WBRZ - Baton Rouge

Terrebonne Parish levee officials are asking BP to pay for a temporary plug in a leaking levee, fearing oil from its busted well in the Gulf of Mexico could pass through.

The Houma Courier reported the Terrebonne Levee District wants $298,000 for work on the levee in the Montegut area.

"This isn't really a long-range solution" to stopping the water leak, said levee director Reggie Dupre. It is a temporary fix to keep oil out of the interior wetlands, he said.

The request has been approved by the BP operations center and is awaiting final approval from the Incident Command Center, Dupre said.

The levee has been troubled in recent years, washing out three times during storms.