Governor Jindal's proposal to build a wall of sand berms to keep oil out of Louisiana's marshes and off its shores has gotten a lot of media coverage, most of it supportive. A growing number of experts have voiced serious concerns or outright opposition to the plan (1). Both they and the public have been hindered by a lack of information about the plan and what exactly has been proposed.
With the posting of documents related to the plan and the state's permit request to the Corps of Engineers answers are beginning to emerge.
Get the complete set of documents here (note: 13MB pdf file)For more information...
On May 11, 2010, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) submitted a one paragraph letter to the New Orleans District of the Corps of Engineers, requesting emergency authorization for "restoration work" on the Chandeleur Islands, and all barrier islands eastward from Grand Terre Island eastward to Sandy Point (above Southwest Pass) to impede inland movement of oil from the Deepwater Horizon Spill. Two drawings accompanied the application letter.
The initial plan appears to have been put together solely within the Governor's Office While Louisiana is home to top scientists and researchers who have been studying the state's barrier islands and coasts for a generation, it is not clear that any of these experts were consulted in the development of this proposal.
The Corps' Executive Summary provides a time line of the process that ensued:
The Corps responded on May 12 that the application was not adequate for approval of emergency authorization.
The state submitted revised drawings on May 14, and a revised permit application on May 15 (a Friday.)
A conference call was held on May 17 and the Corps requested all participating agencies to submit comments by close of business that afternoon. The Corps technical teams in Vicksburg and New Orleans conducted engineering analysis and assessments and forwarded comments from this process to the state on May 21, and the state submitted additional information on May 21st and 24th.
The Corps found that the revised permit application had "potential significant environmental impacts." A portion of the state's proposal was found to provide positive environmental impacts, "with minimal adverse disruption of coastal circulation patterns," and was approved.
The state plan was initially billed in the media as "barrier island restoration," long a part of the state's restoration goals (but never funded.) The permit process revealed that the proposal calls for constructing a 300 foot wide, 25 foot high sand berm, for a total length of 128 miles. A more recent presentation by Garrett Graves, Executive Assistant for Coastal Activities, makes it clear that the proposal is not actually barrier island restoration (http://emergency.louisiana.gov/Releases/06012010-barrier.html
).Federal agencies responded promptly, addressing the issues that they were legally required to explore. They also expressed support for minimizing the effects of the spill on the state's wetlands, and offered assistance. The concerns raised about the state proposal were not strictly environmental (such as effects on wildlife), but also technical, regarding the effects of the plan on the stability of the barrier islands and its basic feasibility.
Reading this file shows that a number of themes commonly repeated by state and local officials - that the federal agencies were "dragging their feet", that concerns were strictly 'environmental," etc. - are not true.
Comments from NOAA on May 13 include the following:
"the plan presently lacks sufficient detail to quantify potential impacts with certainty or precision..."
"accelerated erosion of the barrier island chain may result from creating borrow pits in close proximity to the islands"
"depletion of finite Louisiana sand resources could affect future high-priority restoration projects, largely negating the planning efforts of the past two decades"
"the proposed design section will be difficult to build in some reaches given the depths, currents, and sediment quality and availability"
U.S. EPA's comments of May 13 state that:
"The most basic question is whether the proposed project can be constructed in time to prevent oil from reaching interior waters and wetlands. The most optimistic time frame for completion of the proposed work appears to be four to six months."
A May 14 letter from the U.S. Department of Interior raised some key considerations:
"The berm should be constructed strategically to intercept oil where it is coming ashore first"
"Consideration should be given to downsizing the berm initially, shortening construction time in order to provide protection from oil as quickly as possible. "
Had the state taken this approach initially, or consulted our considerable base of coastal experts then much of the delay and frustration might have been avoided.
The bottom line is that the initial plan put forth by the State of Louisiana was unrealistic, potentially damaging to the existing barrier islands and could have hindered future coastal restoration efforts. Contrary to the story that many Louisiana politicians have told it is clear that the Federal Agencies worked to quickly help the State of Louisiana develop and implement feasible plans. Coastal restoration and protection from BP's oil are vital to the future of Louisiana however we must make smart decisions based on our considerable wealth of scientific expertise and without political motivation.
1. See:
National Public Radio, "Louisiana Sandbar Plan Worries Some Scientists," 5/20/10, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127018713
New York Times, "Experts Express Doubts on Sand-Berm Proposal," 5/21/10, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/ 05/22/us/22berms.html?ref= earth
Los Angeles Times, "Scientists skeptical about rush to build sand barriers," 6/5/10. www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-berms-20100606,0,7544795.story
Scientific American, "Splosh and Berm: Building Sand Barriers off Louisiana's Coast to Hold Back Oil Spill Has Low Probability of Success," 6/8/10
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=oil-spill-may-change-shape-of-gulf-coast-louisiana
Oil_Spill_Health_Survey.doc
Oil_Spill_Health_Survey.pdf
