Sediment Diversions

Study on sedimentation will help planners develop effective river diversions

Study on sedimentation will help planners develop effective river diversions

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, National Wildlife Federation This year, drought conditions throughout most of the country have left the Mississippi River flowing at a near all-time low. This is a stark comparison to 2011, when heavy rains and a large snowmelt in the spring sent record levels of water and sediment flowing down the river. At the Old River Control Structure north of Baton Rouge, the flow of the river is split, with 70 percent continuing down …

What the BP criminal settlement means for Gulf Coast restoration

By Whit Remer, Policy Analyst, Environmental Defense Fund Just in time for the holidays, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) delivered welcomed and unexpected good news for Gulf Coast restoration efforts. On November 15, DOJ announced they had reached a settlement with BP on all criminal charges related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But what was expected to be a simple press conference outlining the details of the criminal plea agreement turned out to be a huge $2.4 …

LPB TV and the BP Oil Disaster: “Louisiana: The State We’re In”

Last Friday on Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s (LPB) “Louisiana: The State We’re In,” panelists representing impacted families, state communities and the environment discussed the recent Department of Justice announcement of an unprecedented $4.5 billion BP criminal case settlement for BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, plus ongoing impacts and restoration needs. Panelists included: Keith Jones, whose son was among the eleven killed in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion; Melanie Driscoll, Director of Bird Conservation for the National Audubon Society’s Mississippi Flyway and Gulf of Mexico; and …

Video: Postcards from New Orleans: Hope for the Northeast

By Elizabeth Skree, Environmental Defense Fund If anyone can sympathize with the Northeast as it recovers from Hurricane Sandy, it’s the residents of New Orleans. I found this out firsthand on recent trip to Louisiana. httpv://youtu.be/mLuI4g00WAE While Hurricane Sandy battered the Northeast, I was in South Louisiana with Environmental Defense Fund’s Creative Director, Nicole Possin, working on a video about wetlands restoration in the Mississippi River Delta. We’d planned the trip long before we knew about Sandy, and the irony …

Latest Mississippi River Delta News: October 26, 2012

Source of new oil sheen near Deepwater Horizon site has been plugged, BP says By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans). October 25, 2012. “BP announced Thursday that it has sealed a 40-foot-tall, 86-ton steel containment dome that has been leaking oil below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, causing repeated sheens near the site of the disasterous BP oil spill in 2010…” (Read more) A Multitude of Oysters? Looks Can Be Deceiving By Emma Bryce, The New York …

Latest Mississippi River Delta News: October 22, 2012

Make sure BP pays for all the damage it did By Larry Schweiger and David Yarnold for The Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times. October 21, 2012. “With news that an expected trial over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill is being delayed until January 2013 and reports of a settlement in the works, BP is again trying to avoid paying all it owes to the Gulf of Mexico, even while netting $25.7 billion in profits in 2011. It is time for …

West Bay Diversion to Remain Open

This was originally posted on the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s Coastal Currents blog. The much-debated West Bay Diversion will remain open for at least the next 10 years. That’s the word from the CWPPRA Task Force, which reversed its own 2008 decision to close the sediment diversion at its meeting on Thursday, October 12, 2012. The move keeps open one of the few land-building diversions off of the Mississippi River, allowing sediment in nearby wetlands to continue to accumulate. Researchers …

Conference: Answering Fundamental Questions about Mississippi River Delta Restoration

By Shannon Hood, Environmental Defense Fund On October 9 and 10, the Mississippi River Delta Science and Engineering Special Team (SEST) will host its first conference, titled “Answering Fundamental Questions about Mississippi River Delta Restoration.” The SEST was convened over two years ago and is comprised of leading engineers, economists and scientists from around the country with specialties ranging from river engineering to coastal ecology to sociology. This team brings a new approach to Mississippi River Delta restoration, in that …

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 …

Latest Mississippi River Delta News: September 19, 2012

Diversions present flood of concerns By Nikki Buskey, The Daily Comet (Lafourche Parish, La.). September 18, 2012. “State and environmental officials have long argued the only way to rebuild and restore coastal Louisiana is by re-plumbing the Mississippi with multiple river diversions. But as large-scale projects get underway, concerns about flooding and fisheries impacts are plaguing the process…” (Read more) No tidal flooding protection in store soon for vulnerable St. John neighborhoods By Matt Scallan, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans). September …

Hurricane Isaac Batters Louisiana Marshes, Uncovers Oil

This story was originally published by the National Wildlife Federation. By Craig Guillot, National Wildlife Federation When Hurricane Isaac struck Louisiana on the seven-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, its winds and tidal surge caused four deaths and at least $1.5 billion in insured damages. For many residents around the Mississippi River Delta, Isaac brought back memories of two recent disasters to hit the coast — Katrina and the 2010 Gulf oil disaster. Before the storm even hit land, residents in some …

The Next 50 Years: Redefining what is possible

By Alisha Renfro, staff scientist, National Wildlife Federation The high rate of land loss in coastal Louisiana requires restoration efforts of the same large scale. To formulate Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan, researchers and coastal managers used a series of models to examine the ability to build and sustain land using both mechanical and natural methods that use the power of the river. Included in the analysis were eight channel realignment projects that would reroute the Mississippi River’s flow through …

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 …