GALVESTON — Finding himself in a room Tuesday with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, Galveston Mayor Lewis Rosen saw an opportunity to make a pitch for a way to protect Galveston from future disasters.
“I showed them how that if we had had the Ike Dike, it would have contained this spill,” Rosen said “We could have stuck a straw in (the oil) and sucked it right out and it would have been over with.”
Backers of the Ike Dike — which would include a sea gate at the mouth of Galveston Bay — are seeking financial support for a feasibility study. While the main idea for the dike is to keep a storm surge like that cause by Hurricane Ike out of Galveston Bay, Rosen argued the system could be used to keep things like oil spills in as well.
He said Patterson and Dewhurst seemed receptive to the idea.