Boom

Boom are floating barriers designed to contain oil on the surface of the water. While the response had many dimensions, local communities fixated on the deployment of boom to prevent oil from washing ashore. Although not the most effective response tool, boom is a measurable, physical object that visibly stops oil. Residents could not see the efforts on the ocean floor or skimming far out in the Gulf, but they could see boats laying ribbons of bright orange or yellow floating boom to protect their shorelines.

Boom became a symbol of federal responsiveness to local communities. Federal responders thought that officials and residents complaining about lack of boom did not understand their strategy for deployment; officials and residents thought that federal responders were inattentive to local needs. The National Incident Command was not deaf to these complaints and Coast Guard responders distributed many miles of boom according to political, rather than operational, imperatives. Sensitive to the outrage that resulted when a parish or state felt slighted, they placed boom wherever they could.