Oil washes ashore in Grand Isle
 | Reported by: Allison Braxton, Reporter Email: abraxton@fox8tv.net Contributor: Phin Percy, Photographer Last Update: 3/20 11:37 pm |
Oil has washed ashore in Grand Isle (Phin Percy, FOX 8 News)
But, Saturday evening, Grand Isle resident Kathy Michel noticed something floating in the water, just as you enter onto the island.
A layer of sheen and oil thick like peanut butter.
"I just wanted to break out crying this is probably going to happen the rest of our lives," says Michel.
But the oil did not come from the Deep Water Horizon Explosion.
Coast Guard Commander John Burton of Morgan City has confirmed a plug and abandonment project that occurred south of Grand Isle yesterday.
Commander Burton says oil was released into the water for about four to six hours and the source is now secured.
"This is definitely oil; you can smell it. You can feel it; it's not algae," says Jefferson Parish President John Young.
Young immediately contacted, the Coast Guard to put out boom.
"West of the beach coming in, right here is what you see. We're trying to keep that from getting past Elmer Island into the marsh and wetlands. That's why we've made a call to the Governor's Office to block off that last little cut," says Young.
Residents are wondering how this will impact summer tourism because they were on the verge of making a comeback after last year.
"We like to have our tourists come down here, they come from all over the place. But I don't know what's going to happen," says Michel.
In the meantime, it's a race to keep the water safe.
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This thing is vulgar by it's self.