By ROBIN SHANNON and ERIK SANZENBACH

L’Observateur

SLIDELL – Prevailing east winds from the far edges of Hurricane Alex have pushed tar balls from the Gulf oil spill into the Rigolets Pass and parts of Lake Pontchartrain Sunday night.

St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis said the quarter-sized tar balls began popping up just after 10 p.m. Sunday night after winds in the area reached over 40 miles per hour. He said more than 280 parish cleanup workers on 91 boats have been able to net and remove more than 1,800 pounds of tar balls from the Rigolets and the lake since Sunday.

“It’s coming in under the barges and under the boom,” Davis said. “The dispersants forced the tar to the Gulf floor, and the winds have now pushed it into the lake.”

Davis said the parish had been successful in stopping oil on the surface of the water from getting into the lake with the help of barges and boom. He said if the oil had been a slick, it would have been stopped.

“Everything bad that could have happened to us has happened,” Davis said.

Davis said the parish has been trying to get up as much of the oil as possible before it gets onto land or deeper into the lake. He said the parish is waiting on about 9,000 feet of a special boom known as X-Tex made of a water-penetrable fabric that blocks oil.

According to the Associated Press, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries on Monday issued precautionary fishing closures in parts of Lake Pontchartrain and in Lake Borgne, Lake St. Catherine, the passes and surrounding areas. The state’s Department of Health and Hospitals also closed all oyster harvesting areas east of the Mississippi River, which includes Lake Borgne.

St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom said parish leaders have been in constant contact with officials from Jefferson and St. Tammany Parish to coordinate efforts to fight the oil. She said the parish would be attending a meeting today in Tangipahoa Parish, along with representatives from Jefferson, St. Tammany and St. Charles parishes to discuss protection plans and cost estimates from BP. Davis said BP has already footed the bill for protective boom and barges being used in St. Tammany Parish.