Nola.com: Moving forward on repairs to spill’s damage: An editorial

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2011/12/moving_forward_on_repairs_to_s.html

Times-Picayune

Published: Saturday, December 17, 2011, 7:09 AM
By Editorial page staff, The Times-Picayune

The first projects covered by BP’s pledge to provide $1 billion for early restoration from the 2010 oil spill will include creating 104 acres of marsh, placing oyster cultch on six public seed beds and upgrading a Grand Isle oyster hatchery. That’s fitting, since wetlands and oyster beds are both important natural resources in Louisiana that took serious blows in the disaster.

It’s also encouraging that Louisiana is getting $28 million of the first $57 million in projects that was approved this week. A committee of trustees representing the five Gulf Coast states, the federal departments of Interior and Commerce and BP gave the OK for the projects, which represent only a fraction of what BP will pay. The oil giant may ultimately have to fork over as much as $20 billion to compensate for damage done to natural resources in the blowout of the Macondo oil well.

The Louisiana wetlands project will create 104 acres of unbroken marsh. The $13.2 million effort is an expansion of an existing project in Lake Hermitage in Plaquemines Parish and replaces plans to create 70 acres of marsh terraces.

The fact that $14.9 million in oyster projects for Louisiana are included is especially significant since BP had been opposed to paying for damage to beds. The company’s argument was that freshwater from Mississippi River diversions that the state opened up after the spill were responsible for wiping them out, not oil.

But some beds were damaged by oil, and Louisiana opened up freshwater diversions to prevent oil from moving into the wetlands and doing even more damage. Clearly, the freshwater impact on oyster beds was a direct consequence of the spill.

Louisiana officials and the oyster industry were pushing to include oyster bed projects, and rightly so. Louisiana oysters are a natural resource that suffered great harm. Production this year is down 65 percent, according to Mike Voisin, who is a member of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force.

The projects approved by the committee include placing oyster cultch on 850 acres of public seed beds at 3-Mile Bay and Drum Bay in St. Bernard Parish, Lake Fortuna and South Black Bay on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish, Hackberry Bay in Lafourche Parish and Sister or Caillou Lake in Terrebonne Parish. The work also includes an upgrade to the oyster hatchery.

“This is the trustees recognizing that damage to the oyster industry (from the spill) is an important issue, and BP also concurring that it’s an important issue,” Mr. Voisin said.

That’s progress, especially considering BP’s previous unwillingness to take responsibility for freshwater damage to oyster beds.

Special thanks to Richard Charter.

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