Page 2 - Marsh Grass News Today

>> reporter: in lands south of new orleans, water is life. >> this is jimmy on the fringe. >> reporter: on the surface, life might seem back to normal. no slick of crude oil, no skimmer boats or emergency crews in the delicate wetlands, the disaster could have happened yesterday. this is one of the sensitive marsh islands in an area known as bay jimmy. you can see there is an inch of oil over here. if you give it a scrape, ten months later its become coming up almost liquid. the oil is killing t...

Their young. >> certainly i think any impact is more impact than we h had like to see, there has been some, but in my humble opinion weve seen impact, but i think it could have been worse and i think well see success from the birds nesting the a the islands. the coast guard is coordinating detection and clean yuf efforts including the construction of this two mile long pipe boon held in place by pilots. its a natural collection point. and there are endless lines of white and orange absorb bant b...

Different forms in the gulf of mexico, but you crunch the numbers on that, and youre still looking at more than a million barrels of oil thats still unaccounted for, and many people around here still think that that creates a lot of work that still is left to be done. we saw that firsthand today. were in an area known as passaloutra, louisiana, southernmost point here in the gulf of mexico, an area hit incredibly hard by the oil spill. crews are here in the marsh grass laying down these absorban...

And the mayor of waveland saying this is just -- this is something that they feared the most. en that is why. this area is just so important. take a listen. >> once it gets into the marshes and its in this fragile ecosystem, its on the grasses, saw grass, marsh grass, duck wheat. it clings to it. these are the areas where our crabs and shrimp, you know, migrate to, lay their eggs and this is the beginning of this huge fishery that we have out here. our crabs and our shrimp and fish. >> reporter:...

Bay. >> the most productive estuary in north america. if the oily birds and sea turtles pulled out of here weeks ago are any indication, the odds of survival are grim. days before hurricane alex, scientists surveyed louisianas coastal wetlands from the air and found severe damage mostly confined to the outer edges of the marsh grass. not anymore. >> what were worried about is the long-term impact of the oil in this water. millions of gallons of oil are still in the water. were worried about the ...

They mature. and the water here, before the spill, the governor says it would have been filled with fishermen. today, filled with oil. >> the further in it is, the more damage? >> absolutely. and as this dies off, this is our natural barrier against tidal surge. alex caused damage. the next storm will cause more damage. that allows it to come further into the gulf, further into the bay. >> the most productive estuary in north america. if the oily birds and sea turtles pulled out of here weeks ag...

Confined to the outer edges of the marsh grass. not anymore. >> what were worried about is the long-term impact of the oil in this water. millions of gallons of oil are still in the water. were worried about the subsea wall and chemicals and dispersants. >> were about 60 miles from the mouth of the mississippi river. thats the gulf of mexico right out there. you can see a massive oily sheen on the surface of the water here still and big, brown globs of oil still floating here. and just a moment ...

Manufacturing quite a bit of it . we deployed it in pensacola and it worked fantastic. it gathers a foot of this gathers a gallon of oil . incredible. you can get it out of the marshes and thats where we are finding the pelicans. >> bob devised a means of distributing the property in the marsh and we dont have to walk in the marsh grass to get the oil. that protects the ever seen anything like it?

This isnt out on the water but in the edges of this marsh grass. >> the oil is sitting out there. occasionally bp sends people out with these absorbent pads to literally soak it up. local officials are saying its not doing the job. >> its disgusting. in the corners the currents pull up the oil in one place and its just sitting there. you look at the marsh grass, five feet deep into the grass and it is -- you see green in the distance but it is brown right upfrontd. >> killing those marshes. >> a...

These barges for some sort of inspection which, according to the governors office, never took place. >> thats what theyre saying. theyre saying we lost 24 hours. they werent on there and the equipment theyve put on these barges is starting to suck up a lot more oil. the numbers weve been talking about, they think will go up thousands and thousands in the coming weeks. they have 16 out there now and 14 more that are supposed to be coming. >> the governor said they would like to ramp these up so t...