JACKSON – It’s providential that Ray Mabus, dismissed by Mississippi voters 19 years ago as their governor, now emerges by presidential appointment as the post-oil crisis restoration chief for the five-state Gulf region.

No one, even in his defeat in 1991, questioned Mabus’ intellectual capacity and governing qualifications. President Obama has now recognized those qualities – plus the fact he is a son of the Gulf South – to oversee the area-wide recovery of the region faced with a man-made environmental disaster it has never before experienced.

Obama had already recognized the former Mississippi governor to take a top post in his administration as secretary of Navy, a job Mabus will keep in a unique twin capacity. Some environmentalists have questioned if he can handle both important roles at the same time as the massive oil spill goes into the recovery stage. For now, Mabus says he can.

One problem is that the duties and functions of the restoration job have not been defined by executive order. Yet to be learned is just how big Mabus’ job will be and how much authority he will have. To begin with it seems a commission needs to be created by the president to work with Mabus and determine what staff he will have. An ideal person to serve as director of the Mabus commission would be James Lee Watt, the highly regarded chief of FEMA during the Clinton Administration.

It’s well that Mabus is hitting the ground this week in a five-day tour of the Gulf states to get a first-hand look at what the oil spill disaster has already done to the region. Of course, Mabus can’t really assess the situation until the oil spewing from BP’s Deepwater Horizon well is plugged, which seems no earlier than late August.

What complicates the entire restoration picture is the damage not yet apparent to the underwater resources in the Gulf – the breeding grounds for many varieties of aquatic life as well as the oyster reefs and shrimp breeding grounds which have provided the livelihood for the multi-million dollar seafood industry. Additionally, yet unknown is how much of the Gulf’s flora and fauna have been damaged or destroyed. Already the entire nation has seen via TV heartbreaking oil-coated waterfowl and the desperate measures taken to hopefully save them.

Each of the five states has a different priority for recovery, starting with Louisiana’s endangered wetlands that already were shrinking before being invaded by black oil from the runaway well. Of course, the beaches that span the coastline from Mississippi to Florida – the engines that drive the multi-billion dollar tourist industry – have already been blemished by ugly tar balls and oil seeping under pristine white sand, spelling untold economic loss for the region during prime vacation months.

Mabus could quickly find himself besieged by a beehive of controversy involving historic geological formations. For instance, if Mabus mentioned rerouting the course of the Mississippi River into its natural estuary, the Atchafalaya River, thereby bypassing the Port of New Orleans, he would be stepping into an issue which exploded in the massive 1927 Mississippi River flood. Environmentalists have long argued that the present course of the big river deprives the coastal wetlands of needed fresh water to strengthen the marshes as a buffer against hurricanes hitting New Orleans with a full blast of power. That’s one hot potato Mabus needs to avoid.

In a personal way, I am extremely grateful that Secretary Mabus, at my behest, visited with the U.S.S. Stephen Potter Association’s recent reunion in Washington, D.C., marked by placement of the old destroyer’s plaque in the Navy Memorial. Unfortunately, I was not able to be present for the association’s reunion, which now is being carried on by crewmen who served aboard ship when it was re-commissioned during the Korean War. We World War II Potter sailors are dwindling down to a precious few, so we’re glad to see the “second cruise” fellows carry on.

Bill Minor has covered Mississippi politics since 1947. Contact him at P.O. Box 1243, Jackson, MS 39215-1243, or e-mail at edinman@earthlink.net.