Louisiana oil spill containment problems
The oil spill resulted from the Deepwater Horizon incident which took place on the 22nd of April is continuing its path along the coastline of the United States of America. The oil is expected to reach Barataria Bay, a very large estuary which is located in the southeast Louisiana. The biggest problem is the fact that Barataria Bay is one of the biggest and most productive fisheries in the United States of America and in case that the production will have to stop, the entire country will suffer from an economical point of view. The officials have created a plan to stop the oil from reaching the waters which are overpopulated with fish.
The officials have created this plan since May, as they received information that the oil might reach the area if the situation is not solved fast. The situation was not solved fast and the expectations are that it will be solved at the end of August. The plan of the officials is to create rock dikes which would spread across several major tidal inlets which are located between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The officials hope that the dikes will be able to stop and then collect the oil.
The program is estimated to cost $30 million. The governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, supported the plan of the officials, and British Petroleum, the company which is responsible for the incident, agreed to finance the program. The ones in charge with the construction of the saving solution began to transport more than 100,000 tons of rock from the Mississippi River to the coasts of Louisiana. The situation got complicated in the past days, as the Army Corps of Engineers did not allow the permit for the construction of the dikes. The reason for the denial of the permit was that the rocks could represent a real environmental danger. They fear that the rock barriers might affect the region in case they erode. The Army Corps of Engineers was not the first organization to oppose the plan which was created by the officials; many independent experts on coastal wetlands objected the plan of the officials for the same reasons.
The problem is that the 100,000 tons of rocks which were collected from the Mississippi river, sit on 75 barges, as no one has the intention of using them anymore. The spill occurred almost three months ago, and the oil is getting closer and closer to the Louisiana coast. The officials of the state are very concerned, and they are willing to try various solutions which would stop the oil from reaching the areas which are extremely important both from an ecological and economical point of view. The coast of Louisiana is a very fragile one and all the solutions which the officials have considered to use came in direct conflict with the community of scientists of the local area and with the federal bureaucracy which has the task of protecting the wetlands and the estuaries of the state.
Deano Bonano, the emergency-preparedness director for Jefferson Parish, a region which borders Barataria Bay, harshly criticized the scientists and the ones who oppose the plans of the officials. He criticized them for their lack of actions, stating that “They’re just sitting back criticizing.” He is displeased by the fact that even if they are from the region, they do not provide solutions which would save the coast from the oil and which would not interfere with the fragile ecosystem. Jindal stated that no matter how good the intentions of the scientists are, they can not bring arguments that the rocks are more dangerous for the ecosystem than the oil. He accused the bureaucrats from Washington D.C, stating that they do not know the situation because they do not live in the area. Just like Bonano, Jindal is displeased by the fact that the officials have only received critics for their decision and that no one thought about helping them with a solution.
Denise Reed, a wetlands specialist and director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences in New Orleans, stated that the situation is different than the officials present it. He said that the main defense of the coasts against the oil is represented by the barrier shoreline, and that the barrier shoreline would be the first one affected by the rocks brought from the Mississippi river. The erosion is a very big problem in the state of Louisiana. Since 1930, the state has lost about 1.2 million acres because of it, and it is continuing to lose them at the rate of 25 square miles per year. The independent workers have always worked with the officials in order to find a solution for this problem.
However, in this case the experts and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency were the ones who opposed the plans of the officials even before the ruling for the plan was announced. The main reason for their opposition is that the rock barriers would be extremely affected by the rocks which they want to install. In case of hurricanes, or any other major storms, the rock barriers are the ones which protect the coasts. If they are eroded, repairing them would be impossible, which would leave the coast vulnerable to the waves and to the other dangers which are brought by the storms. The experts consider them to be a much better mean of protection against the oil than the rocks which the officials intend to bring from the Mississippi river.
They are offended by the statements of Jindal and Bonano, especially since they have collaborated with the officials for tens of years. Even so, the accusations against them seem to come from every direction, especially since the entire US government has been critiqued for the slowness of their actions when it came to solving the problem. The scientists consider that they have been mistreated especially since the officials have not contacted them before making the decision to bring the rocks from Mississippi.
