Controversial Sand Berm Is Failing in Gulf, Photos Indicate

A much-criticized project to build 45 miles of sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico to keep leaking oil from reaching Louisiana’s wetlands has scarcely begun but already seems to be failing, according to photographs released by a marine scientist. The scientist, Leonard Bahr, a former employee in the Louisiana Office of Coastal Activities, posted a series of photographs showing a portion of the berm on the Chandeleur Islands being partially swallowed by the sea following a storm on July 5 and 6. Aerial photos taken before the storm show bulldozers and other equipment piling up sand on the north Chandeleur Islands on a berm identified as E-4. After the storm, however, much of the berm — which is supposed to be 300 feet wide at its base and to rise six feet out of the Gulf — has disappeared, with seas swamping bulldozers and other equipment. Bahr said the photos, taken by an unidentified federal government employee, show the berm “shrinking like a sweater in hot wool.” Coastal experts, such as Western Carolina University ecologist Rob Young, have criticized the $171 berm project — pushed by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and local officials — as a boondoggle that will quickly wash away, use up sand needed for other coastal restoration projects, and possibly change currents and tidal flows in the region.