NEW ORLEANS -- Hopes are running high that a soft, almost cloth-like material could lead to big strides in the fight against incoming oil.
Officials call it "X-Tex Boom," but it hardly resembles the other types of boom that are scattered across the gulf coast.
Once installed, the new barrier looks more like a type of fencing in the water.
"You can see it goes up above the tide, goes below the water -- all the way down to the mud,” said St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis. “So, if you had anything underwater, like tar balls and those issues, they'll stick to that material."
Davis joined New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on a boat tour into Lake Borgne Saturday, to get an up close look at the equipment.
Crews are installing 4,500 feet of X-Tex along the shoreline of Pearl River Island and another 4,500 at Rabbit Island, near the entrance to Rigolets Pass.
"This first 9,000 feet is a test, and it'll be evaluated by the alternative technology group, and depending on the results of how it performs in this area here, I think the branch, we're planning on requesting more if it performs and protects like we expect it to," said Lt. Cmdr Ryan Reardon with the U.S. Coast Guard.
It's part of a ramped up effort to hold the crude back, after new discoveries of oil surfaced across the area in the recent days.
St. Tammany and Orleans Parish officials are working together on the project. Their top priority is clear -- defending Lake Ponchartrain.
"If (oil) gets into Lake Ponchartrain in a very, very big way -- you know the lake that all of us live with -- or the Rigolets, or Saint Catherine, shutting down these fisheries, would be a terrible thing," Landrieu said.
Thanks to new equipment, from a skimmer boat to the X-Tex boom, officials believe they're on the right track.
Davis points out the fence-like boom has already been put to good use. "They did it in Mississippi -- maybe not on their sandy beaches, but where they have the estuaries, where they have the wildlife and all. They put the barriers up and they worked. No oil got in past those areas," he said.
Landrieu believes results will be the same here.
"Well, you know, what's interesting about it, is we keep innovating,” he said. “We keep finding solutions that have been tested in other places, and bring it in because we don't have a whole lot of time. This worked in Mississippi and we knew about that, and so we inquired about it and it made a whole lot of sense."
If the new barriers work as planned, officials plan to order around 40,000 feet for the next phase.
