Mississippi River pollution plunged after passage of Clean Water Act, LSU study says houmatoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from houmatoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Louisiana coastal worker alleges dredge company ordered coverup of 2016 oil spill
Tristan Baurick
NEW ORLEANS A marine contractor who ruptured an oil pipeline during a Louisiana coastal restoration project itself stemming from the BP oil disaster blames the company leading the operation for the resulting spill and says it directed him to cover up evidence and keep quiet.
James Tassin, a heavy equipment operator from Harvey, is providing evidence to federal prosecutors for possible water pollution charges against Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co., the Houston-based company that the government hired to rebuild a Plaquemines Parish island six years after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster oiled it.
The Gulf of Mexico could soon get a lot noisier.
In its final weeks, President Donald Trump s administration has eased rules that have for almost a decade limited the use of deep-penetration seismic blasts to search for oil and gas deposits at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
Seismic air-gun survey technology has helped locate a bonanza of overlooked oil deposits, but its use can disorient, injure or kill marine animals, from the largest including endangered whales and dolphins to the microscopic critters that serve as the foundation of the Gulf s food web. The oceans are worlds of sound, said Michael Jasny, a marine mammal protection expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council. All kinds of marine animals fish, whales, invertebrates rely on sound to feed, find mates, avoid predators, navigate in short, they use sound to do just about everything they need to do to thrive.