With Gulf oil flow halted, a grim damage assessment begins
BP has announced — with appropriate if overdue cautions — that at 2:25 p.m. Thursday, it finally succeeded in halting the flow of oil from its Deepwater Horizon drill site. The leak had begun in April.
It’s still too early to proclaim the closure permanent. But for now, at least, attention can turn to dealing with the consequences of the millions of gallons of oil that have already been dumped into a fragile ecosystem. The tragedy is that’s exactly what we’ll have to do — deal with, rather than prevent, the consequences. Once that amount of oil has been introduced into a marine environment, the ability of mortal man to correct it is minimal.
Consider, for example, the plan by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to build sand berms to prevent the flow of oil into his state’s marshes. The sentiment that drove his plan — “in the face of crisis, let’s at least do SOMETHING!” — was honorable and human. But from the beginning, coastal scientists warned that the approach wouldn’t work and would probably do more damage than good.
These two photographs, taken near the Chandeleur Islands, demonstrate what they meant. The first, showing a berm largely if not entirely completed, was taken June 25. The second was taken two weeks later, on July 7.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
255 comments Add your comment
Scout
July 16th, 2010
10:31 am
Now if we could just halt the flow of damage to our Republic !
Scout
July 16th, 2010
10:36 am
“OFF TOPIC #1″
SEOUL (AFP) – “North Korea is creating a quasi-shrine to the youngest son of ailing leader Kim Jong-Il as it builds up a personality cult around the likely successor, reports said Friday.
The secretive communist state is transforming the proclaimed birthplace of Jong-Un into a kind of shrine, Tokyo-based activist Lee Young-Hwa told Chosun Ilbo newspaper.”
O.K. …………. what’s with the U.S. Park Service? I want to visit the historical marker/shrine for Obama’s birthplace !
Finally
July 16th, 2010
10:40 am
I can’t wait to see all the conservatives on here congratulating Obama on a job well done….
Scout
July 16th, 2010
10:42 am
Poor bulldozer.
USinUK
July 16th, 2010
10:50 am
… but … but … but … Jaaaayyyyy … they said the berms would solve EVERYthing!
joe matarotz
July 16th, 2010
10:50 am
Congratulations, Jay. This blog sets a new high (or low?) in being pointless. How exactly does the washed out sand berm figure into the grim damage assessment?
Mick
July 16th, 2010
10:51 am
The big question is, what have we learned? When drilling for oil at such depths, I would hope that every rig be required to have at least three levels of failsafe. There are thousands of wells out there look at the poison resulting from just one.
Bosch
July 16th, 2010
10:51 am
Which is why you really do need to trust the experts — cause they know stuff.
Bosch
July 16th, 2010
10:52 am
joe m.,
It demonstrates how those who THINK they are in the know need to listen to those who ARE in the know.
Scout
July 16th, 2010
10:53 am
USinUK
I didn’t know you stuttered . You can get help for that you know. Try singing your posts ………
USinUK
July 16th, 2010
10:54 am
Scout – great. now I’ve got talking bout my g-g-g-g-generation in my head.
USinUK
July 16th, 2010
10:56 am
Bosch – “Which is why you really do need to trust the experts ”
’specially those on this here blog who have been wailing … nay, DEMANDING … for the past 6 weeks that Obama build! that! berm!!!
Peadawg
July 16th, 2010
10:57 am
“I can’t wait to see all the conservatives on here congratulating Obama on a job well done….”
Ya right. What did Obama do exactly?
Bosch
July 16th, 2010
11:00 am
USinUK,
One thing that has gotten me frustrated with news on this story, is they give an audience to every local yahoo who is griping and complaining about their own problems — which is small in comparison to the whole grand event. Sure it’s legitimate, but it’s not like it’s all about them. And they have a bitchfest about the govt. not helping them, but just because the govt. hasn’t fixed their problem instantaneously, they feel as though nothing has happened.
They give no audience to the officials to explain their decisions and activities — again, sensationalism sells.
mike
July 16th, 2010
11:02 am
LOL. As usual Jay is regurgitating stale talking points. I love how all the of liberal pundits have all hopped on Bobby Jindal for daring to actually try to do something. As usual, partisanship overrides any sense of citizenship. How pathetic. And this sneering from the man who declared that the Iraq surge was doomed to failure.
Anderson Cooper interviewed Billy Nungesser last night on this matter and he stated that the berms have held up in most places and that he was irritated that pundits are cherry picking photos for partisan gain. The berms that have failed can be made more substantial with tree plantings and landscaping, facts that Jay could care less about in his partisan rush to attack anyone with an R in front of his name.
Mick
July 16th, 2010
11:03 am
peadawg
**Ya right. What did Obama do exactly?**
What exactly did he not do? Back atcha.
