Jindal: We won’t wait for federal permission to start building sand berms
AP ^ | 5-23-10 | AP
Posted on Monday, May 24, 2010 12:15:40 AM by joinedafterattack
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2519764/posts
With oil pushing at least 12 miles into Louisiana’s marshes and two major pelican rookeries now coated in crude, Gov. Bobby Jindal says the state is working on chain of sand berms that would skirt the state’s coastline.
Jindal visited one of the affected nesting grounds Sunday. Jindal and officials from several coastal parishes say the berms would close the door on the oil still pouring from a deepwater gusher about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast.
The berms would be made with sandbags. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also is considering a broader plan that would use dredging to build sand berms across more of the barrier islands.
(Excerpt) Read more at wwl.com ...
The U.S. Coast Guard and BP were slow to make decisions and delayed supplying necessary clean-up equipment even as oil washes onto the state’s fragile marshland, Governor Bobby Jindal said.
Jindal said he was “frustrated” by the slow pace and said the delays were “unacceptable.” He called for the Coast Guard to delegate more authority to local leaders to protect their own parishes.
In one example of delay, parish presidents had put in an urgent request to the Coast Guard on May 3 for 5 million feet (1.5 million meters) of hard boom to stop oil before it hits the coast but so far only around 800,000 feet had been supplied, Jindal said.
He also raised the pressure on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to grant permission for the construction of a series of sand levees and said he was “passionate” about the issue.
“Silence on this plan is the equivalent of saying: ‘we will just clean it (oil) out of the wetlands,’” he said, arguing that the dangers of inaction were far greater than possible risks of associated with construction.
(SO CALLED) Experts on the coast including conservationists and academics have deep doubts about the plan, arguing it would take too long to implement and could alter the Mississippi River delta’s balance between fresh and salt water.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64M2L220100524?type=politicsNews
14 posted on Monday, May 24, 2010 1:09:48 AM by kcvl
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