Frustrated Louisiana officials Sunday demanded the federal government approve their plans to dredge up walls of sand to protect delicate inland estuaries from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
"Either the Coast Guard has to side with its American citizens and protect its communities, or it has to side with a major world corporation named BP and betray American citizens in that process," St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro told reporters.
With oil sloshing ashore along the state's barrier islands and seeping into marshes around the mouth of the Mississippi River, state and parish leaders want to use dredges to close channels between the Gulf and the coastal estuaries.
They said those plans have been held up by the Army Corps of Engineers and the agencies in charge of the spill response, including the Coast Guard and BP, the company responsible for the spill.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry, the federal on-scene coordinator for the response effort, told reporters the barrier island project was still under review. Environmental and wildlife officials "are weighing in on the impact to endangered and threatened species and other impacts this large-scale project could have," she said.
But Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser pointed to pictures of an oil-covered pelican nesting ground and asked reporters, "Is it affected now?"
Gov. Jindal said his state needs "a greater sense of urgency" from those in charge of the cleanup, or for them to delegate authority to regional officials. He said the state is already doing preparatory work for dredging and could begin operations immediately on receiving approval.
"I don't have a crystal ball," said St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro. "But if I were a betting man, I would be betting that the plan is to let us die, then come back and do $75 million worth of cleanup and close the book."
He said some officials had even suggested setting oil-soaked marshes ablaze, a step he called "not an option for us."
"That kills our hurricane protection. It wipes out our species, our ecosystem and everything we've been fighting to protect," he said
Today I received literature from the World Wildlife Fund with a list of TEN simple things you can do to Help Save the Earth:
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2. Put one foot in front of the other.
3. Go for seconds (recycle containers)
4. Watch your Waste.
5. Paper NOR plastic.
6. BYOB - Bring your own bottle -
as I have commented previously, =), Americans consume an insane amount of plastic bottles - last year, Americans went through 50 billion plastic water bottles!!!!
7. Flip 'em off.
8. Get in touch with your roots - Plant a Tree.
9. Get off mailing lists for catalogs.
10. Support WWF.
Also, go on www.EnvironmentCalifornia.org and tell state leaders to ban plastic grocery bags, and takeout Styrofoam cups and containers.
Plastic and other marine trash kill more than 1 million seabirdss and 100,000 mammals and sea turtles each year!!!! The amount of plastic in the Ocean has tripled since the 1980s.
Thanks for the post. I agree 100% we need to move away from plastic (an oil product).
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