Jindal has been asking for vacuum barges and materials for sand booms for weeks.
He's called up the 843rd Engineering Battalion (NG) and its dozen helicopters to fill in the gaps between the barrier islands without waiting for BP or Thad Allen to approve the project because they were sitting on approval.
Without equipment, additional people aren't much help. Why is everyone going after Jindal with such viciousness? Alabama, Mississipi and Florida have deployed an even smaller percentage. Florida only activated 50 guards total. These numbers are despite the fact that deploying the Guard won't cost the state.
Thad Allen can say he's approved every request to use National Guard troops but that's not good enough. It's the TASKS that need to approved so Louisiana can call up guardsmen to staff them. Having 5000 National guardsmen standing around with nothing to do would be less than helpful.
My reaction to Jindal is to screw the noise, screw approval and just continue moving on with the projects. Buy whatever equipment you need and force the federal govt or BP to reimburse you, call up the rest of the guard and forge ahead.
Billy Nungesser's got your back.
Jindal got a Tiger Dam in Grand Isle, Hesco Baskets on Fourchon Beach, Sling Load Mission in Port Fourchon, sand barriers at Grande Isle, new wharf at Frank Campo’s Marina in St. Bernard, boom at Breton Sound Marina, etc.
Forge ahead Jindal and save your state. No one else will do it for you.
If there were any project for the National Guard to do down there and Jindal was sitting on them, the White House is empowered, by law, to go over a governor’s head and call up National Guard troops to aid a state in time of natural disasters or other public emergencies.
That hasn't happened because there's nothing for the National Guard to do without approved projects and equipment.
Either that or the White House is just as derilict in its obligations as people are making Jindal out to be.
Washington Slows Down Sand Berms in Louisiana
Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Billy Nungesser is mad. This by itself is not unusual—as the president of Plaquemines parish in southeastern Louisiana, Nungesser has been dealing with the oil spill since day one, and since maybe day two he's been angry with BP and the federal government's sluggish response to the catastrophe. Nungesser—a constant presence by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's side in his spill coverage—has complained repeatedly that BP and Washington aren't giving local residents what they need to fight the spill, and are too often standing in the way instead of helping.
But now Nungesser is really pissed. Federal authorities have put a temporary stop to a $360 million project to build massive sand berms—a plan Nungesser championed for weeks—that are meant to block the flow of oil into the marshes and wetlands in southeastern Louisiana.
...
The berm project has been controversial from the start. Nungesser and Jindal complained in May that the federal government was too slow to approve the project, but many coastal scientists worry that far too little research was done on the impact that massive artificial barrier islands would have on the larger tidal flows in the Mississippi delta. Construction of the berms was finally given the go ahead at the beginning of June—and BP agreed to pay the massive costs—but on the condition that the berms would support long-term coastal reconstruction goals for coastal Louisiana, which has been battered by hurricanes and erosion in recent years. Taking sand from the Chandeleurs, environmentalists argue, will only hurt the coast over the long term.
That's the point, though—for local officials like Nungesser, there won't be a long term if extreme action isn't take immediately to stop the oil, by any means necessary. The five days it might take the state to build a longer pipeline for dredging are five days where the berm wouldn't be built, five days when the oil would keep seeping in to the marshes. "We don't have time for red tape and bureaucracy," Jindal told reporters Wednesday. "We're literally in a war to save our coast."
...
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2010/06/24/washington-puts-the-brakes-on-sand-berms-in-louisiana/ Nungesser Dredge Statement
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
“Every minute we waste makes us more and more vulnerable to the oil attacking the marsh and the breeding grounds for the pelicans. It’s a shame that the bureaucrats once again fight us instead of helping us in this war against the oil,” said Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser.
Below is an email from Jane Lyder of the Department of the Interior. She’s the one holding up the dredging. This is one piece of correspondence in a chain with the State of Louisiana, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DOI, and others.
(2nd Nungesser statement from June 23)
“You don’t move sediment pumping pipe with volunteers. This is the lady that Thad Allen and President Obama are allowing hold up dredging to save our wetlands—God help us. What planet is this lady from? In the conference today Lyder was worried about the pelican nesting grounds. Obviously, she hasn’t been out there to see the birds dying, covered in oil, just like the other people who make ridiculous comments. Maybe she should go sailing on a yacht in England with Tony Hayward, it would be a great place to send her on vacation. I’ll pay her way,” said President Nungesser.
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/latest-buzz/10420-bp-oil-spill-louisianas-nungesser-blasts-interior-officer-over-dredge-email“Every minute we waste makes us more and more vulnerable to the oil attacking the marsh and the breeding grounds for the pelicans. It’s a shame that the bureaucrats once again fight us instead of helping us in this war against the oil,” - Billy Nungesser.
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