Gov.’s wife joins effort to build Gray Habitat home
May 18, 2010Thursday, May 20
May 20, 2010With the help of the National Guard, Lafourche Parish officials attempted to stop the potential advancement of oil into the parish’s marshes by air lifting large bags of dirt into areas along the parish’s southeastern coast where the beachfront has washed away.
However, Lafourche Parish Public Information Officer Brennan Matherne said the National Guard realized Wednesday, three days after the beginning of the operation, the sandbags were not working.
“Sandbags were sinking. Water was going around them, underneath them, on top of them so they went back to the drawing board,” he said.
Since the beginning of last week, Matherne said the parish has received about 40,000 feet of boom. 25,000 feet have already been placed in the open areas of the beach.
In addition to laying boom, he said the parish found two solutions, which it began implementing the latter stages of the week.
“The first one that we started was hauling in riprap, which are big pieces of rock,” said Matherne. “They’re dumping the rock [in the water], and then behind the rock they’re putting the sand.”
He added the parish has been placing vinyl sheets since last weekend in some areas where the sandbags failed.
“It’s building a wall basically for the water to not be able to cross,” said Matherne. “That’s working for the most part. We’re finding some small problems with it, but by and large it is doing its job.”
At press time, Matherne said the laying of riprap, vinyl sheets and boom continues and will continue until supplies run out.
Matherne said the only confirmed reports of anything reaching Lafourche Parish’s shore were the tar balls that began hitting Fourchon Beach Thursday.
“They came in one batch. They’re all across 12 miles of beach on the east side of belle pass,” said Matherne. “Every now and then we’re getting reports of some wash up on shore, but it’s very wide spread and random.”
Matherne said Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has been cleaning up the tar balls on Fourchon beach since they made landfall, and the cleanup continues.
“They’re picking up everything, not just the tar balls,” said Matherne. “They’re picking up all trash on the beach, so our beach will never have looked cleaner.”
Matherne said DEQ had picked up more than 400 bags of trash on the beach as of Monday, with each bag being about one-quarter full.
Other than the tar balls, Matherne said the parish has received many reports of suspected oil, but none of them checked out.
As for Lafourche Parish residents wishing to make claims against BP, the company has opened a claims office at 16263 E. Main St. in Cut Off.
The office will occupy the old CVS building next to the South Lafourche Library and will be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Any business or individual who has lost income due to the oil spill is eligible for a claim.
BP is making advance payments on all legitimate claims and will provide those claimants with a check at the claims office.
The advance payments vary depending on the claim, with a maximum of $5,000.
Anyone unable to visit the claims office can call BP’s claims hotline at 1-800-440-0858 to file a claim. A claims adjuster will then contact the claimant within seven to 10 days.
