Latest Mississippi River Delta News: Dec. 4, 2013

12.04.2013 | In Latest News, Uncategorized

Oysters on the brink: ‘It’s not a decline; it’s zero population’
By Xerxes Wilson, The Houma Courier (Houma, La.). Dec. 3, 2013.
“Three years after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, local oystermen and processors say Louisiana oysters are tough to come by this winter and the state’s $300 million annual industry is suffering…” (read more)

Coastal Authority authorizes two lawsuits against Army Corps of Engineers
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La.). Dec. 3, 2013.
“The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority on Tuesday authorized two lawsuits to try to get the Army Corps of Engineers to pay for a $3 billion restoration program to repair damage caused by the Mississippi-River Gulf Outlet and to pay for operation and maintenance of hurricane levees along the Algiers Canal on the West Bank…” (read more)

Louisiana to sue Corps of Engineers seeking cash to fix MR-GO damage, maintain some West Bank levees (+Video)
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La.). Dec. 3, 2013.
“The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority on Tuesday authorized two lawsuits to try to get the Army Corps of Engineers to pay for a $3 billion restoration program to repair damage caused by the Mississippi-River Gulf Outlet and to pay for operation and maintenance of hurricane levees along the Algiers Canal on the West Bank…” (read more)

Coastal authority moves forward with corps suits
By Kelly Connelly, The Houma Courier (Houma, La.). Dec. 3, 2013.
“The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority will press two federal lawsuits against the Army Corps of Engineers in hopes of holding them liable for the funding and maintenance of certain projects in south Louisiana…” (read more)

Larger levee project planned for Iberia
By Richard Burgess, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.). Dec. 3, 2013.
“Two flood gates are planned in Iberia and Vermilion parishes that supporters say could hold back some of the storm surge such as when water pushed into homes when Hurricane Rita hit southwest Louisiana in 2005…” (read more)

How scientists are using drones to fight the next big oil spill
By Todd Woody, The Atlantic. Dec. 2, 2013.
“More than three-and-half years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster spewed millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, scientists are launching drones and ocean-going sensor arrays off the Florida coast in an effort to map the path of future oil spills before they devastate beaches and coastal ecosystems…” (read more)

The Oil Spill Windfall
By Daniel M Rothschild, The Weekly Standard. Dec. 9, 2013.
“A federal court in Louisiana will decide in the next few months how much oil company BP must pay in Clean Water Act penalties as a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill… (read more)

Litigation funder adds fuel to the BP lawsuit conflagration
By Paul M. Barrett, Bloomberg Businessweek. Dec. 3, 2013.
“Rather than cooling off, the liability fires from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill are heating up and spreading. Now a Marin County (Calif.) financier has poured lighter fluid on the blaze in the form of $50 million meant to encourage the filing of more claims against the British energy giant…” (read more)

Trial of former BP engineer who deleted texts gets under way in New Orleans
By Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press. Dec. 3, 2013.
“A federal prosecutor vowed Tuesday to prove that a former BP drilling engineer was trying to destroy evidence when he deleted hundreds of text messages from a cellphone after the company’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico…” (read more)

Jury selection begins in trial of former BP engineer
By Richard Thompson, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.). Dec. 4, 2013.
“Attorneys and a federal judge began questioning prospective jurors Monday in the trial of a former BP engineer accused of trying to stymie government investigators by deleting text messages and voice mails in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster…” (read more)

UK backs BP in federal contracts dispute with US government
By Guy Chazan, Elizabeth Rigby, and Ed Crooks, The Financial Times. Dec. 3, 2013.
“The UK government has thrown its weight behind BP in the dispute over its future in the US, branding as “excessive” a ban that prevents the oil company from winning federal contracts due to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster…” (read more)

British government backs BP in fight with EPA
By Steven Mufson, The Washington Post. Dec. 3, 2013.
“The British government has taken the unusual step of filing a brief in a Texas federal court in support of BP in its quest to get the Environmental Protection Agency to lift a ban on the British oil firm’s ability to bid for federal contracts, including leases on new offshore drilling prospects in the Gulf of Mexico…” (read more)