Feds Stop Sand Berm Dredging

Unbelievable! It is like no one is running the show at the feds. 

WDSU-TV: NEW ORLEANS -- The federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has concerns about where the dredging is being done. 

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who was one of the most vocal advocates of the dredging plan, has sent a letter to President Barack Obama, pleading for the work to continue.

Nungesser said the government has asked crews to move the dredging site two more miles farther off the coastline.

"Once again, our government resource agencies, which are intended to protect us, are now leaving us vulnerable to the destruction of our coastline and marshes by the impending oil," Nungesser wrote to Obama. "Furthermore, with the threat of hurricanes or tropical storms, we are being put at an increased risk for devastation to our area from the intrusion of oil.

Nungesser has asked for the dredging to continue for the next seven days, the amount of time it would take to move the dredging operations two miles and out resume work. [MORE] 

This almost seems like some sort of cruel joke. Louisiana goes though all this grief to get the berms built and now that it is well underway some pencil pusher wants it moved because of wildlife concerns? It should be pretty damn obvious that if the coastline is not protected from the oil spill, it won’t make a bit of difference what the environmental impact of the berms are.

This is exactly the kind of thing Obama should be involved in. The fed’s role in this disaster should be that of facilitator and guardian. Obama should be out there cutting though all sorts of red tape so that the clean up and protection efforts can proceed rapidly. His other role should be to safeguard the nation against possible abuses from BP. In both instances he is failing miserably. 

  

Click over to And So it Goes in Shreveport for more.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: WDSU-TV

Video h/t: And So it Goes in Shreveport