Louisiana’s governor and coastal parish leaders are criticizing BP and the federal government for moving too slowly in addressing a growing oil spill that has already contaminated 65 miles of the state’s coastline.
“We met today to take action, to take matters into our own hands,” said Gov. Bobby Jindal. “We know we’ve got to do that if we’re gonna win this fight to protect our coast.”
State, parish and city officials have arranged daily coastal surveys and identified people and equipment ready to jump into action on short notice. But their ultimate plan of dredging protective sand berms along Louisiana’s barrier islands still awaits a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, which is studying the project’s potential impact on the environment.
“As you can see, our worst nightmare has come true,” Plaquemines Parish President BIlly Nungesser said as he pointed to a recent photo of pelicans in a nearby rookery saturated with oil. “Had we started the dredge project when we first demanded an emergency permit, a lot of the areas that we’re all here to talk about would have been protected. And I believe 80 to 90 percent of this oil could have been kept at bay on the barrier islands.”
FOLLOW JONATHAN ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK AND KYTE.
The theory behind the plan is that oil is easier to clean on the sandy beaches of barrier islands, but difficult — if not impossible — to remove from wetlands. Proposals to burn or flood the oil out of marshes could also destroy these important wildlife habitats.
“We can fight this oil on the barrier islands 15 to 20 miles off our coast or we can face it in thousands of miles of fragmented wetlands,” Jindal said. “Every day we’re not given approval on this emergency permit to create more of these sand booms is another day that choice is made for us, as more and more miles of our shore are hit by oil.”
Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle said there is a dredge sitting idle just off the coast of his community. “Boy! You don’t know how bad I want to go as a pirate and take that thing and start blowing sand,” he said.
The mayor was, of course, joking. But his statement reflects the increasing frustration of many coastal Louisiana residents.
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has started voicing its own frustration over the pace of BP’s response to the oil spill. “If we find they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, we’ll push them out of the way appropriately,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Today, Salazar and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano are scheduled to lead a bi-partisan Senate delegation to the region to monitor the oil spill and the response.