Focus Changes for Louisiana in Oil Cleanup
Filed under: Discovery,Gulf Oil Spill,News & Resources
Louisiana is scaling back and altering a project to construct sand berms along its coast to block and capture oil from the BP spill, the state’s governor, Bobby Jindal, said this week.
(From The New York Times) — The state will take $100 million from BP originally dedicated to building the oil-blocking structures and spend the money on coastal restoration instead, Mr. Jindal said.
At the height of the spill in June, BP committed $360 million to build the berms, of which $140 million remains.
Under a new agreement with the company, $100 million of that money will be used to convert more than 10 miles of already constructed temporary sand berms into permanent barrier islands as part of a coastal restoration effort. The other $40 million will be used for further berm building and other expenses related to the project.
Scientists and federal officials had said that construction of additional berms was pointless because little surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico. They had urged that the remaining funds be spent on coastal restoration.
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