re: #431 Racer X

I’m not so sure Jindal’s idea of building a barrier 9 miles out at sea is a good one. There may be long term effects. Couldn’t they string an oil boom from island to island? Seems better than dumping tons of sand to make a permanent barrier.

Here’s what’s happening:

Governor Jindal said, “Today, we saw the National Guard’s sandbagging operations at Pelican and Scofield Islands. They are currently using eight helicopters to finish filling in the gaps in the islands there. These sandbags will compliment our dredging/sand booming activities in these areas.

“Weeks ago when we realized that the supply of boom was not predictable or dependable enough to count on, we asked the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and the National Guard to identify locations where gaps in barrier islands could be immediately filled with sand. We are at war and we need to fight this oil on the sand – well before it ever gets into our marshes and interior wetlands. The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and the National Guard together identified 40 total areas that could be immediately filled with sand.

“At Pelican and Scofield islands, the National Guard is working on a total of 14 gaps. The 8 gaps on Pelican Island are complete – with a total of 3,300 sandbags dropped. Today, we saw the ongoing operations on nearby Scofield Island – which has received a total of more than 3,180 sandbags to date in the six gaps there.

“Also in Plaquemines Parish today, the National Guard is continuing to emplace small sandbags in six locations to reinforce the retention levee that stretches from Myrtle Grove and La Reussite. Two of the 6 sites were completed yesterday.”

DREDGING UPDATE
The monitoring report that had to be done as part of the state’s dredging/sand booming work was approved by the Army Corps of Engineers yesterday. On the Northern Chandeleurs (Section E4) the Cutterhead Dredge California is on schedule to begin pumping sand there over the weekend. The required pre-construction field surveys, including island surveys and wildlife observation are currently underway for segments E4 and W9, which is around Pelican Island.

The submerged pipeline is being established from Hewes Point – which is the sand source for the Northern Chandeleurs work – to the sand placement area in the Chandeleurs.

Governor Jindal said, “Last week, we started moving forward on our own to begin work on the six approved segments of our 24-segment dredging/sand booming plan to protect our coast. We activated a contract for this work with Shaw and Bean Dredging and we are working to move a total of six dredges into place to get this work done.”