Alex, tides 1, Hesco baskets 0

As the Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press have reported:

CAMERON, La. — High tides from Hurricane Alex destroyed 1,000 feet of a wall of sand-filled baskets the Louisiana National Guard built in Cameron Parish as a barrier against oil from the BP well.

A tide 3 feet above normal seeped through the barriers Wednesday and washed away portions. Alex came ashore Wednesday night south of Brownsville, Texas. Its northern edge lashed the Louisiana coast.

Clifton Hebert of the parish Office of Emergency Preparedness says it takes weeks for sand to compact in fabric-lined wire mesh baskets.

The National Guard had built about 6 1/2 miles of a planned 8-mile barrier of wire-mesh containment baskets, Col. Michael Deville said.

And Len Bahr, whose LaCoastPost I have quoted from at some length previously, comments:

July 2

The failure of sand berms constructed of Hesco baskets along the beach in Cameron Parish yesterday must have struck a nerve with the state’s chief sand berm booster, Governor Bobby Jindal. This morning, during NPR’s Morning Edition the Baton Rouge local news segment on WRKF-FM 89.3 aired a sand berm success quote from the governor. Without mentioning the sand berm failure on the western part of the coast, Jindal reported with pride that the sand berms constructed to date on the eastern part of the coast suffered no damage from Hurricane Alex.

The fact that the intact berms were roughly five hundred miles northeast of the location on the Mexican coast where the (category 2) storm made landfall may have had something to do with this (premature) success story.

The 2010 Hurricane season has about 120 days to go, Governor.

July 1

Alex 1, sand berms 0

An alert reader just notified me that Crystal Price wth KPLC TV 7 in Lake Charles reported that the Hesco baskets installed by the Louisiana National Guard during recent weeks along the beach in Cameron Parish have failed, thanks to high tides and waves from Hurricane Alex.

Let’s assess the facts: the Holly Beach area, so far not threatened by BP oil, was lined by Hesco baskets filled with sand mined from natural chenier ridges that provide vital natural protection from storm surge and much of the sand has now washed away. Way to go sand berm advocates!

Cameron is in western Louisiana at the Texas border. No oil from the BP well has been reported there.

And, by the way, since when were walls of Hesco baskets berms?

And please note that there is no agenda of "we told you so" here - it's simply that, in the face of this disaster, everyone wishes that time, effort, and money could be put into something that works, rather than risky experiments that don't.

Comments

[David S.]

The truth is starting to come out, albeit slowly:

"While van Heerden seeks to allay fears about the extent of environmental damage, he bristles at the mention of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's berm construction project that is touted as a magic bullet for blocking oil. In lieu of a clear leader and a cogent plan, many Louisianans are pulling for the project's success with a combination of religious faith and patriotic fervor. In this climate, disagreement is tantamount to disloyalty. Even so, impartial scientists are dubious.

"Sand castles" is van Heerden's succinct description of the berms, along with the scientific explanation that "There's a concept known as the equilibrium profile which is based on wave energy, the slope of the beach, and the grain size of the sediment. The sediment involved here is very fine, so the berms will erode and shape themselves at a very low angle. I've looked at it from the air and they're having a huge problem stacking the sand."

"Nevertheless Jindal is pushing the berm project with an intensity that borders on messianic zeal but – on a more worldly level – is at times disingenuous. Last month he took reporters to see an unrelated and pre-existing coastal restoration site that he represented both as part of the new berm project and evidence of its rapid progress. The two sites are entirely separate, situated many miles apart, and use completely different construction technology. But – perhaps because the current zeitgeist favors the berm project so strongly – no media coverage mentioned the discrepancy.

"Jindal didn't seek scientific info, and no copy of the final plan was ever forthcoming," van Heerden went on. "He claimed it was designed by 'Dutch engineers.' I contacted all the engineers whom I know in the Netherlands" (van Heerden hails from South Africa) "and so far none of them know of any Dutch engineer who supposedly was involved in this design."

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/04/wetlands-advocate-ivor-van-heerden-stirring-controversy-in-new/

[Sandglass]

David - thanks for the link. The entire piece is well worth reading, sobering and depressing though it is!

Michael

[F]

Yes David, thanks for the link, and your comment.

You know, they may have better luck and lower costs if they just filled Hesco baskets with one dollar bills. Those, you can wash.

[Sandglass]

It's always possible that it would be interesting to look into who might have what to gain from the sales of huge numbers of Hesco baskets.......

[F]

Hesco Bastion certainly has a lot to gain from sales. It does make one wonder to whom Hesco might be thankful for the contract.

[Diane Witt]

Yes Michael, I wonder that also. They make a little on the initial contract and I guess this current failure of their system means they'll likely get a lucrative change order too.