Some of you may recall from my last blog that last week we encountered a BP supervisor while on a stretch of the Louisiana coast near Bay Ronquille. You may also recall that the gentleman stated to my brother that BP would have a cleanup crew working to clean the area starting Monday. You may also recall that I foraged ahead to document huge mats of oil that had been reported to me by a source. Finally, you may recall that I said I would go back this week to follow-up on BP’s clean-up commitment. Well, today is I went back, and BP was nowhere to be found. Of course, the oil was still there. In fact, because I left New Orleans super early this morning and got to Bay Ronquille during low-tide, I was able to see that these mats, as suspected, are greater in size than what we saw last week./>Today, the weather was beautiful, albeit a bit on the chilly side. In addition to revisiting the spots that I went to last week, today I went further east along the coast to an areas known as Shell Cut and Bay La Mer. I walked the beach for a while and, fortunately, did not see the huge mats of oil. I did see that the beach is covered with a black residue but cannot confirm that the residue was oil. What concerns me though is if there is oil buried below the newest layers of sand. I plan on following up with some people to see if any samples have been taken in this area. I also stopped in a place called Bay St. Mary near Bay Jimmy. The migratory White Pelicans seemed kind of confused as to why one of their favorite vacation spots (Louisiana marsh) was covered in oil, the furniture (marsh grass and mangroves) was all torn up (dead), and the place smelled bad (petroleum and rotting vegetation). I told them that it was BP’s fault and that BP promised to do whatever it takes to clean up their mess. They laughed and just flew away.Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer for GRN
