This week, The Lens published columns with opposing views about how to rebuild the sinking Louisiana coast.
- George Ricks, president of the Save Louisiana Coalition, wrote that sediment diversions can’t keep up with erosion, much less rebuild what’s already been lost. Instead, he thinks the state should dredge sediment.
- David Muth, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign, wrote that dredging has a role, but diversions are cheaper and make use of the sediment that flows out of the mouth of the river.
Thursday at noon CST, Ricks and Muth will join us here for a live, text-based Web chat. Lens environmental reporter Bob Marshall will kick things off with a few questions, and then Ricks and Muth will field questions from Lens readers.
Once the event is live, you can post your questions and comments under the “live chat” heading below. I’ll moderate your comments to keep the discussion on track. We’re looking for a civil conversation about the relative merits of these approaches.
The chat will remain here once the event is over, and you can continue the discussion in the comments section.
See you Thursday at noon.
Great discussion. Folks what we need is a combination by dredging and the diversion of the River to give the vegetation a helping hand by decreasing salinities.
Funding is always going to be an issue. We have now an unprecedented opportunity to have a contributor of over on third of the coastal erosion problem pay to get the solution rolling. If your serious you need to call the governor and your state representives and insist that the keep the politics out of the levee board suit
We also need to insist that the engineering community get together and stop the studies. To much of OUR resources are going to the politically connected engineering firms. It’s a big part of the problem. Time, money and LAND are being wasted.
Now for a big reality check. Gentlemen I believe to adequately address this we need to get the dredging community, barge and shipping companies and builders to allow for a TEMPORARY amendment to the Jones Act to allow the use of foreign flagged vessels from other countries to come here to start the job. These industries are vehemently opposed to allowing this for fear that it will upset the protectionism that they staunchly covet that is the Jones Act. I say a temporary amendment because it be allowed only for the period of time to allow the domestic industry build an adequate fleet to do the job that’s needed in the time frame we have.
Capt Ricks, I see a lot of discussion from your side of the debate regarding the high levels of uncertainty of river diversions (which there undoubtedly are). When you discuss dredging, you often note that cheaper technologies must be developed (as they do not currently exist)…is this method also not relying on high levels of uncertainty? The cheap dredging technology is also largely just an idea on paper. More dredging occurs worldwide right now than at any previous time period. With the global nature of communications and economies, I doubt a secret ‘cheap dredging’ technology exists out there somewhere that the CPRA aren’t capitalizing on. Moreover, if it did exist, why isn’t anybody making boatloads of money employing it in South Louisiana? It seems your solution is just as uncertain, if not more so, than the CPRA’s ideas on the matter.