GRAND ISLE, La -- Just a few days after Grand Isle escaped any real effects from Tropical Depression Bonnie, the island may now be facing a new wave of incoming oil.
"They're addressing that now. They're trying to get some rapid response skimmers out to that oil to try and skim up as much as possible," said Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Deano Bonano.
The oil was spotted by the Coast Guard On Sunday during a flight over the area. At that time, it appeared to be about 10 miles offshore. Jefferson Parish officials re-confirmed the oil sighting during their own flight on Monday morning. The oil appeared then to be slightly closer to Grand Isle-- about eight miles away. A light sheen was also spotted entering several passes leading into Barataria Bay.
The threat of Bonnie forced the parish to remove barges, which had been helping to prevent oil from getting into the bay. Emergency managers said this latest oil threat is one more reason why they want rock dams built at some of the passes.
"This goes back to our issue that we pushed 60 days ago, about rocks permanent protection measures," Bonano said. "Had they been put in place, they would not have been moved during the storm and would be there."
Yet, some Grand Isle residents said if the oil has to move ashore, they would like to see it happen now, rather than later. Karl Thayer, a realtor who lives on the island, is one of them.
"Better it comes in now in between storms, you know," Thayer said. "The sooner it comes in, during this time when everything is kind of shut down to the public like it is, before we get cranked off to our sport fishing season again. It needs to come in; they need scoop it up."
Officials believe it generally takes oil several weeks to travel from the wellhead site to Grand Isle. With a cap now in place, emergency managers said they worked out a deal with BP and the Coast Guard, to keep oil response assets in place for another six weeks.
"The oil that we are seeing could have been floating out there three, four, five weeks," Bonano said. "So, until six weeks passes, we're going to try and hold BP's feet to the fire to make sure all the assets stay on Grand Isle and Lafitte until that time."
JP officials said they plan to continue monitoring the coast and the passes for any incoming oil, with two more flights scheduled for Tuesday.
