Under pressure to block oil, a rush to dubious projects

Yes, we need to do something, but we need a better process for deciding what that best something is. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear that this permitted berm is not a viable solution.

And the Louisiana berm is not the only example of rushed emergency permitting of a major project. With the oil steadily approaching the Alabama coastline, the Mobile, Ala. district of the Corps of Engineers released an Emergency Public Notice, also on May 27, for a permit application by BP to build a mile-and-a-half-long seawall on Dauphin Island, Alabama to block the oil from reaching the island. The goal of the project is to close off a breach in the barrier island opened by Hurricane Katrina. Now this may be a good idea, but the process gives us no insight into whether it is or isn’t. Again, agencies were given a few hours to comment. The design for the structure was presented hand-drawn on notebook paper and appears to have been pulled together by a local pile-driving company. The plans are not signed or stamped by a licensed engineer. Will it work? Who knows?

The pressure to respond to this environmental disaster is immense. The agencies feel it. BP feels it. And all federal, state, and local politicians feel it. But the Obama administration must come up with a review process for these emergency permits that ensures that the proposed projects will work, will use resources (dollars, sand, booms) wisely, and will not do more harm than good.

The BP oil spill will be with us for years, not days. In order to move forward in a sensible way, the administration should set up a scientific review panel to vet all proposals for large-scale coastal engineering in response to the spill. The panel should include experts from science agencies like the US Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as leading academics. The review panel should still be charged with responding very quickly to permit applications, but the public needs to have a higher level of confidence that the best science is being brought to bear on this problem. At the moment, that is simply not the case.