Parish President Kevin Davis, along with other parish presidents met with Incident Commander Thad Allen and BP officials Friday in Houma, and as Davis predicted last week, the meeting was filled with tension.

“It was definitely heated,” said Suzanne Parsons Stymiest, St. Tammany Parish spokesperson.

Davis went to the meeting to protest the U.S. Coast Guard’s orders for him to rescind an executive order prohibiting anyone from moving the line of barges at the Rigolets that are one defense line against the oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico five months ago when BP’s oilrig, Deepwater Horizon, exploded and sank. Up until last month, millions of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf from the broken well, until BP was able to cap the busted pipe late last month.

This line of barges in the Rigolets will stay in place even though the Coast Guard has moved other barges out of the area until the remnants of Tropical Depression Five has left the area. (File Photo)

Though the oil is not longer flowing, there is still millions of gallons of oil out in the Gulf, and Davis wanted to keep the barges and boom in the area, especially during hurricane season, to try and keep oil from getting into Lake Pontchartrain.

Last week, Davis got a letter from U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Paul Zukunft asking that his executive order be rescinded. Davis refused, and said he was willing to go to jail before he would leave the lake defenseless against the oil.

Despite heated tempers Friday, Stymiest said the Coast Guard agreed not to move any of the oil fighting assets out of the area during the hurricane season. During Tropical Storm Bonnie last month, the barges were moved and moored in the canals of Lakeshore Estates just south of Slidell. However, when Tropical Depression Five threatened the area last week, the Coast Guard took the barges to an unknown location raising the ire of Davis. The barges were moved back after the depression moved inland.

Davis thought that after Friday’s agreement, the matter was settled and that the barges would stay in the area. But then the remnants of Tropical Depression Five moved back into the Gulf Sunday, and threatened to build into a full-fledged storm. Stymiest said the Coast Guard removed all the barges, except for the 11 across the Rigolets, and again moved them to an unknown location.

“We wanted them to move the barges to Lakeshore Estates,” Stymiest said. “They moved the barges away just when we needed them the most.”

Davis is concerned that the barges were moved, because until the tropical depression moves further west, away from the parish, it’s winds will be coming out of the east, blowing oil-laden water into Lake Pontchartrain.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Stymiest said.

She said that the parish’s best defense against the oil are the barges and the two big oil-skimming boats that have been collecting oil in Lake Borgne for the past month. She said Davis wants them to stay close at hand, so that after a storm, they will be ready to clean up oil.

Davis is also upset with BP because they have not paid the parish back for the $25,000 the parish used to buy more than 5,000 Tyvek environmental suits for parish workers and first responders. The federal government also denied Davis’ request to have environmental assessment teams standing by to assess the effects of the oil on the lake if and when a hurricane passes through here. He said the parish would use its own employees for the assessment teams and use its own money to train and equip the workers.