MAY 31, 2006Survival Guide
Scientists, engineers push to get
Gulf Coast restoration plan off the treadmillby Richard Hellmann | BC WATER NEWS
for a PowerPoint presentation
on "The Magnitude and Nature
of the Problem" by
Professor Denise Reed of the University of New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — The media may be swarming over Mayor Ray Nagin’s razor-thin re-election victory, but a select group of scientists and engineers returns to the Crescent City tomorrow to try to grab a slice of the limelight for a more pressing issue: the survival of the Gulf Coast.
On this first day of the 2006 hurricane season, leaders in the fields of energy, economics, engineering and science will continue their efforts to refocus the country’s attention on a $14 billion, 30-year plan to restore Louisiana’s coastal wetlands and barrier islands.
Their report is scheduled to be presented to Gov. Kathleen Blanco, elected officials and industry leaders from Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Texas.
“The restoration and management of these coastal resources is one of the great challenges facing the science and engineering communities, and we must ensure they work together to create a comprehensive effort to restore and sustain this ‘working coast,’ ” said Sidney Coffee, the governor’s executive assistant for Coastal Activities.
Earlier, technical and policy groups convened April 25-27 in New Orleans as part of the “Envisioning the Future of the Gulf Coast Symposium,” sponsored by America’s Wetland and BP America. Denise Reed, a professor at the University of New Orleans, unveiled “The Magnitude and Nature of the Problem,” a PowerPoint presentation that detailed some stark observations:
"The important thing here
is putting someone
in charge
to get things done."Bill Dawson, P.E.
Louisiana has nearly 6,000 square miles of coastal wetlands, but they are being lost at an alarming rate. “There aren’t many win/win solutions for the type of problems we have on the northern Gulf Coast,” Reed told the Baton Rouge Advocate.
But something has to be done — and fast.
“We need to expand the Mississippi River Commission to include local leaders, not necessarily engineers, who will be in charge of securing funds, prioritizing projects, etc.,” says Bill Dawson, P.E., who is part of the Gulf Coast working group.
“The important thing here is putting someone in charge to get things done,” Dawson says. “There’s lots of piecemeal plans floating around. New Orleans, for instance, is still using flood maps from 1929.
“But adding a handful of key people to the commission would make a difference. And President Bush and the Gulf Coast governors need to be involved in this decision.”
The New Framework report was prepared as a rapid response to develop and execute a strategy for reducing hurricane risks in New Orleans and along the Louisiana coast, while sustaining the wetland-dominated landscapes that surround those population centers. These coastal landscapes are important not only as a buffer from hurricanes, but also are of great value for the natural resources and ecosystem services they provide.
The report delivers several principal messages and key points:
by 50 percent from circa 1700 to 1980-1990
Another way to refocus attention on the Gulf Coast is to show how states in the heartland upriver have begun to understand the link between New Orleans and their economies. Hurricane Katrina reminded many states of the significance of the Port of New Orleans to their economic well-being.
Although Houston’s wetlands and barrier islands are not as plentiful south of its port as those in New Orleans, they provide the same buffering against storm surge that could destroy the area's major oil and gas production facilities.
“How do we place a value on wetlands?” Thomas Kornegay, executive director of the Port of Houston, told the Times-Picayune. “They're worth far more than the calculation of dollars and cents required to replace wetlands. The real problem is monitoring the value of wetlands in erosion control, flood control, as nursery grounds for fisheries and in cleaning water supplies.”
Robert Twilley, a biologist at Louisiana State University and a member of the working group, warned that continued delays caused by repeated changes on the restoration plan, including those in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita, will reduce the area of wetlands that are salvageable.
For example, a new delta lobe was built at the mouth of the Atchafalaya River between 1972 and 1980— the only area along the coast where land is growing. Although that effort appeared dramatic, it took eight years but represented only half of the land lost in a single year along the state's coastline, Twilley told the Times-Picayune.
It could take 50 years before any restoration bears a substantial change along the coast, he said, but "if we don't start now, we will run out of time.”
Ultimately, the federal government could be the stumbling block because it is not set up to fund the type of long-term work that the coast needs, Coffee said. The feds decided that the state’s comprehensive plan was too long-term, and decided to fund only a “near-term” approach. That plan is languishing in a Water Resources Development Act bill, which has been awaiting debate in the Senate since April 2005.
RELATED LINKSCoalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana
No
Time to Lose
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