I heard about that tweet that Sarah sent out recently to Governor Jindal regarding the fight to build the berms to protect the marshes of Lousiana. Those are important ecological areas for more than just his State, I get that and I think it's important that everyone care about finding a way to protect them. But we most certainly can't do it in a way that might actually do MORE harm to the environment.
If you missed the tweet, someone here was kind enough to write a diary about it. It seems Sarah was just as concerned as the rest of us and the fragile marshes being "ravished" by the oil.
But the berms are not as simple as it sounds, Sarah, and I will let you know why.
According to coastal scientist like Angelina Freeman and others, the berms must be built in such a way as to not interfere with the ebb and flow of the marshes natural rhythm.
There are many different kinds of marshes, from tidal to fresh water and this is a tidal marsh where the salinity is higher and is dependent on that mix of salt water and fresh water coming from the Mississippi Delta, it's what makes the habitat so unique.
But environmentalists have issues with berms, fearing the solution officials are proposing to hold back the oil from Louisiana's unique marshlands, if not done right, could do more harm than good to the Mississippi Delta, and might not do the job at all.
...
Berms have to be built in such as way as to not block off tidal inlets, because narrower inlets would increase the velocity at which water is channelled into the delta area, which could mean that the oil is driven even further into the fragile marshlands than without the berms.
Berms can also alter water salinity which would affect the fragile marshlands
Then there is the issue of what kind of sand they would use in order th build the berms, if done incorrectly, the sand could just dissipate and go right back into the ocean. Or taken from the wrong spot, it could actually quicken the already difficult issue many of our coasts face of coastal erosion.
And then, with certain muds, the oil could be come trapped and take even longer for it to actually break down and become weathered.
It seems to be Governor Palin that you might be jumping on another politically expedient bandwagon, as Time so eoqueintly points out as Dredge, Baby, Dredge: Banking on Sand to Stop the Oil. Governor Jindal is making this more about State's wishes against the Obama Administration than really the issue at hand, what's best for the tidal marshes and the environmental conditions at hand.
Perhaps, but the berm issue has created its own toxic friction between Louisiana and the Obama Administration, which only late last week approved six berm sites. It will only commit to paying for one, however, as a sort of test to determine if more are worth erecting. That $16 million berm will go up just west of the Mississippi River off Scofield Island, and will be funded by either BP or the Federal Government's Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. The Administration's point man on the BP spill, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, maintains that while "we're not averse to attempting this as a prototype," there are "a lot of doubts about whether this is a valid oil-spill-response technique." And there is no guarantee, he adds, that the Federal Government will help pay for five other approved berms, three more west of the Mississippi and two east of the river.
That federal reluctance has angered Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Plaquemines parish president Billy Nungesser, both Republicans, who are the two biggest sand-berm proponents. "We could have built 10 miles of sand boom already if [the feds] would have approved our permit when we originally requested it" shortly after the spill began April 20, Jindal said last week. Said Nungesser, "The federal government has got to move on this and BP has got to pay for it. Without closing as many gaps as possible, we're going to get oil in the marshes."
Critics have accused Jindal and Nungesser of political grandstanding. As urgent as closing gaps like Pass Chandal may appear, the plan has more doubters than just Allen. Environmentalists and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — as well as BP — fear even temporary berms could mess with natural tidal flows as well as the integrity of naturally existing barrier islands. There are also questions about how well they hold up in storms, and about the effects of the massive dredging of ocean-floor sand required to construct them.
It is just this that is creating the perception that the Obama Administration is not doing its job. And their job is to listen to everyone, even those pesky scientists and to actually protect my tax dollars so they are spent on solutions that will not only work, but not do more harm to the environment.
And then you have this, Barbour trusts corps of engineers. This is not just a crisis for one State, this disaster goes across more than just Louisiana and will effect more than their marshes. And this isn't just about trusting President Obama, this is about trusting Engineers and Environmentalists to do their jobs, to see the big picture here.
Gov. Haley Barbour and DMR Director Bill Walker said Thursday they trust the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers not to allow Louisiana to build any berm or sand barriers east of the mouth of Mississippi River that would cause oil to flow into Mississippi waters.
...
There was concern that building a berm between the Chandeleurs and the marshes of eastern Plaquemines Parish could interfere with the natural flow of water in the Gulf, alter tides and end up driving oil east into the Mississippi Sound.
...
In a news conference at DMR headquarters Barbour said, “We want everything for Louisiana that they need. We want them to get what they need and get cleaned up, where oil’s not continuing to get on them.”
So, you see, it's not just about Governor Jindal, or what President Obama is or is not doing. It's about a complex ecosystem that works with tides and relies upon the ebb and flow of salt water. Without the salt water, a tidal marsh is no longer a marsh. And when on top of it, what good does it do if Louisiana moves all that oil over to Mississippi?
This is an issue that is just so much bigger than all of us. As Scientists warn of unseen deepwater oil disaster, we know that the worst is still yet to come.
Independent scientists and government officials say there's an aspect to the oil spill disaster we can't see, hidden in the Gulf of Mexico's mysterious depths; the ruin of a world inhabited by enormous sperm whales and tiny, invisible plankton.
...
"Every fish and invertebrate contacting the oil is probably dying. I have no doubt about that," said Prosanta Chakrabarty, a Louisiana State University fish biologist.
...
Many of those species are now in their annual spawning seasons. Eggs exposed to oil would quickly perish. Those that survived to hatch could starve if the plankton at the base of the food chain suffer. Larger fish are more resilient, but not immune to the toxic effects of oil.
The Gulf's largest spill was in 1979, when the Ixtoc I platform off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula blew up and released 140 million gallons of oil. But that was in relatively shallow waters -- about 160 feet deep -- and much of the oil stayed on the surface where it broke down and became less toxic by the time it reached the Texas coast.
This remains an experiment and an unknown because, even though, as I've seen many point out, Ixtoc did occur in the late seventies, this is still nothing like that, especially taking into account the huge amount of toxic dispersants used to break the oil up.
We must stop with the political grandstanding, we have to realize that this is so much bigger than Republican or Democratic, that this is bigger than any of us and that the only way that we may be able to overcome this is to work together.
So Sarah, Jindal, etc., are you willing to address the issues and listen to scientists, who yes, just happen to be part of this administration, and try to help or are you going to continue to berate this President and ridicule? When we lose here, everyone loses here.
EVERYONE.
And I couldn't resist adding this tidbit, the CEO of BP, Tony Hayward said he would like his "life back" because he's been working so hard on this nightmare for the last forty plus days.
BP CEO Tony Hayward has been working really, really hard lately. And he's tired of it. He wants his life back. He said so in an interview with Fox News, definitively explaining once and for all why everyone should trust BP to clean up the oil spill as best they can. Which is why fishermen and charter boat captains who've lost their livelihoods, volunteer cleanup workers from around the Gulf who are sick at the thought of their beaches getting coated with oil, and environmental groups of every stripe working to protect gravely threatened ecosystems should come together to stop the spill: Let's do it for the tired, beleaguered Tony.
Treehugger
I guess he doesn't realize that even after this well is capped, there is no going back to life as it was for so many people, wildlife and the environment. It's not going to be over for a long time to come.