Tar Balls Discovered on Brevard Beaches
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
By: Tom Parkinson

July 7, 2010 - Tar balls have been washing up on beaches in Brevard County over the past few days. Officials have sent samples to a Coast Guard lab to find out whether the substance is from the oil spill in the Gulf or from another source.

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Beachgoers discovered more than a dozen tar balls on Cocoa Beach Tuesday The Coast Guard collected samples of the tar and sent them to a laboratory in Connecticut for testing.
Tar also washed ashore on Satellite Beach and Melbourne Beach in the past week. Test results on one of those samples confirmed it did not come from the Deepwater Horizon spill. 
Brevard County spokeswoman Kimberly Prosser said there is a lot of ship traffic along the coast and the tar could be from a number of sources. “A couple of months ago a shrimp trawler broke apart just east of Cape Canaveral” Prosser said, “so there’s some speculation that it could be from that.”
Prosser said results from tests on the most recent samples are expected late next week.
She says if the tar is from the Gulf spill, BP will be responsible for the clean up.