Garret Graves, chair of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana, says a report of sand berms off the Louisiana coast having been washed away by Hurricane Isaac has not yet been confirmed by the state, but that officials plan to visit and fully assess the site.
The Times-Picayune reports that “almost all” of the sand from a 6-foot-high berm along the northern end of the Chandeleur Islands—which was built following the 2010 BP oil spill in an attempt to capture oil that had yet to reach Louisiana’s shores—has been washed away by Isaac.
“I’ve seen the photos, but just based on those, it’s too early to assign any degree of certainty or fate to the berms right now. We don’t have any idea of what their actual condition is,” Graves says, adding that a visit to the berms will be made at some point, “but while people’s homes are underwater, that’s going to remain the priority at this point.”
The berms project was strongly supported by Gov. Bobby Jindal back in 2010, despite its being controversial. Graves, who is Jindal’s top adviser on coastal matters, says it’s important to keep in mind that the berms were built not to help restore the coast but to catch oil. He says The Times-Picayune report inaccurately states just 1,000 barrels of oil were caught by the berms.
“That is absolutely wrong,” he says. “That was one statistic that we used from about two days of cleaning up,” he says, adding that his office does not have an official estimate on exactly how much oil the berms kept from washing onto Gulf shores.
Graves says the reported cost of the berms, $360 million—which he notes was paid for entirely by BP, from a pool of money that could not go toward any other recovery purposes onshore—is also false. He says the project cost about $220 million. You can check out The Times-Picayune story, which includes pre- and post-Isaac photos, here.
