Page 13 - Tar Balls News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Dirt berm. now, you know, anderson, you and i have been down there, jackson square, new orleans. that dirt berm is huge. you have to climb all the way up and to get to the top to look over to the other side. could you imagine the water only being six inches from the top? so they dump water into lake pontchartrain. the problem is it's full of pesticides, of fertilizer, of oil, of sewage plants that overflowed. so all this stuff is now pouring into pontchartrain. last year oil, tar balls. this year probably an algae bloom because of all the fertilizer. and all of the fish now saying wait a minut...

Some purple at 20 inches or more and some white spots here, we don't even know how high they go, they're off the chart. they're 20 inches and more in 30 days' worth of rain. so that's why they have today opened up what's called the bonner carre spillway. this is what it looked like when they opened the spillway in 2008. the river comes down and it should just go by new orleans. but if they don't open it or they didn't, the level of the river would have only been six inches below the top of that dirt berm. now, you know, anderson, you and i have been down there, jackson square, new orleans. tha...

Oil, of sewage plants that overflowed. so all this stuff is now pouring into pontchartrain. last year oil, tar balls. this year probably an algae bloom because of all the fertilizer. and all of the fish now saying wait a minute, what is this you're pouring into my lake? they're all either headed out hopefully or they're going to perish. another hit for new orleans at lake pontchartrain. >> we're going to continue to follow it. chad, appreciate it. thanks for the explanation. we're following a couple other stories. isha sesay has a "360" bulletin >> a shoot-out between mexico's navy and suspect...

Gulf of mexico somehow. by may 23rd is when it finally goes to new orleans. what they did in new orleans and we had pictures and i think we still have some of these pictures as they opened the gates to the spillway today they take all of the muddy water, pesticides, fertilizer, oil, sewage, all of this water now going into lake pontchartrain. like they didn't have problems enough last year with tar balls in lake pontchartrain. now they have this muck water that should have just flowed down into the gulf of mexico and now they have it in lake pontchartrain. here's a picture of what this looked ...

Still tar balls washing up on the beach in alabama? >> the tar balls are a very visual example that this oil spill is largely out of sight but should not be out of mind. there's still oil in the environment. we're also out in marshes with oystermen and shrimpers and looking at the impacts of this oil there. you know, many people also don't realize 40% of all the wetlands in the lower 48 states exist along the coast of louisiana and those have been declining for decades. it was already an impacted environment. this oil spill just added insult to injury. >> it's making a tough situation worse fo...