BARATARIA BAY, La. -- Gov. Bobby Jindal says the president needs to tell the American people that right now we are losing the war to keep oil out of the wetlands and to protect our way of life.
"He needs to tell us that failure is not an option. He needs to admit that we're not winning the war right now, not when you have heavy oil coming into Barataria Bay," Jindal said.
Jindal took a boat tour into Barataria Bay to check on thick oil now invading the marshes and on skimming operations to remove the sludge.
It is now a race against time to keep that thick oil from reaching more populated areas and sensitive marshland further on shore.
Jindal visited a spot in the Barataria Basin called Bay Jimmy, about 12 miles inland where black sludge is now polluting clumps of marsh grass.
This is the thickest oil seen this far inland, between Grand Isle and Lower Lafitte. Vacuum barges are on scene skimming up as much oil as they can.
There are commercial pump and pump trucks floated out on barges now collecting thousands of gallons of oil per day. Right now there are three of these barges in operation, designed by the Louisiana National Guard.
Jindal said as many as 16 will soon be deployed with more on the way. The governor said thick oil is in Barataria Bay because BP and the federal government did not do enough to keep the pollution offshore.
“We asked the president to give us regulatory relief to free up skimmers and boom from the Navy, private capacity that's not being used today, to see if they could relax the regulatory requirements to free up those resources. They said they're still looking into it,” Jindal said.
The governor also visited a jack-up barge in the bay. He met about 100 fishermen now tending boom in a desperate attempt to stop the oil before it does any more damage.
