New Orleans remains vulnerable
Congress plans to fix levees by 2011, ecologists, politicians want to restore wetlands
Howard Witt
Issue date: 9/11/08 Section: Nation & World News
Even worse, expanded drilling by oil and gas companies in the energy-rich offshore waters led to 20,000 miles of channels and canals cut through the wetlands, speeding their deterioration and creating pathways for storm surges to travel.
As a result, scientists say, one-fifth of what once was the 10,000-square-mile Mississippi River delta has turned into open water.
The loss of so much protective marshland is not merely an environmental disaster and a threat to the tourist playground of New Orleans. The next huge Category 4 or 5 hurricane that comes ashore in this region could pose acute economic dangers to the United States as a whole.
Restoring Louisiana's shrinking wetlands has for years been a dream of ecologists, local politicians and, lately, even the oil and gas companies, which realize the vulnerability of their infrastructure. But such a project would require a mammoth engineering effort that experts say could take two decades. The bill could eventually rise to $40 billion.
Congress has repeatedly balked at paying for what amounts to moving millions of tons of mud and growing hundreds of miles of sea grass, and disrupting existing economic interests such as shipping routes, pipelines and fishing grounds to do it.
Instead, after Katrina, Washington opted for an equally expensive Band-Aid to repair New Orleans' levees. The fixes are to be completed in 2011, but even then the floodwalls will only protect against a midsize Category 3 hurricane.
Meanwhile, with each new incoming hurricane, the ocean hammers Plaquemines Parish harder - and the frail levees crumble even more.
"Once a disaster passes, we don't have an appropriate proactive mentality in this country to address the issue," said Mark Schexnayder, a coastal restoration expert at Louisiana State University's Sea Grant College. "I can guarantee you we will have more hurricanes here. And once again, we will be frantically filling up sandbags when the storm is two days away."
As a result, scientists say, one-fifth of what once was the 10,000-square-mile Mississippi River delta has turned into open water.
The loss of so much protective marshland is not merely an environmental disaster and a threat to the tourist playground of New Orleans. The next huge Category 4 or 5 hurricane that comes ashore in this region could pose acute economic dangers to the United States as a whole.
Restoring Louisiana's shrinking wetlands has for years been a dream of ecologists, local politicians and, lately, even the oil and gas companies, which realize the vulnerability of their infrastructure. But such a project would require a mammoth engineering effort that experts say could take two decades. The bill could eventually rise to $40 billion.
Congress has repeatedly balked at paying for what amounts to moving millions of tons of mud and growing hundreds of miles of sea grass, and disrupting existing economic interests such as shipping routes, pipelines and fishing grounds to do it.
Instead, after Katrina, Washington opted for an equally expensive Band-Aid to repair New Orleans' levees. The fixes are to be completed in 2011, but even then the floodwalls will only protect against a midsize Category 3 hurricane.
Meanwhile, with each new incoming hurricane, the ocean hammers Plaquemines Parish harder - and the frail levees crumble even more.
"Once a disaster passes, we don't have an appropriate proactive mentality in this country to address the issue," said Mark Schexnayder, a coastal restoration expert at Louisiana State University's Sea Grant College. "I can guarantee you we will have more hurricanes here. And once again, we will be frantically filling up sandbags when the storm is two days away."
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