Federal Gov't Halts Sand Berm Dredging

[HonestChieffan]

With this sort of crap happening, BP has every right to say that damage done as a result of the federal government stupid decisions shoul be the responsibility of the fed government. This is Obama's environuts causing more damage.d


Federal Gov't Halts Sand Berm Dredging

Nungesser Pleads With President To Allow Work To Continue

POSTED: 5:37 pm CDT June 22, 2010
UPDATED: 5:51 pm CDT June 22, 2010

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NEW ORLEANS -- The federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico.
The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has concerns about where the dredging is being done.
Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who was one of the most vocal advocates of the dredging plan, has sent a letter to President Barack Obama, pleading for the work to continue.
Nungesser said the government has asked crews to move the dredging site two more miles farther off the coastline.
"Once again, our government resource agencies, which are intended to protect us, are now leaving us vulnerable to the destruction of our coastline and marshes by the impending oil," Nungesser wrote to Obama. "Furthermore, with the threat of hurricanes or tropical storms, we are being put at an increased risk for devastation to our area from the intrusion of oil.
Nungesser has asked for the dredging to continue for the next seven days, the amount of time it would take to move the dredging operations two miles and out resume work.
Work is scheduled to halt at midnight Wednesday.

[petegz28]

this is so stupid. Don't dredge here, dredge over there. The oil won't come here and if it does, the wildlife we were protecting by not dredging here will die anyway.

What a bunch of idiots we have running this show.

[Hydrae]

So what is the problem with building the berms farther out at sea? Other than the week it will take to move the equipement, I fail to see the issue but I am sure there are a myriad of details not included in this article.

[The Mad Crapper]

[orange]

Originally Posted by Hydrae

So what is the problem with building the berms farther out at sea? Other than the week it will take to move the equipement, I fail to see the issue but I am sure there are a myriad of details not included in this article.

State urges federal government to allow sand berm dredging to proceed in Gulf oil spill fight
Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 4:47 PM Updated: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 5:40 PM

Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune


A day after being told by the federal government that the state had to halt its construction of an oil protection berm at the northern reaches of the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and other coastal leaders urged the Obama administration to let work continue as contractors shift their dredging to an alternative site over the next week.

Jindal said the state has agreed to move the dredges a mile farther offshore, but doesn't understand why dredging can't continue until that work is complete.

Officials with the Interior Department in Washington said they have already given the state more than a week to get sand from a more distant borrow site, and that continuing to dredge in the current location could pose long-term risks for the current barrier island system.

After a helicopter tour of the newly created land near the Chandeleur chain, which has been withering away due to a succession of hurricanes over the past decade, Jindal scoffed at the federal government's concerns.

"We've been losing 300 feet every year off these islands. Where has the federal government been?" he asked. "They haven't spent a dollar to protect these islands. 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?"

The state has pushed the plan to add the berms to help fight the encroaching oil from the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Meixco.

The state's contractros were told by the Army Corps of Engineers to shut down dredging operations Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. Contractors are now working to extend the pipe a mile farther out to the alternative sand borrow site. Once that is done, likely within seven days, the state will be able to proceed with the dredging.

Garret Graves, Jindal's coastal advisor, said the current borrow site is permitted by the Corps and that moving to the more distant borrow sites was a "verbal condition" that the federal government gave after the permit was approved.

Jindal pointed out that the state is willing to backfill the hole they are digging now "within weeks, not months."

The concern with the current borrow site is that sand circulating in the island system could become trapped in the borrow pit, thus accelerating land loss throughout the Chandeleur chain. The federal government believes a site farther offshore would pose less of a risk.