Sand Berms Captured Little Oil, Panel Finds

[clearvision]

WSJ:

Sand piles designed to block oil in the Gulf of Mexico from hitting the Louisiana coast captured a "minuscule" amount of petroleum at an "overwhelmingly expensive" cost, according to a report issued Thursday by the staff of a presidential panel investigating the BP PLC oil spill.

The report by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling also says that federal officials who coordinated the government's cleanup efforts in the Gulf approved the use of berms not because they believed they would succeed in trapping oil but in response to the pleas of Louisiana politicians, whose demands "overwhelmed" the government's scientific analysis.

While the report doesn't question the motives of Louisiana officials who championed the berms' construction, it notes that the state's politicians have for years proposed beefing up their eroded barrier islands as a way to protect their coastline from storms.

The BP spill, the report says, "presented an opportunity for state and parish officials to facilitate construction of a large-scale, temporary oil-spill response measure whose purpose might, they believed, 'pivot' to permanent restoration of Louisiana's barrier islands—with BP footing the bill."

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They captured a 1000 barrels of oil. But who cares if politicians over reacted and threw money away, BP is paying for it. Reminds me of the 100's of new to slightly used trailers I saw for sale on a lot down in Houston. Seems FEMA ordered way to many and had to dump them.

[Casino67]

"To undercut the function of the berms in hindsight means the Commission staff would have rather employed the fallback plan to just set our marshes on fire weeks after oil saturated them. That was not a viable option for our state."

 

The government didn't have a viable plan so berms were the best thought. When were they approved? Could the delay in building them been a factor in the low capture? If they had been in place prior to the spill would they have worked better? Article leaves many questions unanswered for me. Maybe the actual report does better.

[Evad]

In other words, we were so delinquent and clueless in the performance of our duties that by the time we placed the berms, the horses were out of the barnyard.

 

Old Chinese Proverb--If you want to keep horse in corral, close gate BEFORE he escapes.

[Casino67]

In other words, we were so delinquent and clueless in the performance of our duties that by the time we placed the berms, the horses were out of the barnyard.

 

Old Chinese Proverb--If you want to keep horse in corral, close gate BEFORE he escapes.

 

Who is this 'we' you speak of? Let's blame the proper entity, OBAMA and his inept administration.

[Evad]

In other words, we were so delinquent and clueless in the performance of our duties that by the time we placed the berms, the horses were out of the barnyard.

 

Old Chinese Proverb--If you want to keep horse in corral, close gate BEFORE he escapes.

 

Who is this 'we' you speak of? Let's blame the proper entity, OBAMA and his inept administration.

 

That is the "we" of which I speak.