“We must stick with real plans for our future,” the writer contends about the recent halt to the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. “Every delay means more land lost, more families unprotected, more risk from rising seas and stronger storms. We don’t have that kind of time.”
New research shows that typically, less than 10% of land-building alluvium reaches the Bird’s Foot Delta region, the southernmost reach of the river, where it meets the Gulf.
As the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion flounders amid politics, some scientists say that doubts about its effectiveness can be addressed by Neptune Pass, which branched off the Mississippi on its own and is creating the largest new delta in North America.
Reconnecting the dying swamp to fresh river water is vital for the health of the swamp’s cypress-tupelo forest, which minimizes storm surge damage for communities in St. John the Baptist, St. James, Ascension and Livingston Parishes.
To rebuild marshes in the Barataria Basin requires terraces of sand, a map of nearby orphan oil wells and miles of pipe to carry dredged river sediment to degraded wetlands.
Fifty years after the historic 1973 flood, land is still forming in the Wax Lake and Atchafalaya River deltas. It’s held in place by the roots of coastal trees, which protect from flooding and hurricane winds and store carbon dioxide.
By this summer, the island will be 1,000 acres larger. But the state will have to periodically rebuild it in the coming years.
Research into genetically enhanced oysters could give oystermen a way to adapt if coastal restoration makes waters near shore inhospitable to the shellfish.
Nearly 20 percent of the nation's oil and gas passes through Port Fourchon, accessible only by a battered, two-lane road. With the Gulf of Mexico rising and wetlands crumbling, it's on the way to becoming an island.
State officials and U.S Rep. Garret Graves want to know why the projections are half of what they expected.
