Governor Bobby Jindal wants President Obama to arrive in Louisiana armed with an emergency permit from Army Corp of Engineers to allow dredging to create man made barrier islands.
Jindal says it’s an absolute necessity to saving marshes and grasslands.
I traveled with a convoy of boats with the governor to the mouth of Pass a l’Outre where thick syrupy oil is destroying more and more each day.
Tall reeds stretching out of the smelly oil-saturated water are slowly being smothered and no wildlife can live in the muck. We could barely breathe just being near the area.
Jindal says a boom was not placed around the area in time and he became more and more agitated with each breath, talking about how this area will likely never be saved.
It was bizarre to see the change in the water as we arrived. The thin oil sheen stretched on and on with its rust-and-burnt-orange colorations. It would then give way to large clumps and globs then a continuous thick syrupy muck.
The absorbent boom that is now in Pass a l’Outre is now fully saturated and needs to be removed.
The smell burns in my throat. It rises from the water with a hint of paint thinner heavy gasoline odor and finishes in the nostrils with the scent of raw sewage. It feels like its pulling air from my lungs.
Also on the boats with Jindal and media types is the Plaquemines Parrish president who not really so jokingly suggested leaving a few BP executives in the oil for a while to truly get a first hand snoot full of the gaseous putrid smell.
Heading out of Pass a l’Outre we pass miles and miles opaque oil sheen.