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Creative Commons/Louisiana GOHSEP

It's more than two years since the Deepwater Horizon blew, but the damage it caused is still oozing into local politics. When it comes to cleaning up, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is telling the Coast Guard they shouldn't be packing up their things and leaving the shore just yet. Landrieu sent a letter to Commandant Robert Papp today requesting that the Coast Guard stay on the Louisiana coast. In the letter, Louisiana's senior senator calls on the Coast Guard to keep monitoring beaches for new oil, clean up submerged tar mats and clean up boom anchors that are getting in boaters' way off the Coast.

Currently, the Coast Guard is relying on citizens to report oil on the beaches. But that doesn't work in areas where no one lives, Landrieu wrote.

"Unlike the frequented beaches of other Gulf Coast states, Louisiana shoreline is mostly comprised of inaccessible wetlands, which diminishes the effects of a system that relies on citizen reporting," the leter said. 

She also says the Coast Guard stopped overseeing many areas of the shoreline without inspecting them in the wake of the 2010 oil disaster.

Then there is the new oil. Landrieu writes that studies are ongoing to locate "submerged oil mats" - or underwater oil - which could be the source of tarballs that continue to show up on some beaches. Landrieu writes that the Coast Guard and BP haven't committed to finding the underwater crude and cleaning it up. If there is new oil - which has been reported in a number of areas- the Coast Guard should return to active monitoring, Landrieu writes.

The letter also addresses leftover cleanup supplies that remain in the Gulf. Boom anchors, which held the Coast Guard's floating oil trapping fences in place, are still floating around off the Coast. About 350 anchors were never recovered after the main portion of the oil cleanup wound down, the Coast Guard has admitted.  The state documented 20 instances in which boats hit the boom anchors. 

In the letter, Landrieu challenges a prior Coast Guard conclusion that the boom anchor is not a threat to boats, and says the anchors need to be removed. 

"I appreciate the practical need to wind down response activities in areas that have been inspected, remediated, and are highly unlikely to be re-oiled. However, state and local officials have expressed real concerns to me about these outstanding needs and the current level of effort," she concludes.