To rebuild the coast, Louisiana must show its river diversions won’t kill native dolphins
They can’t survive if the water isn’t salty enough, and they won’t leave their home in Barataria Bay.
Author: Bob Marshall
- About Bob Marshall
- From 2013 to 2017, Bob Marshall covered environmental issues for The Lens, with a special focus on coastal restoration and wetlands. While at The Times-Picayune, his work chronicling the people, stories and issues of Louisiana
Permit for first sediment diversion will take at least 2.5 years (and that’s fast)
Federal regulators must make sure the diversion won't violate 82 laws and executive orders.
State coastal agency says midyear budget cuts could delay restoration projects
The agency says it may not have the required match for joint projects with the federal government.
Interactive map shows flooding risk as Gulf rises and southern Louisiana continues to sink
There’s a public meeting Wednesday to discuss plans to rebuild and protect the coast.
Scientists say Louisiana’s latest projections for coastal flooding are grim, but realistic
The worst-case scenario in the 2012 Master Plan is the best-case in the 2017 one.
Coastal flooding may force thousands of homes in Louisiana to be elevated or bought out
The latest version of the state's coastal restoration plan, released today, offers a much grimmer view of the future than before. Twice as much land could be lost if the state does nothing. Even if everything works as planned, about 27,000 buildings may have to be elevated, flood-proofed or bought out, including about 5,900 in St. Tammany.
Native Americans of Grand Bayou seeking help to remain in homeland
When the state officials drew the cost-benefit limits of expensive coastal restoration on a map of coastal Louisiana, some Native Americans found themselves on the wrong side of a government decision. Again. They'd like justice, but they'll settle for help in maintaining their way of life. Neither is likely.
New research: Expect more intense rainstorms and flooding in southern Louisiana
You may want to keep that flood insurance policy.
The people of Isle de Jean Charles aren’t the country’s first climate refugees
The island is endangered for the same reasons that much of coastal Louisiana has become part of the Gulf of Mexico: The land is sinking, river levees are preventing it from being replenished, oil and gas drilling accelerated erosion — and on top of that, seas are rising.
The art of the deal: Trump may discover it’s hard to repeal environmental regulations
But he could change direction at agencies, and Congress could cut their budgets to reduce enforcement.
