Restoration of Areas Harmed by the BP Spill Welcomed
U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu speaks with Mike Voisin, CEO of oyster processing company Motivatit Seafoods.
On Thursday U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced in New Orleans the funding for the two projects, one to create 104 acres of marsh in Plaquemines Parish and the other to improve seeding grounds in five parishes. The former allocates $13.2 million and the latter allocates $14,874,300.
The projects are part of a massive “early restoration plan” to mitigate damages caused by the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon which was drilling a well for BP Exploration and Production Inc.
The projects are part of that plan which is still undergoing review.
A team of trustees from five states said in a report, “While we do not yet know the extent of the natural resources that were impacted by the spill, we do know that the impacts were widespread and extensive and will take years to assess completely.”
The trustees said the projects “would enhance Louisiana’s oyster productivity” and that beneficial actions would far outweigh “any short-term, adverse impacts.”
The projects in the Atchafalaya, Terrebonne, Barataria, Breton Sound and Pontchartrain coast basins would product “seed-sized and sack-sized oysters on public oyster seed grounds.” Those are areas in which oysters were exposed to oil and dispersants.
Officially, the projects are known as the Lake Heritage Marsh Creation in Plaquemines Parish and the Louisiana Oyster Cultch Project in St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Lafourche, Jefferson and Terrebonne parishes.
The funding comes from a $1 billion early restoration agreement reached between the trustees and BP last April.
“This is a positive step,” Landrieu said, but the “plan should only be the beginning of a comprehensive strategy to restore the Gulf.” She urged the expediting of other projects “that are ready to begin.”
Mike Voisin, an owner of Motivatit Seafoods of Houma, said his company owns oyster beds, but the state owns 1.6 million acres of public lands. The restoration is “a positive thing” and shows a commitment to rehabilitation from the damages caused by the spill.
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