil that has been exposed to the elements for long enough to have become soaked with water and pick up sediments or other debris.

“Hay will cause more problems than it will solve,” Gaetz said, again paraphrasing Sole’s words. “It will create more cleanup and pickup because the oil is of a different consistency.”

It was unclear Monday whether Walton County’s decision to buck the DEP’s wishes would prevent the county from having its action plan accepted by the state.

Plans submitted last week by Santa Rosa and Escambia counties were accepted by the DEP Monday.

Okaloosa County turned in its action plan for defeating incoming oil Monday. One phase of its plan, booming the southernmost end of Destin Pass, has already been approved for implementation.

Also unclear for Walton County was whether it could, without the DEP’s approval of its full plan, be eligible for a portion of $25 million BP has set aside for local governments to use.

The oil giant, which has accepted responsibility for the ongoing spill, has provided funds to Florida to help municipalities arm themselves against whatever oil makes it to the Emerald Coast.

Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson, who helped develop the county action plan, said he wasn’t worried so much about losing funding as he was about taking the offensive in the face of an impending crisis.

“The only plans DEP is approving are boom plans, and I’m just not satisfied with that,” he said. “If the only option is something that only works 10 percent of the time I’m asking if there’s anything better.”

He said he realizes the hay plan “could be a colossal failure on my part” but added that the county’s decision to try something so radical has been positively viewed and that a facebook page dedicated to the hay concept has proven quite popular.

“I believe the people in Walton County expect us to take a leadership role,” he said. “This may be a failure on my part, but it’s not going to be a failure to take action.”

Gaetz said he had asked Sole to request that BP provide more funds, on the order of “at least a couple hundred million,” to compensate Florida cities and counties already losing tax revenues to declining tourism.

He also called on Sole to have BP establish claim centers in Northwest Florida to begin processing claims.

Gaetz said as of Monday BP had seven claim adjusters in the state and the phone number established for state residents to make claims is “almost always busy.”

He said he’d learned that BP has thus far processed a total of 493 claims and paid out $44,000.

“You can walk down the dock in Destin with a pen and notepad and document more than $44,000 in damages,” Gaetz said.

Here is the Huffington Post's glowing take on the situation, click here.