Latest news: September 15, 2011
By Editorial page staff, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La.). September 14, 2011.
“Saving a 675-acre cypress-tupelo swamp near Maurepas from logging will preserve vital habitat for birds and animals, but it also means those trees will continue to act as buffers against storm surge instead of being ground up for garden mulch…”
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La). September 14, 2011.
“Louisiana’s update of its coastal restoration and hurricane protection master plan needs to address the concerns of Native Americans that their communities will be sacrificed in the name of “trade-off,” several representatives of the United Houma Nation told state officials Wednesday night. Native Americans in Pointe au Chien, Dulac, Montegut and other coastal communities fear their communities will be sacrificed in the name of “trade-off” as the state updates its master plan for coastal protection and restoration, representatives of the United Houma Nation told state officials Wednesday night…”
By John M. Broder, New York Times. September 14, 2011.
“WASHINGTON — BP, running weeks behind schedule and tens of millions of dollars over budget in trying to complete its troubled Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, took many shortcuts that contributed to the disastrous blowout and oil spill there last year, federal investigators concluded in a report released on Wednesday…”
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La.). September 13, 2011.
“Nancy Rabalais, the marine ecologist who has overseen mapping of the low-oxygen “dead zone” off the coast of Louisiana for 27 years, and executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Cocodrie, has been named a 2011 recipient of a $100,000 Heinz award…”
By The Associated Press. September 13, 2011.
“PORT FOURCHON, La. — BP PLC is sending cleanup crews back to Fourchon Beach because erosion from Tropical Storm Lee unearthed miles of tar balls, tar mats and abandoned cleanup equipment left from last year’s oil spill…”