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A breach in the west end, shown here in 2006, was caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Officials plan to fill the breach to protect the coastline from oil.

As spilled oil creeps onto the coast, state leaders plan to have a mile-wide breach in Dauphin Island filled to protect Mobile Bay and the Mississippi Sound - as long as BP PLC pays for it, officials said Thursday.

"If we're going to protect the bay, it is a critical component that we do something with Katrina Cut now," Gov. Bob Riley said during an evening briefing in Mobile.

Riley said BP, owner of the well leaking oil into the Gulf, has promised to pay for the construction.

Alabama's primary commercial oyster beds and estuaries that support a range of sea life lie just north of Dauphin Island. Some people fear that the breach leaves those areas exposed to the invading oil.

The gap, named Katrina Cut after the 2005 hurricane that created it, is just west of the developed part of the island, splitting the end from the main body of the barrier island.

According to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public notice last week, BP was considering two options for reconnecting the west end:

·        Building a temporary wall with vinyl sheet piling.

·        Placing large rocks, known as rip-rap, lined with oil-absorbent fabric to build a 16-foot wall.

Still, miles-wide passes in the string of barrier islands along Mississippi and Alabama leave parts of the coast open to the Gulf of Mexico - and the oil spilling from the Deepwater Horizon well since April.

Conservation and Natural Resources Commissioner Barnett Lawley said officials involved in the project agree that the best method is using large rocks, which could withstand strong winds.

The project will cost an estimated $10 million, Lawley said, based on bids received by BP.

Construction could take up to two months, he said, but the gap would get more narrow as the wall is built, shrinking the room for oil to pass.

"We can't delay it, or it won't do us any good," Lawley said.

A spokesman with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Mobile said the corps is waiting for BP to submit its final plan.

Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier said he and other local officials agree that Katrina Cut must be repaired to protect the Mississippi Sound.

"That's what's at stake here," Collier said.