Statement: Army Corps Should Act Quickly to Restore MRGO Damage
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Contacts: Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation, 504-442-2702 John Lopez, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, 504-421-7348 For Immediate Release: (September 26, 2012—New Orleans) The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed its March decision on Army Corps liability for catastrophic flood damage related to the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) during Hurricane Katrina, giving the Army Corps immunity under the discretionary-function exception of the Federal Tort Claims Act. Still, the Court acknowledged the MRGO “greatly aggravated the storm’s effects on the city” …
The Next 50 Years: Transition for Coastal Communities
By Maura Wood (National Wildlife Federation) and Brian Jackson (Environmental Defense Fund) For decades, the people of southern Louisiana have gradually struggled with the collapse of the Mississippi River Delta. Land that once provided shelter from hurricanes, space for agriculture, a basis for livelihoods and a source for recreation has — sometimes in one generation — disappeared. This slow-motion crisis has forced communities and economies along Louisiana’s coast to adapt to collapse. Large-scale restoration of the delta provides new hope …
Seven Years Later: Hurricane Katrina and MRGO
Seven years ago today, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coastlines of Louisiana and Mississippi, ripping a path of destruction and shattering the lives of countless coastal residents. Around the world, images of flooding and destruction were burned into the eyes of billions of people as they watched one the costliest, deadliest disasters in American history unfold before them. Today, seven years have passed, and as we speak, Hurricane Isaac is hovering over the coast. As Katrina continues to affect Louisiana …
The Next 50 Years: Implementation of Coastal Master Plan projects
By David Muth, Louisiana State Director, National Wildlife Federation Now that Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan is law, it is critical that the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) moves the process forward as quickly as possible. While the plan lays out a series of projects for over its fifty-year timeframe, the actual sequence of projects has not yet been completely planned. The sooner CPRA can finalize this project list and timeline, the sooner vital construction and restoration can …
Mississippi River’s newest distributary: Mardi Gras Pass gets a tour
At just five months old, Mardi Gras Pass is the newest distributary of the Mississippi River — a modern addition to an ancient system. Located about 50 miles south of New Orleans on the east bank of the river, the pass was discovered by Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) staff on Mardi Gras Day 2012. The natural flow of the Mississippi River had cut a continuous channel through the river’s bank and into the Bohemia Spillway, creating a new distributary and …
The RESTORE Act: Past, present and future
By Whit Remer, Policy Analyst, Environmental Defense Fund It’s been an exciting year for Louisiana and the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign. In July 2011, nine gulf senators banded together and introduced the RESTORE Act – legislation that would ensure penalties paid by BP and others responsible for the gulf oil spill would be used to restore the gulf region’s environment and economy. In September, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the bill and in October, Representative Steve …
Tagged EconomicsHow much is a Louisiana oyster worth?
By Meg Sutton, Environmental Defense Fund Oyster reefs in coastal estuaries around the globe have been degraded for the past 100-200 years due to a combination of overfishing, harmful dredging practices, decreasing water quality, sedimentation and oyster diseases.1 Many formerly productive reefs are now functionally extinct, and it is estimated that 85 percent of reefs have been lost globally.2 The majority of commercial oysters are currently sourced from only five eco-regions in the world, concentrated on the east coast of North …
Tagged EconomicsGeosynthetics Industry Poised to Grow as Gulf Coast Restoration Ramps Up
NEWS RELEASE Contact: Elizabeth Skree, 202-553-2543, eskree@edf.org Geosynthetics Industry Poised to Grow as Gulf Coast Restoration Ramps Up RESTORE Act will increase environmental restoration, spur economic growth (Washington, D.C.—July 26, 2012) What are geosynthetics and why are they central to the creation of jobs and expansion of coastal restoration projects? A new Duke University study, “GEOSYNTHETICS: Coastal Management Applications in the Gulf of Mexico,” details how the emerging geosynthetics industry can create jobs benefitting nearly 200 employee locations in 36 states, …
Tagged Economics, ReportsThe Next 50 Years: Climate change and the Coastal Master Plan: “Hope for the best but plan for the worst”
By Dr. Doug Meffert, Executive Director, Audubon Louisiana Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan takes a realistic and critical examination of the effects of climate change impacts on the future of coastal Louisiana, both in terms of prioritization of restoration projects as well as risk reduction. In its “less optimistic scenario,” the master plan estimates 0.45 meters of sea level rise over the next fifty years. This is in addition to between zero and 25 millimeters per year of land subsidence, …
The Next 50 Years: Funding features for the Louisiana Coastal Master Plan
By Cynthia Duet, Director of Governmental Relations, National Audubon Society Louisiana’s recently passed 2012 Coastal Master Plan contains an ambitious mix of risk-reduction and restoration projects spread across the entire Louisiana coastal area. Such ambition does, however, come with a price — costing an estimated $50 billion over 50 years, and so the plan is also frank in its account of the uncertainties and complexities of funding and creating a sustainable coastal Louisiana ecosystem. To reverse generations of massive and …
RESTORE Act: A momentous victory for conservation
By Brian Moore, Legislative Director, National Audubon Society Last Friday (July 6), President Obama signed into law the Surface Transportation Extension Act that included the RESTORE Act. This landmark legislation will direct 80 percent of the Clean Water Act penalties paid by BP and others responsible for the 2010 gulf oil spill to the Gulf Coast states to use for restoration. The House and Senate passed the bill on June 29. This legislation is truly historic – the RESTORE Act …
The Next 50 Years: Louisiana Coastal Area projects in the master plan
This is the fourth post in our “The Next 50 Years” Coastal Master Plan series. Check back as we continue diving into the master plan and what it means for the people and environment of the Mississippi River Delta. By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, National Wildlife Federation To formulate Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan, coastal authorities evaluated nearly 250 restoration projects that had been proposed in previous parish- and state-level restoration plans. This number was then narrowed down by setting …
Profiles in Resilience: Ecology and Environment, Inc.
This is the next in our “Profiles in Resilience” series, highlighting companies that work on coastal restoration in the Mississippi River Delta and Gulf Coast. By Audrey Payne, Environmental Defense Fund Ecology and Environment, Inc. (E & E) is an environmental consulting firm that was founded in 1970 and prides itself on its ability to get “the most environmental bang for your buck.” A few of their projects include helping countries around the world write environmental policy; working on environmental …
Tagged EconomicsThe 2012 State of the Coast Conference: Incorporating Louisiana’s past, present and future
By Meg Sutton, Environmental Defense Fund Last week, scientists, engineers, community leaders, policymakers, business owners and other coastal interests gathered in New Orleans for the 2012 State of the Coast Conference. The event was organized by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL) and Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) with the mission of providing a forum in which to learn about advances in coastal science and engineering and to ensure that this knowledge is applied to current and …
The Next 50 Years: Nonstructural storm protection
By Brian Jackson, Associate Director – Stakeholder Engagement, Environmental Defense Fund Last month, the Louisiana Legislature passed the 2012 Coastal Master Plan, capping off years of public engagement and analysis. The 50-year plan lays out a bold path of projects and programs to restore the environment and protect the people, economies and environment of the Mississippi River Delta. The total cost of the plan is $50 billion, of which $10.2 billion is dedicated to nonstructural risk reduction measures. So what …