A MATTER OF SURVIVAL |
DIRE CONCERNS FOR LOUISIANA COASTLINE
• March 2, 2011
If nothing is done to protect and restore coastal Louisiana, large portions of the state’s coastal parishes could be underwater in 90 years, scientists and others say.
“We know we must stop coastal erosion in Lafourche Parish. It’s a matter of survival,” Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph said.
That’s the urgency that was expressed during the release of the Deltas 2010 World Dialogues report at a news conference Tuesday in Baton Rouge. The report, by America’s WETLAND Foundation and other sponsors, outlines a number of obstacles that will have to be overcome if the loss of coastal land to erosion and sinking is going to be addressed.
Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne showed a map that was part of a 2009 study of sediment and potential “drowning” of the Mississippi River delta in the next 90 years.
The map shows the Gulf of Mexico in 2100 having moved far north and swamping Terrebonne, Lafourche and portions of many other parishes.
“You will see that between Baton Rouge and New Orleans there is only a little ribbon of water and that’s the Mississippi River,” Dardenne said about the future map. “All of us in Louisiana are impacted by this reality, not just those along the coast.”
The report is the result of an October conference in New Orleans that involved wetland scientists, engineers, planners, governmental representatives and others from across the United States and around the world.
The purpose was to discuss the need to identify problems and possible solutions to the challenges facing eroding deltas around the world with a focus on the Mississippi River delta.
Those challenges are many and range from finding the money to do the work to finding the political will to get it done, according to the report.
“Science tells us what needs to happen. The hard part is to move past obstacles to get the job done,” said King Milling, chairman of America’s WETLAND Foundation.
Some of the challenges include the lack of a central governmental authority with the ability to deal with water resource management issues. Currently, sections of those issues are handled by various agencies.
Other challenges include the need for a dedicated funding source and the need to get away from funding small projects that might have public support in favor of designing larger projects that can create longer-term change, said Sidney Coffee, senior adviser for America’s WETLAND Foundation.
Some of the discussions at the conference are ones that will need to continue, such as how, or if, population relocations will be a part of the planning process and how the public can be better informed about the risks associated with the ongoing coastal land loss, Coffee said.
“These are all issues that have to be dealt with,” she said.
Another issue is the need to get the public more involved with the process and to give the residents an opportunity to evaluate what they would like to see for their communities.
An initiative recently announced by the foundation, “Blue Ribbon Resilient Communities: Envisioning the Future of America’s Energy Coast,” could help people in coastal communities get more involved in future decision making. The America’s WETLAND Foundation and other partners will be starting a series of planning meetings with coastal communities in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast, said Valsin Marmillion, managing director of America’s WETLAND Foundation. The purpose of these meetings will be to inform communities vulnerable to hurricanes and other hazards that have increased with land loss and discuss some planning tools — ranging from building codes to relocation — to determine how best to address those risks. The first of those meetings in the 18-month process will be March 22 and March 23 in Lake Charles.
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