Barnacles cover steel pipe used as pilings in the boom system at Perdido Pass. The pipes were installed in June. The last pilings from the system were removed in August. Press-Register / Guy Busby

By Guy Busby, Press-Register
Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 8:00 AM ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Thousands of feet of steel pipe intended to protect Perdido Pass from the Gulf oil spill lie in a city storage yard off Canal Road. Crews dismantled the multimillion-dollar boom project just two weeks after it was completed. The floating steel barrier — extending 3,200 feet across the pass — was meant to block oil from entering Perdido Bay and other inland waters. Workers finishing creating barrier in July. But by then, most of the oil that would ultimately affect Orange Beach had already arrived, said Phillip West, the city’s coastal planner. … George Crozier, director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, described the boom system as impressive, but said that oil got through anyway, as might be expected in a place with strong flows between the Gulf and inland bays. “We seem to have a tremendous propensity for underestimating Mother Nature,” Crozier said. “At the time (of the spill) we were all grasping at straws to try to do anything, but I don’t know what it would take to adequately meet the needs of keeping oil out of Perdido Pass.” The boom system initially suffered damage from heavy waves generated by Tropical Storm Alex and had to be removed before Tropical Storm Bonnie threatened in July. By then, its costs had risen to $5.2 million from $4.6 million, according to reports at the time. … Nonetheless, oil slipped past the boom got into back bay areas, such as around Bear Point and Perdido Bay, said Paul Ware, president of the Wolf Bay Watershed Watch. …

Steel boom for Perdido Pass disassembled, lying in Orange Beach storage yard