The Jindal administration has received a deadline extension for its plans for the final fate of its controversial sand berm project.
The administration asked the Louisiana Army Corps of Engineers, which gives the permits necessary for the construction, to extend the deadline until Oct. 4.
The extension continues uncertainty as to the administration’s plans for the project’s scope and future.
The administration is currently operating under an emergency permit covering 14.5 miles of coast.
That’s a fraction of the more than 100 miles that would be covered if the Corps grants the administration the full permit it requested.
In a Sept. 16 letter to the Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration of Louisiana, Pete Serio, chief of the Louisiana Corps’ regulatory branch, listed a number of complaints about the project by regulatory and environmental agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency.
“To date, three federal agencies have submitted strong objections to the proposed project and they also question the need for work to continue under the emergency authorization,” Serio wrote. “If the OCPR intends to continue with this project as an emergency response to the oil spill, please provide a detailed discussion defending that position using the best available scientific and other credible data to substantiate your position.”
Serio asked the administration to submit a letter detailing its plans for the full project and its justification for continuing construction on the emergency project within seven days.
The administration responded in a Sept. 23 letter requesting the deadline extension, citing “the amount and stated magnitude of all the issues that the applicant is being asked to take into consideration.”
The berm project, created by the administration in the wake of the BP oil spill, was designed to catch oil from the leaking well before it came ashore in sensitive beaches and marshlands, where the oil would do more damage and be more difficult to clean.
The project has come under fire from scientists for a lack of scientific oversight and questions about the project’s effectiveness.
Garret Graves, director of the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities, told The Daily Reveille in a Sept. 17 article that, despite complaints and media reports to the contrary, his office had planned since early August to focus on the smaller, still incomplete emergency permit.
Graves could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
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Contact Sydni Dunn at [email protected]