Louisiana "Barrier Island" Approved to Help Stop Coastline Spill Contamination

The head of the federal incident command center, Admiral Thad Allen has approved the first phase of a "barrier island" (also referred to as "sand booms") that will be constructed off the coast of Louisiana to help block and divert oil from washing ashore.

The approved portion of the barrier will cover about half of Louisiana's original request. According to the official release, BP - the company responsible for the clean up effort - will foot the bill for the barrier island, or it will be covered by the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

On May 17th, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal had met with representatives of the US Army Corps of Engineers to push them to approve the barrier project. At the time Jindal said that,

“We presented this plan almost two weeks ago because we expected to need greater defenses than boom on the top of the water. We are very concerned about reports of oil submerged under the water. This ‘sand booming’ plan we are asking the Corps to approve will strengthen our barrier islands and help protect our coast and critical wildlife areas.

“Once we get approval for dredging to begin, we could start to see land or ‘sand booms’ in place in around 10 days. We need to get this plan moving as quickly as possible.”