Hands-off approach to oiled marshes — strategic or chaotic?

[n2doc]

by Kari Huus
Reporter

Three months after the Deepwater Horizon accident unleashed a flood of oil, the image of sweaty workers fanning out along the Gulf of Mexico to pick up tar balls and scoop up blackened sand has become a familiar one.

But very little of that cleaning is occurring in the Gulf’s delicate coastal marshes, which make up more than twice as much damaged shoreline as the oiled sand beaches.

There could be good scientific basis for the inactivity. Among the approaches advocated by experts for cleaning the fragile marshes is doing nothing and letting nature take care of the oil.

But interviews with experts and companies involved in responding to oil spills raise questions about whether the hands-off approach is being dictated by wise strategy or is merely the result of chaos in decision making.

“I don’t know what the problem is. It seems to me we know what to do, and if there was a more organized effort we’d be in better shape,” said Russ Chianelli, a chemistry, environmental science and engineering professor at the University of Texas at El Paso.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38371981/

[Botany]

1. human activity ... footprints & wheel tracks can really damage a wetland

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[benlurkin]

2. Worse than oil-that kills the marsh?

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