[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish keeps wary eye on oil underneath surface

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish keeps wary eye on oil underneath surface 

by Maya Rodriguez / Eyewitness News

wwltv.com

Posted on May 19, 2010 at 6:36 PM


HOPEDALE, La. -- After several weeks of placing oil containment and
absorbent boom along the St. Bernard Parish coast, preparations are now in
place in case some of it needs to return to shore.

At a staging area in Hopedale, space is now set aside to receive any boom
that may have outlived its usefulness.

"We have not had to clean or re-process any absorbent boom to this point,"
said St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro. "But absorbent boom only
has a certain lifespan in the water, especially with the tidal activity and
wave action that these waters have."

Crews head out on the water daily to make sure boom is still in the right
place -- and still in one piece. With more than 40 miles of coastline,
Taffaro said the parish still needs about 150,000 feet of oil containment
boom.

"We are calling on all of the boom to be delivered promptly, so that we
won't have a shortfall if they need to react quickly," he said.

While there are concerns about what is happening with the oil on the surface
of the water, the is growing fear about what may be going on underneath.

"I wake up during the night thinking about the oil. I go to bed thinking
about it," said Frank Campo, who runs a marina in Shell Beach.

He fears heavier oil, below the surface of the water, may be getting closer
to shore, with no one the wiser.

"I don't think you can get all the boom in the world [to] stop it because
it's coming from underneath," Campo said.

Parish officials are now worried about that, too.

"Our real issue is developing a strategy to address the oil that may not be
on the surface if the water -- the oil that may be mid-stream or bottom
stream of the Gulf," Taffaro said.

Oil has not only washed up on the Chandeleur Islands, but also much closer
to the coast: along Gardner and Brush Islands, where no oil sheen had been
spotted before.

"As some of those other islands are being impacted, we're becoming more and
more concerned, because if we're not seeing it on the top of the water, but
it's showing up on the shore -- it's coming from somewhere," Taffaro said.
"Our real issue is developing a strategy to address the oil that may not be
on the surface if the water -- the oil that may be mid-stream or bottom
stream of the Gulf, and then into Breton Sound and Chandeleur Sound."