U.S. orders BP to build sand berms to protect Louisiana coast

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/02/AR2010060201916.html?hpid=topnews

As BP engineers suffered another setback Wednesday in the effort to capture oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration ordered oil giant BP to pay for the construction of five large sand berms off the Louisiana coast -- part of a chain of barrier islands that would stretch at least 50 miles.

Speaking in Venice, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the White House had determined that the island build-up would help keep oil from entering marshlands and that BP would be required to pay for the work. He said the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers have already approved construction of one other dredged sand segment.

The sand berm effort has been a priority for Louisiana officials, but federal authorities have worried about unintended environmental consequences, and BP has called the build-up a "hurricane relief project."

BP has given up on trying to permanently stop the leak before relief wells reach it in August, and engineers continued to struggle Wednesday to even contain it. Crews using robotic submarines worked to free a saw that had become stuck while trying to slice through a leaking pipe.