Louisiana Oil-Spill Cleanup Puts Focus on Barrier Island Repairs

After reviewing the performance of a BP-funded $360-million sand-berm project designed to keep oil from BP’s April 20, 2010, spill out of Louisiana marshes, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has reallocated $100 million of the remaining $140 million to barrier-island restoration. With BP’s approval, the money now will be used to convert more than 10 miles of temporary berms into enduring restoration works for the islands. The other $40 million in BP funding will be used for renourishment, stabilization, environmental support and other compliance costs associated with the work, according to a Nov. 1 statement from the governor’s office. Nearly 17 million cu yd of sand has been dredged to date. Critics of the oil-barrier project, who claimed earlier that the 10 miles of berm already built would easily be destroyed by the next Gulf hurricane, have widely endorsed the revised plan.