Across coastal Louisiana, officials lament ineffective oil spill command structure

By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune
May 27, 2010, 6:51PM In St. Bernard Parish last weekend, officials identified a patch of oil getting close to marsh grass. But when they requested the skimmer boats they thought were available, they discovered the boats had been moved to Venice. And despite constant warnings from Jefferson Parish officials about oil approaching Grand Isle late last week, the boats needed to stop it weren’t around when they were needed. As a result, oil washed up on beaches and authorities in Jefferson “commandeered” shrimp boats from BP in order to get booms out to the passes near the island. “It wasn’t a surprise to us. We had people in the air; we were aware it was coming,” said Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts, who represents Grand Isle and Lafitte. “It’d be like a house on the same street as the fire department is burning down, and the fire trucks didn’t get there in time.” In places like Venice, Grand Isle and Hopedale, local leaders are decrying a lack of urgency on the part of BP and the federal government after more than a week of seeing cleanup crews sluggishly reacting to oil washing up on beaches and getting snared in marsh grasses across the state. As questions mount over the balance of power between BP and the federal government in the response to the oil spill, the same concerns being raised in committee halls in Washington are trickling down to local government officials in command posts on the front lines of the Louisiana coast. Though outlined in the federal Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the twin duties of a private-sector responsible party and a government command structure overseeing BP’s work have created a frustrating arrangement for local leaders across the Louisiana coast as the spills drags into its second month. Many say it’s unclear who is answering to whom, an issue that President Obama took head-on in an hourlong news conference Thursday. “I think we gave the Coast Guard and BP their opportunity,” said St. Bernard Parish Councilman Ray Lauga. “Whether the disaster has overwhelmed them, or they have not been doing their jobs … Whatever it is, it’s not working on the local level for us.” The hazy division of responsibility has been particularly galling to government officials who are contending with the BP/Coast Guard division at local command centers as well as at the area command center in Houma. The chain of command creates layers of bureaucracy that make a targeted reaction to a problem largely impossible, many local officials have said this week. “There’s nobody in charge; nobody has a clue about how to deploy these men,” Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser added, describing what he called a severely disorganized command center in Venice where task orders for more boom and supplies can take days to process. …