Actually, it looks as though one of the objections to the sand is that it'll just funnel the oil elsewhere into someone else's marshes and wetlands.
Daily Comet wrote:
HOUMA — Sand barriers, barges and boom are all methods Terrebonne Parish officials say they will use to protect the community from encroaching oil spewing out of an unchecked well in the Gulf of Mexico.
But a high-ranking Coast Guard official told locals that his agency is opposed to building up islands as part of the state's sand-barrier plan.
It's not “a viable solution,†Coast Guard Capt. Roger Laferriere told the Parish Council at its Wednesday meeting.
The wall of sand could funnel oil into more unprotected areas and into neighboring Mississippi, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in documents released Wednesday.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and leaders from several coastal parishes want to ring the state's southeastern coastline with a $350 million network of sand berms. However, the corps says the barrier could inadvertently alter tides and end up driving oil east — into Mississippi Sound, the Biloxi Marshes and Lake Borgne.
Edit: Another article stated that berms wouldn't be effective in some areas and would just interfere with the legitimate clean-up efforts.
Edited, May 27th 2010 4:22pm by Jophiel 
