[StBernard] 5pm update: Sand berm near Chandeleur Islands successfully blocking oil in St. Bernard Parish; President Taffaro continues to direct daily oil spill clean-up

[Westley Annis]

Sand berm near Chandeleur Islands successfully blocking oil in St. Bernard
Parish

St. Bernard President Craig Taffaro continues to direct daily oil spill
clean-up operations 

The sand berm recently built near the Chandeleur Islands as part of a plan
to protect St. Bernard Parish and adjoining parishes' coast and marshes from
incoming oil appears to have done what it was designed to do. The sand berm
trapped a few hundred pounds of tar balls before they got into Breton Sound.
National Guard troops landed there Tuesday to begin cleaning oil and tar
balls off the sand. Troops collected 150 bags of these tar balls and
contaminated sand yesterday. Their work continued today on the berm to
ensure any further impact was mitigated. Troops collected an additional 71
bags of tar balls and contaminated sand today. 

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro directed Oil Spill Operations
personnel to deploy support vessels to assist in this effort. Blackhawk
helicopters transported the waste from the berm to decontamination areas at
St. Bernard Parish oil spill operations in Hopedale. St. Bernard Parish
vessels will assist today in transportation of this waste as it is
collected. 

President Taffaro directed Oil Spill Operations personnel to dispatch crews
to Christmas Camp Lake to deploy hard and soft boom to block channels and
cuts in the lake due to the confirmed presence of tar balls and oil sheen in
the area yesterday. Crews placed multiple rows of hard oil containment boom
in the water in an effort to control the movement of the current and surf to
keep the tar balls from getting into the vast areas of marsh that extend
past the lake. 

 

For more information, contact Jennifer Belsom, Oil Disaster Public
Information Officer at 504-444-6249.

 

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