[gleeaikin]

Regarding permits. People in Louisiana want to dredge up sand berms to block the entrances to marshlands. This is still being reviewed, and requires approval by the Army Corp of Engineers. Aren’t these the folks who brought us the dikes and barriers that failed in Katrina? On the other hand there may be legitimate issues regarding cutting of access behind barrier islands for a long time. It may lead to stagnent water and death of creatures, as well as preventing them from going in and out of the bays according to their life cycles. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out.

[muawiyah]

Sure, shutting off the natural water flow (there is, BTW, no natural water flow there since the diversion of the Mississippi River many years ago) could cause problems if that went on for a long time, but that's not the case here ~ it's an emergency; the waterflow must be diverted for what the US government's own agents (BP is an agent in this case) promise; and the barriers can be easily removed once the danger is gone.

It is inconceivable to me, or most anyone else for that matter, that a long term potential danger should be allowed to interfere with a necessary response to a short term devastating event.

Thinking that the long term potential problem should take precedence is just not natural. Those people are NUTS.