Official: Preserving Gulf Coast a big undertaking

miami herald ^ | 1/6/11 | ap, CAIN BURDEAU

[Nachum]

NEW ORLEANS -- A White House appointee says preserving a Gulf Coast ecosystem damaged by decades of erosion and months of crude oil that gushed from a deep-sea well off Louisiana will be an enormous undertaking, the "grandaddy" of restoration projects.

"I have been involved in many ecosystem restoration projects, but this is the grandaddy of them all," said John Hankinson, a veteran of restoration projects in Florida.

Hankinson was appointed in October as executive director of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a group that will recommend how to use the heavy fines likely to confront energy company BP for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The White House plans to use the fines - which could potentially run to the billions of dollars - on projects to restore beaches, marshes, water quality and wildlife in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

[Nachum]

Hold on to your wallets folks

[Jolla]

There was a lot across the street from the beach in San Francisco that was restored, maybe one acre, 10 years ago, $1.2million.

[Sacajaweau]

Pre-election bribes now in the making. Probably have to hire thousands of enviro nazis....

[Marty62]

Under NO circumstances should anyone from this Administration be allowed in restoring the area.

If it is possible to find someone with commonsense to run this, they should be hired. No hairbrained schemes by ecofreaks. Only solid nature solutions.

[IronJack]

Translation: the time-honored liberal tradition of driving dumptrucks full of money to the nearest “problem” won’t work in this case. Think on the order of container ships. Or at least boxcars.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[ArmstedFragg]

In other words, they couldn’t find much oil spill damage, so they’re expanding their mandate.

[Romulus]

We’re trying to hold on to our coastline, if you don’t mind. (If you’re an American, it’s your coastline too.)

Freshwater diversion from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya are a big part of the solution, along with closing old access canals dredged deep into the marshes by drilling & exploration companies.

At risk are the coastal marshes, as both hurricane buffers and incubators of most of the wild-caught seafood harvested by US fishermen, and the long-term viability of the Mississippi as a channel for commercial shipping. These are legitimate national interests.