AUSTIN - Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson today announced the Texas General Land Office’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response Program is working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard for a coordinated response to the state’s first confirmed impact from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The Coast Guard reported five gallons of tarballs from the Deepwater Horizon spill were found on Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island yesterday.

“We’ve said since day one that if and when we have an impact from Deepwater Horizon, it would be in the form of tarballs,” Patterson said. “This shows that our modeling is accurate. Any Texas shores impacted by the Deepwater spill will be cleaned up quickly and BP will be picking up the tab.”

Two crews are removing tarballs today. Responders have recovered about 35 gallons of waste material at Crystal Beach on Bolivar Peninsula and East Beach on Galveston Island.

Of the 35 gallons of waste material removed, about five gallons are composed of small tar balls, with most of the material consisting of seaweed and sand swept up during cleanup operations.

About one gallon of tar balls was recovered along Crystal Beach on Bolivar Peninsula and about four gallons of tar balls were collected at East Beach on Galveston Island.

An approximately 1.5-mile stretch along Crystal Beach is still being cleaned, with nothing remaining but small tar balls ranging from about three-eighths of an inch in diameter to just over an inch in diameter.

East Beach has been cleaned on Galveston Island, and Stewart Beach was cleaned Tuesday after high tide and before the influx of beachgoers. The number of beachgoers Monday prevented operations on Stewart Beach.

Because tarballs don’t float on the water surface, protective booms won’t stop them from making landfall, which means workers with shovels and rakes must remove them. Any tarballs found are sent for testing to determine their source.

“As always, the Land Office and Coast Guard will work closely together to protect our Texas coastline,” Patterson said. “We have a lot of experience dealing with tarballs. Typically, they’re not hard to remove.”

Tarball tidbits:

While some tarballs may be as large as pancakes, most are coinsized.

Tarballs can travel hundreds of miles.

Weathering processes eventually create a tarball that is hard and crusty on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside.

For most people, occasional brief contact with a small amount of oil will do no harm.

If contact occurs, wash the area with soap and water, baby oil or a widely used, safe cleaning compound such as the cleaning paste sold at auto parts stores.

Don’t use gas! Avoid using solvents, kerosene, diesel fuel or similar products on the skin. These products, when applied to skin, present a greater health hazard than the smeared tarball.

The Land Office responded to 53 reports of tarballs on Texas beaches over the past five years.