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Former Louisiana State University marine sciences professor Len Bahr said aerial photos taken from June 25 to July 7 show a berm under construction near the Chandeleur Islands "shrinking like a wool sweater in hot water."

Share "The berm is disappearing and some very expensive construction equipment is drowning in the surf. That can't have been the plan," said Bahr, a leading critic of the BP-funded $360 million berm project. He's also a former coastal policy adviser to several Louisiana governors, including Bobby Jindal, who championed the berm project.

Bahr posted several photos on his website that appear to show the E-4 berm eroding over a 12-day period as heavy equipment, including a bulldozer, becomes partially submerged.

Bahr said he received the photos from federal officials who he said asked not to be identified. "This whole thing has gotten so political that they're concerned about retribution," he said.

6/25:


7/2:


7/7:


Jindal's administration released photos taken 7/13 of the same "E-4" berm, which appears significantly larger and has raised edges that are absent from the last two photos in Bahr's sequence.



Young said the state's more recent photos show that "they've obviously been hard at work rebuilding the berm."

Calling the E-4 berm an early sign of success, Nungesser urged the corps to approve the state's full request for 18 more berms totaling another 80 miles.

Young said such a large-scale project would be a futile race against the Gulf's erosional powers.

"If they tried to build all of the berms, the first one would be gone long before they finished the last one," he said.

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Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off

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The administration approved the berm plan amid mounting pressure from Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, the state's congressional delegation and local leaders. Those officials say the berms—which would stand six feet above the Gulf's mean high-water mark and be 25 feet wide at their top—are the state's best hope to protect its fragile coastal marshes from an onslaught of oil.

But the Environmental Protection Agency has raised myriad concerns about the berm plan. The EPA has argued the berms probably won't keep most of the spilled oil away from the coast and could cause unintended ecological problems.

The dispute shows the mounting pressure on politicians to be seen taking decisive action against the Gulf disaster in the short term—even if those actions raise potential long-term problems of their own.

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Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off