Paul
July 16th, 2010
11:05 am
Illustrates that those at the local level paid for the dereliction and incompetence of public employees. It never should have gotten this far – but it did. Then those at the lowest level watched while their worst fears materialized. So yeah, I can understand the frustration of a local leader saying “we’ve asked for this. We’ve asked for that. It takes days or weeks to get a response and you still run it through the normal bureaucracy. Well, try this!”
So let’s have some good lessons learned. Then let’s check back, say, mid 2011, and see if the response plans are realistic and equipment necessary is on hand.
And let’s put an end to consultants writing impact statements and gov’t workers going to work for those they regulated or were involved with for five years or so. All of them, not just Dept of Interior.
Doggone/GA
July 16th, 2010
11:05 am
“What did Obama do exactly?”
Saved a lot of money not building berms that would have been useless anyway.
Paul
July 16th, 2010
11:07 am
Peadawg
Rule of Thumb: it happens on your watch, you get the credit or the blame. May not be just, but it’s the way it is.
In this case, the Pres gets a bit of both.
Southern Comfort
July 16th, 2010
11:07 am
Paul
Amen!! I wouldn’t hold my breath on that 2nd and 3rd paragraph. Generally, I’m an optimistic type person, but I have little faith in seeing any change in those areas.
USinUK
July 16th, 2010
11:07 am
Bosch – 11:00 – yeah, but I get the journalistic point of doing that – if you look at the whole, big event it is easy to turn it into just an environmental disaster. by talking to every local yay-hoo who takes people out frog-gigging or who rents out a beach house up to the commercial shrimpers you humanize the story.
too bad you couldn’t go back in time and ask these same people if they believe in “smaller government”
thomas
July 16th, 2010
11:08 am
Jay,
Tropical sorm Alex did roll thru during teh time frame of the pictures shown.
You stated the berm was almost complete but not a finished product.
Given that information, would it be accurate to say that under the normal weather condidtions a berm would have kept oil away from the marshes?
Just seems you are being a lil dishonest not even mentioning that a tropical storm came through during the exact time frame of your example.
I am sure this was an unintentioanl mistake on your part.
USinUK
July 16th, 2010
11:09 am
Doggone – “Saved a lot of money not building berms that would have been useless anyway.”
and could you imagine the sturm and drang if he DID?
“the deficit! waste of money! government can’t do anything right!”
oy.
moonbat betty
July 16th, 2010
11:09 am
Hopefully, the leak will remain plugged.
what a bunch of dumasses these rupubs are for trying to be proactive.
everyone else knew obama and bp would have this mess under control sooner rather than later.
Bosch
July 16th, 2010
11:09 am
“The berms that have failed can be made more substantial with tree plantings and landscaping”
mike, seriously? Plant trees and grass on the berms so it can be washed away in a couple week with the bulldozers? Do you think that in a couple weeks time or even a couple months time those trees and grass are gonna grow enough to keep back the sea?
Doggone/GA
July 16th, 2010
11:10 am
“would it be accurate to say that under the normal weather condidtions a berm would have kept oil away from the marshes?”
Ummm…a tropical storm at this time of the year IS “normal weather conditions”
USinUK
July 16th, 2010
11:10 am
” I love how all the of liberal pundits have all hopped on Bobby Jindal for daring to actually try to do something.”
you know … no one misses a point QUITE LIKE MIKE.
round of applause …
RW-(the original)
July 16th, 2010
11:10 am
Aren’t the berms supposed to be temporary means to divert the oil flow? I don’t see how these photos show that they failed in helping to do that, much less caused more damage. Well, unless you mean to that bulldozer. Never leave your bulldozer in the ocean for two weeks kids.
Doggone/GA
July 16th, 2010
11:11 am
“round of applause”
clap clap clap
USinUK
July 16th, 2010
11:12 am
““What did Obama do exactly?””
oh, I dunno … actually held the company responsible for the accident’s feet to the fire …
Bosch
July 16th, 2010
11:12 am
USinUK,
“you humanize the story. ”
Yeah, and that’s where I think journalism has failed lately.
Doggone/GA
July 16th, 2010
11:12 am
“don’t see how these photos show that they failed in helping to do that,”
Maybe because they were just a tad more “temporary” than they were meant to be?
Jay
July 16th, 2010
11:12 am
Thomas, tropical storms in the summer can’t be cited as an excuse. They are part of the REASON the experts said this wouldn’t work. They are an inevitable part of the natural environment in that region this time of year, NOT something that couldn’t be predicted and expected.
Scout
July 16th, 2010
11:12 am
“OFF TOPIC #2″
Does anyone out there realize just how much liberty we have given up to “Big Brother” ?
“(CNSNews.com) – New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records–that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year–must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity.”
