More river water sent into marshes to fight oil
The Associated Press
Tue May 11, 2010, 03:00 PM CDT New Orleans, La. – Enough Mississippi River water to fill the Empire State Building every half hour is now rushing into southeast Louisiana wetlands in an attempt to stave off the advance of oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill. Most is pouring in through sets of gated culverts set into the river levee in St. Charles and St. Bernard parishes. At four other spots in St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, pumps send smaller amounts of river water over the levees. “The Barataria Basin is a maze of marshy islands, grass beds, bayous, ponds and lakes. It will be nearly impossible for us to clean the oil out of these areas for years if it gets in there,” said Garret Graves, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. The one site at which the flow wasn’t already at or near full capacity, in St. Charles Parish, was opened all the way Monday because oil was moving west in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said. In addition to those “diversion projects,” where the flow is regulated, the state Department of Transportation and Development opened a set of locks in lower Plaquemines Parish to send more water into the Breton Sound area. There’s no meter, but DOTD has reported a rapid flow there since Tuesday, according to the state Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration, which runs the diversion projects. “We have opened every diversion structure we control on the state and parish level to try to limit the oil approaching our coasts,” said Jerome Zeringue, assistant director of that office. …
