The damage is well underway

>>>Tonight we in southeast Louisiana are watching the heart wrenching scene of thick oil penetrating our marshlands now. This was the worst case scenario we had hoped to avoid. As BP let's day after day go by without stopping the leak, the coast, the fisheries and the fragile wetlands of southeast Louisiana are being killed. Here is a story by one of our local news stations. Once again, notice the foolish delay by the Army Corps of Engineers as we continue to be attacked while our government and perhaps a majority of our nation yawns.

Worst nightmare realized for Plaquemines president as oil reaches marshes

by Doug Mouton / Eyewitness News

wwltv.com

Posted on May 19, 2010 at 6:53 PM

Updated today at 7:30 PM


PASS A LOUTRE, La. -- Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser calls it his worst nightmare: thick black oil has now reached his marshes.

Nungesser and Gov. Bobby Jindal got a first hand look at where the oil has washed up in the Pass a Loutre marsh.

Wednesday afternoon at the Pass a Loutre marsh, the black oil arrived.

“I’m sick to my stomach,” Nungesser said. “It’s our worst fear. As this moves inland, it’ll destroy everything.”

This marsh grass area roughly half mile long is filled with oil. Nungesser said there are six to eight other areas nearby just like it.

“As you can see, there’s nowhere to stop it,” Nungesser said. “We’ve got crews right around the corner here booming the entrances to the marsh, that tide comes up, it just drops it as a blanket. And that’s what happened here.”

This is not the sheen that we’ve been seeing the past few days. It’s the thick, black oil in the marsh grass in Pass a Loutre. Getting it out of the marsh won’t be easy.

“You might take some of the big part out, but the harm is already done. And if you try going in the marsh, you’re just going to mush it into the mud and into the ground to make it longer in effect,” Nungesser said.

“Biologists are saying in five to seven days, you’ll see the impact on all the greenery out here. It will become discolored or it will become yellow,” Jindal said.

That means it’ll all be dead in about a week.

“You look back behind you, it would be virtually impossible to get that oil out of that cane, and you look at the impact that this is going to have on the marine life that calls this home,” Jindal said.

Bottom line is both Jindal and Nungesser say this is why the Army Corps of Engineers need to approve their dredging plan now.

“Two weeks ago, we would have pumped the barrier island out there. There’s a good chance this would have been on that beach out there today. Instead it’s in the marsh,” Nungesser said. “Shame on them for not approving this. Shame on them for not doing everything possible.

“And that’s the real crime behind this. We have an opportunity to stop it, and we’re not doing it.

In response to the local leaders' push to have barrier islands built, the Corps sent out a statement: "That request is being processed under emergency permit procedures. We are currently evaluating all of this information for potential environmental impacts, as required under (the National Environmental Police Act)."