Southern Comfort
July 16th, 2010
11:13 am
Poor bulldozer. Saltwater is not very friendly to machinery that’s not designed to withstand it.
Peadawg
July 16th, 2010
11:13 am
“it happens on your watch, you get the credit or the blame. ”
Yup. He gets the blame for it so damn long. But all he did during this process was give a couple of nice speeches. So, I ask again..credit for what exactly?
USinUK
July 16th, 2010
11:14 am
“must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity”
um. you do realize that if you have height and weight data, you also have BMI, don’t you?
don’t you?
Finally
July 16th, 2010
11:15 am
Peadawg
July 16th, 2010
10:57 am
It was all his fault 3 months ago…
USinUK
July 16th, 2010
11:15 am
Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women.
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
Mick
July 16th, 2010
11:15 am
**a measure of obesity.”**
Maybe they want to tax us by the pound.
TM
July 16th, 2010
11:16 am
Jay I guess you fogot to watch CNN yesterday
“Shortly before BP announced Thursday it had stopped the flow of oil from its ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal stood before a group of reporters in New Orleans, offering aerial photographs as proof that controversial sand berms are helping to keep some oil from his state’s shores.
“The bottom line is that the berms are working,” Jindal said, even though some are not fully completed yet.
Louisiana’s plan calls for the construction of 40 miles of the berms, which are barriers made by dredging up walls of sand as high as six feet above the water’s surface.
A statement from Jindal’s office read, “Over 500 pounds of oily debris was collected off of the berm at the Chandeleur Islands during one day last week and tar balls are constantly washing up, proving that sand berms are an effective protection measure against oil.”
BP is shelling out $360 million to fund the project and the cost could also be high for Jindal. He has wagered a lot of political capital on the controversial plan.
Jindal, a Republican, badgered the Obama administration for approval of the berm project despite concerns raised by some engineers and environmentalists.
The federal oil spill response commander, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, maintained that while “we’re not averse to attempting this as a prototype,” there are “a lot of doubts about whether this is a valid oil-spill-response technique.”
Louisiana environmentalist Mel Landry has mixed feelings about the berms. “There are instances where they would be of benefit,” he told CNN in June.
But he added, “If they’re trying to build a berm from across the front of every barrier island, where there is sensitive habitat for nesting birds, then it could have adverse impacts because these birds nest on the ground. Their nests are just little sand depressions they’re laying the eggs in. So if you’re all over that with a bulldozer, you’re certainly going to be impacting those nests.”
Landry added the berms could be blown away in a hurricane and could also disrupt natural tidal flows if they’re used to block “gaps” between barrier islands.
None of those warnings stopped Jindal’s push for the berms, and building continues despite the announcement that oil was no longer flowing from BP’s broken well.
“It is too early to declare victory and there is still a lot more work that needs to be done,” a statement from Jindal’s office read. “We have been fighting a war against this oil for months now and we know our battles don’t end even when the well is capped.”
stands for decibels
July 16th, 2010
11:16 am
at 2:25 p.m. Thursday, it finally succeeded in halting the flow
nitpicky, but that was 2.25pm local time (CDT), 3.25pm ours here in Atlanta.
/drive by, and noted only because we may one day come to honor that moment…
Outhouse GoKart
July 16th, 2010
11:17 am
Hopefully that drowned bulldozer is permanently dead. Otherwise I can see it roaring to life, bulldozing its way to New Orleans, running a muck and feasting on a diet of unadulterated chaos, mayhem, destructon and death. Becoming, if you will, a KillDozer.
Concerned Ernie
July 16th, 2010
11:17 am
mike
July 16th, 2010
11:02 am
LOL. As usual Jay is regurgitating stale talking points. I love how all the of liberal pundits have all hopped on Bobby Jindal for daring to actually try to do something.
The Libs are not jumping on on Jindal for doing something. It is for doing something that DID NOT WORK, and wasting time and resources on something the experts said WOULD NOT WORK.
Outhouse GoKart
July 16th, 2010
11:18 am
“Selling England by the pound”.
Bosch
July 16th, 2010
11:18 am
Out for a while – have fun and play nice.
Scout
July 16th, 2010
11:19 am
USinUK
What’s you BMI ? Ooops …………. gotta run. Back later !
Outhouse GoKart
July 16th, 2010
11:19 am
“something the experts”
Experts? What experts?
Scout
July 16th, 2010
11:20 am
One more before I go …………..
Daddy, are you going to rescue that bulldozer ?
Independent
July 16th, 2010
11:20 am
Mick….**a measure of obesity.”**
Maybe they want to tax us by the pound.
In keeping with the left lurch to European socialism, we will be tax by the kilogram. I’m sure union members, minorities, government employees and congress will be exempt though.