The Discoverer Enterprise deep-water drillship, which is capable of drilling a well more than 6.5 miles, is among the ships at the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon platform disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana.
(Mark Ralston/ AFP/ Getty Images)
La. may build up islands to keep oil offshore
Dredging could cost $250 million; BP seeks ways to contain spill
The Discoverer Enterprise deep-water drillship, which is capable of drilling a well more than 6.5 miles, is among the ships at the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon platform disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana.
(Mark Ralston/ AFP/ Getty Images)
VENICE, La. — With the prospects dimming for capping the Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout anytime soon, federal, state, and local officials are assessing a plan to quickly and massively bolster the battered barrier islands that protect the Louisiana marshlands.
The plan, which local officials hope to present to the White House within days, calls for building up almost 70 miles of barrier islands by dredging sand and mud from a mile out into the Gulf of Mexico and depositing it onto the outer shores of the islands.
Some of the islands included in what local officials call their line of defense are federal bird and wildlife sanctuaries, including the Breton National Wildlife Refuge.
A project of this scale normally requires years of environmental assessments, but local and state officials say there is no time for those now.
The current boom system was of little use even in yesterday’s calm waters, and officials say they face an environmental disaster when hurricane season arrives and the oily water is pushed into the marshlands ashore.
Efforts to protect the Louisiana marshlands, some of the most productive in the world, became even more urgent after the failure Saturday to place a dome on the gushing well 5,000 feet below the surface.
Among the other plans under consideration:
■ Deploying a new, smaller containment box in the hope that it would be less likely to get clogged. Officials said the new box could be in place by midweek. “We’re going to pursue the first option that’s available to us and we think it’ll be’’ the smaller box, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said.
■ Cutting the riser pipe, which extends from the mile-deep well, undersea and using larger piping to bring the gushing oil to a drill ship on the surface, a tactic considered difficult and less desirable because it will increase the flow of oil.
■ Shooting mud and concrete directly into the well’s blowout preventer, a device that was supposed to shut off the flow of oil after the rig explosion but failed. The technique, known as a “top kill,’’ is supposed to plug up the well and would take two to three weeks.
■ Try again using the containment box that failed to work Saturday, after finding a way to keep the crystals from building up.
Suttles was in Venice, La., yesterday and met with local officials about the barrier islands plan, which he described as “not yet complete.’’
He said that the company was interested in further exploring the project after it is more fully developed but that BP hoped to be able to cap the well soon so that a major barrier-building program might not be necessary.
Suttles met with Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, which is especially threatened by the oil. Nungesser said earlier in the day that 10 dredges were available to start work, which he hoped could be done night and day.
“We believe this can be done quickly and in a way that doesn’t hurt the pelicans and sea turtles and other great wildlife out there,’’ he said.
“But here’s the really bad truth: If we don’t do it, the chances are good those birds and animals will be destroyed by the oil later this summer, and the marshes will be destroyed, too.’’
Dredging countless tons of sand is costly, and Nungesser said that estimates for a full “line of defense’’ were about $250 million. He said that estimate is based on building the islands up to 6 feet high, which engineers said was necessary to resist future storms. The plan also calls for creating passages within and between islands so water can move back and forth.
Estimates of how much oil is leaking from the well range from 5,000 to 26,500 barrels per day. Although chemical dispersants have kept any large oil slicks from hitting shore, oil globules and an oil sheen have come up on some of the barrier islands, and Nungesser said some have even moved beyond the barriers and closer to the marshes.
The barrier island plan was made public on Saturday by Governor Bobby Jindal, who said his staff was also working hard to make it happen. At a news conference in Venice, near the Gulf tip of Plaquemines Parish, Jindal credited Nungesser with developing the plan and said he supported it fully.
A far more limited version of the plan had been in the works for several years, but Nungesser said the oil threat led to the expansion and heightened sense of immediacy. He also said a Dutch dredging firm came to the parish last week and helped officials develop a more expansive plan.
Garret Graves, chairman of the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said the threat of long-term or permanent damage to the marshes was real and required forceful action. He also said the state had been hampered in its efforts to protect its 77,000 miles of winding coastline because of a significant shortage in booms.
Material from the Associated Press was included in this report. 
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
