Video of Shelby LaSalle meeting with St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu as they made an inspection tour of the new panel barriers called X-tex boom being installed along a 9,000 foot run in the Rigolets.

The metal frames with a fabric mesh covering can prevent tar balls from floating over or passing under the boom, making them much more effective at stopping oil from entering Lake Pontchartrain.

Krebs, LaSalle Lemieux is developing this technology with a Mississippi partner to bring this innovation to Louisiana in an effort to save the Louisiana wetlands from oil damage.

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by Doug Mouton / Eyewitness News, wwltv.com, Posted on July 2, 2010 at 6:25 PM

ST. TAMMANY, La. -- St. Tammany Parish received approval from BP and the Coast Guard for 9,000 feet of oil absorbent panels.
The panels look like fencing, and are currently being used in Mississippi.

"It's worked in Mississippi," St. Tammany Emergency Manager Dexter Accardo said Friday. "The water is the same kind of water, the same kind of oil. So, why wouldn't it work in Louisiana?"

The panels are designed to allow water to pass through, but not oil. Oil absorbent material is attached to a metal framework, and mounted upright. Each panel is 20 feet wide, and 4 feet tall. Two feet of the panel sit below the water line, 2 feet sit above.

by Scott Satchfield / Eyewitness News-wwltv.com, From on July 11, 2010 at 11:57 AM

NEW ORLEANS -- Hopes are running high that a soft, almost cloth-like material could lead to big strides in the fight against incoming oil.

Officials call it "X-Tex Boom," but it hardly resembles the other types of boom that are scattered across the gulf coast.
Once installed, the new barrier looks more like a type of fencing in the water.

"You can see it goes up above the tide, goes below the water -- all the way down to the mud,” said St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis. “So, if you had anything underwater, like tar balls and those issues, they'll stick to that material."

Davis joined New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on a boat tour into Lake Borgne Saturday, to get an up close look at the equipment.

Krebs, LaSalle employees show their WHO DAT SPIRIT!!!