BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Bobby Jindal took a helicopter and boat tour to assess the environmental damage of the BP oil spill on the state’s coastline.
Jindal said he was tired of people making excuses for BP and he wanted to see what the state was doing.
Jindal walked the newly-restored beach of Grand Terre Island and saw some splotches of oil that dotted the area.
He said the oil clumps illustrated his call to have barrier islands built to protect the state and block the oil from the marshes.
“We’re going to be dealing with this for weeks, months, maybe even longer, even after they cap the leak,” he said.
Jindal also took to the air to see how the dredged barriers being put out to protect the state are faring. The state began the project even before getting the go-ahead from the Coast Guard Thursday.
The dredged area is two to three miles off the coast. The machines suck up the sand in that area and pump it onto the beach.
“It dredges sand off the floor of the Gulf, that gets piped in here, and the graters work from the center of the island off in both directions,” explained Jindal. “They’ll build it up to five to six feet high and two and a half to three miles wide.”
They’re restoring 127 acres of beach and building it up to six feet high. During the trip Jindal learned that the first segment of his 24 segment, long sought dredging plan had been approved.
“It’s better than still waiting for an answer,” said Jindal of the news. “If we had gotten approval when we first asked for it, we could have built ten miles by now.”
Jindal had an answer for those who say the barrier islands would keep needed water from getting to the marshes.
“We’re not proposing to build a continuous barrier,” he said. “We know that’s not practical. So we would allow the normal tidal currents to move in, what that allows the Corps, the Coast Guard and BP to do then is to focus their booming and their skimming and resources on a few cuts in a few passes.”
The dredging on Grand Terre started last year as a coastal restoration project but it has been turned into a project to protect the beach from the spill’s effects and Jindal hopes that Obama can see the benefit first hand on his visit Friday.
“By law BP is the responsible party for this disaster but we need the government to make sure they actually are a responsible party and fulfill their obligations.”
By helicopter Jindal inspected the multiple layers of defense being used to protect against the oil, including land bridges by the National Guard to stop the pollution, large sand bags, lines of boom and barriers of Hesco baskets.
As he flew over Grand Isle, he saw only isolated pockets of oil, but the beaches were depressingly empty.
“This should be an incredibly busy time for the mayor, for his island,” emphasized Jindal. “His island should be packed along the beach, it shouldn’t be empty.”
Mayor David Camardelle said he is hoping to convince officials to open at least the sand parts of the beaches to help his town’s economy.
