Re: Oil Rig explosion/Gulf Oil Spill
The contractors to do the dredging are available, it is the CORPS permits that they are waiting on. The CORPS has its hands tied by regulations, so the governor is planning to dredge anyway and wait for permits later. But he has to be careful. If he skips some basic items that have to be investigated before dredging he risks . . .
1. Causing more harm by rupturing one of the 300 or so large pipelines that cross the Louisiana coast if they aren't properly surveyed.
2. Wasting time and resources pumping sand into a berm that will not withstand normal wave, tide, and current action. You just can't put a sand berm anywhere on dynamic shorelines and tidal inlets without knowledge of the depth, sediments, and currents. The ocean is powerful.
3. Creating unexpected consequences. Any time we try to engineer a natural system, nature attempts to find equilibrium, sometimes with spectacular and unexpected results. Berms put up in certain places will affect the current and tides and perhaps make oiling much worse at a downshore location.
While the red tape must be cut ruthlessly, it behooves the governor to make sure some basic precautions are taken, because if he bypasses the established criteria and takes away responsibility from the Corps, then he cannot hold them accountable for unpleasant, unanticipated consequences and it will come back upon his shoulders.
Hopefully this delay is to make sure that the absolutely essential safeguards and precautions are taken and not thrown out with the bureaucratic red tape.