Interesting commentary on Jindal

[tabatha]

"Sand castles" is van Heerden's succinct description of the berms, along with this scientific explanation: "There's a concept known as the equilibrium profile which is based on wave energy, the slope of the beach, and the grain size of the sediment. The sediment involved here is very fine, so the berms will erode and shape themselves at a very low angle. I've looked at it from the air and they're having a huge problem stacking the sand."

Nevertheless Jindal is pushing the berm project with an intensity that borders on messianic zeal but -- on a more worldly level -- is at times disingenuous. Last month he took reporters to see an unrelated and pre-existing coastal restoration site that he represented both as part of the new berm project and evidence of its rapid progress. The two sites are entirely separate, situated many miles apart, and use completely different construction technology. But -- perhaps because the current zeitgeist favors the berm project so strongly -- no media coverage mentioned the discrepancy.

"Jindal didn't seek scientific info, and no copy of the final plan was ever forthcoming," van Heerden went on. "He claimed it was designed by 'Dutch engineers.' I contacted all the engineers whom I know in the Netherlands" (van Heerden hails from South Africa) "and so far none of them know of any Dutch engineer who supposedly was involved in this design. In my opinion this is totally about Jindal's desire to be elected president, and the unfortunate reality in Louisiana right now is that scientists with the expertise to make informed comments are a little afraid to do so ever since they saw what happened to me. My situation has had a huge chilling effect." In this vein, Leonard Bahr's latest web posting, "Silence of the Eco-Lambs" decries what he describes as the failure of the National Wildlife Federation, the Environmental Defense Fund and the National Audubon Society to speak up on the issue.

Last month, the Coast Guard suspended work on the berm when state contractors started dredging in an off-limits "littoral zone," thus risking serious environmental damage. But Jindal and Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser denounced the federal demand to abide by an explicit agreement as just more capricious meddling by out of touch Washington bureaucrats. A respected environmentalist, Dr. John Lopez, coastal program director for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation -- which has supported the berm project in general -- sided with the temporary suspension until the permit's conditions were obeyed. "What good does it do to protect the islands from oil," Lopez said, "if you destroy them while trying to protect them?"

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/04/wetlands-advocate-ivor-van-heerden-stirring-controversy-in-new/