[StBernard] Southern Tip of Chandeleur Islands Impacted with Oil Today

Westley Annis Westley at da-parish.com
Tue Jun 29 23:48:04 EDT 2010


outhern Tip of Chandeleur Islands Impacted with Oil Today

Vice President of the United States Meets with Affected Parish Presidents



Several streamers of emulsified oil, approximately 400 barrels, were
identified in Plaquemines Parish Division 17 waters this morning by flight
operations personnel. This sighting was located eight to ten miles out, on
the Gulf side of the Chandeluer Islands along the southern tip. An afternoon
overflight of the area confirmed that these rows of emulsified oil had
started to impact the islands. Operations personnel are developing rapid
assessment capabilities, taking into account the challenges involved with
high seas, wind and rain due to current weather conditions. It is unsafe at
this time to deploy the vessels at Operation's disposal to recover this oil.
Operations has requested support from Houma to acquire the resources needed
to assist in oil cleanup. Crews are on standby once the weather has subsided
to perform beach cleanup. Once weather conditions have improved, operations
personnel will be able to survey the situation further and respond with the
resources on hand. A total of 25,000 feet of hard containment boom was
loaded onto vessels today for deployment once weather permits. Additionally,
20,000 feet of hard containment boom was loaded and shipped to Lafitte in
support of their oil response efforts.

Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, met briefly this afternoon
with St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro and several other affected
parish presidents in a stop-over on his tour of oil spill efforts along the
Gulf Coast. Vice President Biden heard a series of requests from all
municipalities present, centered around eliminating bureaucratic obstacles
to common sense solutions. These messages included the need for sand berms,
rock dams for Lafitte and Grand Isle and the need for a consistent presence
of decision makers on the ground. He promised he would bring the message
back to Washington.





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