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Governor's Advisers: Time to Get Serious on Coastal Protection

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By AMY WOLD

After years of warning Congress what could happen if Louisiana's coastal land loss wasn't addressed, two hurricanes re-emphasized it.

However, even with the devastation from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, state officials and residents are becoming frustrated that they haven't seen more movement to try to address the problem of coastal land loss.

During the Governor's Advisory Commission on Coastal Restoration and Conservation meeting Tuesday in Baton Rouge, several commissioners said it's time to have some direction in what the federal government is willing to pay for.

"We see no vision coming from the White House. We think the plans are there with enough broadness to show that we have thought through our options," said Mark Davis, a commissioner and executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.

Lake Charles Mayor Randy Roach, whose city was battered by Rita; Berwick Duval, a commissioner and resident of Terrebonne Parish; and Sidney Coffee, executive assistant for coastal activities in Gov. Kathleen Blanco's office, said the state doesn't have time for more studies on individual coastal-restoration projects before Congress decides to fund them.

On Sept. 8, state officials sent a letter to the Louisiana congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., that outlined what state officials feel is needed to improve hurricane levee and coastal wetlands protection.

Coffee said the letter asked for $14 billion to be used to build coastal-restoration projects to help stop or slow down the loss of 25 square mile of the state's wetlands every year.

She told a legislative committee on restoration and levees Tuesday that the letter also asked for a more-streamlined process to get projects from planning to construction - without circumventing environmental regulations.

In addition, the letter asked for $18.2 billion to strengthen and build hurricane protection levees that would withstand a Category 5 hurricane.

"We've know for a long time that the efforts must be combined and these two storms really forced the issue," Coffee said.

She said hurricane levee protection is important to the nation because people will not return to the hurricane-affected areas if they're not assured of increased protection.

"It's a high priority (for the governor) because without protection, you're not going to have any economy. Everything hinges on this," Coffee said.

Efforts to stabilize coastal Louisiana are an important part of that protection effort, she said, because storm surge can be reduced by 1 foot for every 2.7 miles of healthy wetlands the surge has to travel over.

That protection was further reduced because of damage from the hurricanes.

Gerald Duszynski, acting assistant secretary of the Office of Coastal Restoration and Management, said preliminary information indicates that Louisiana's coast might have lost 70 square miles of land during Katrina and Rita.

On average, state officials have said, the coast loses about 25 square miles a year.

"So you've got a couple years damage with these two storms," Duszynski said.

Coffee said the letter, signed by state Department of Natural Resources Deputy Secretary Randy Hanchey, didn't ask for unlimited federal funding. Instead, she said, it asked for what the Louisiana congressional delegation has been seeking for several years - a share of the Outer Continental Shelf oil revenues that currently go to the federal government because of the impact of offshore drilling.

In addition, the only navigation project included in the state's proposal was meant to facilitate the closing of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the channel many people blame for the extensive flooding in St. Bernard Parish.

The state also is asking for a partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and immediate authorization to move forward on a list of projects, Coffee said.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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