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An Honest Discussion Of Louisiana's Berm Plan - Part 2 |
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The
shut down on June 23 of part of the state's dredging operations for
construction of offshore sand berms was treated by Governor Jindal as a
sudden and arbitrary action by federal agencies. (1) But the reality is
somewhat different.
While some media stories conveyed the
impression that the state's entire sand berm plan was approved by the
Corps of Engineers in late May, only six sections of the original
proposal were given a permit. Two sections to the east of the river, on
the upper end of the Chandeleur Island chain, and four sections west of
the river were authorized by the Corps, which described them as
"critical locations where greater immediate benefit is likely to be
achieved with minimal adverse disruption of coastal circulation
patterns." (2)
The Corps Permit specified the source areas for
sand/sediment: Ship Shoal, South Pelto, the Mississippi River Offshore
Disposal Site, and Pass a Loutre for the western sites, and St. Bernard
shoal and Hewes Point for the sites to the east. The location of borrow
and dredge sites at the northern end of the Chandeleur Islands has been
one of the areas of greatest concern. NOAA and other agencies had
pointed out that creating borrow pits or dredging in close proximity to
the islands could cause accelerated erosion and even compromise their
stability, so using a source site a couple of miles away was a
condition of the permit.
Soon after receiving its permit,
however, the state began to voice its intention to source near to the
islands after all, due to a lack of pipe for pumping sand and mud from
a distance. The state said it would replace sand from the dredged site
within a few weeks, but federal agencies agreed to this change with a
much shorter time limit because of the possible effects on the island.
Despite
the Governor's repeated claims that "we don't have a day to wait," the
state was not ready for the approved level of dredging even after it
was approved. Federal officials said that "the state has been
unprepared since the beginning, has caused further delay because it did
not have the proper pipe available and has continued to asked for time
to shift to the offshore site. According to the Interior Department, it
gave the state permission for more than a week to use the closer source
of sand while locating the pipe, but that allowing the state to
continue dredging could have negative effects on existing barrier
islands." (3)
An official with the Department of Interior noted
that if the department had allowed the state to continue digging where
it was digging, they feared approaching a "tipping point" with an
"impact on that island chain that may never be restored."(4) The
Governor's reaction was to completely ignore these considerations and
instead attack the federal agencies: "We haven't heard from them before
today about any concern about these islands or this area. All of a
sudden now that we're building new land to protect our coast, they're
worried about a hypothetical consequence?" (5)
The Governor may
not have heard or read the federal agencies concerns in their response
to the state's permit application, or have seen the U.S. Geological
Survey report last year about the status of the Chandeleur Islands and
how they could be actually restored in ways that minimize adverse
impacts (http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2009/5252).
He
could have read the comments of his own Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries, which pointed out in its letter to the Corps the need to
"determine whether or not borrow area excavation will increase wave
energy and subsequent shoreline erosion, alter littoral currents, or
otherwise impact depositional processes, in a way that undermines the
sustainability of inland islands, marsh, and shorelines, most
importantly the Chandeleur Islands." (6)
For views of the sand berm and other spill related issues from the
perspective of a coastal scientist please visit the Louisiana Coast
Post by Len Bahr, Ph.D. Dr. Bahr is a former LSU marine sciences
faculty member who
served 18 years as a coastal policy advisor to Louisiana governors from
Roemer to Jindal. Dr. Bahr gives the sand berm plan an official "thumbs
down" here.
(1)
C. Kirkham, Times-Picayune, "Louisiana officials urge feds to let
dredging continue on berm to fight Gulf oil spill," 6/24/10, www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/louisiana_officials_again_ask.html.
(2) Documents related to the plan and the state's permit request to the
Corps of Engineers have been posted at http://leanweb.org/images/stories/bpspill/emergency_permit_documents_final.pdf.
(3) C. Kirkham, J. Tilove, Times-Picayune, "State halts dredging of sand
for berms," 6/23/10.
(4) Times-Picayune, 6/24/10.
(5) Times-Picayune, 6/24/10.
(6) Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, letter of 5/13/10,
http://leanweb.org/images/stories/bpspill/emergency_permit_documents_final.pdf.
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