As Gustav makes its way inland, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that water is sloshing over the floodwall on the city side of the Industrial Canal that runs alongside New Orlean's Ninth Ward, but fortunately the structure is holding so far. The floodwall failed catastrophically during Katrina three years ago, causing vast ruin in the nearby working-class neighborhoods. For photos of what's happening at the floodwall now, click here and here.

An alert we just received from Gulf Restoration Network Campaign Director Aaron Viles emphasizes just how critical that particular floodwall is for New Orleans -- as well as just how much work needs to be done to help the city and the entire region better withstand future storms:

If the floodwall breaches, the long term future of NOLA could very well be in question. As I watch anxiously, I'm hit by how unneccesary this all is. If we had our coastal wetlands, if the oil companies and the Army Corps of Engineers hadn't set the stage for our massive land loss, we would be far more secure. Levees alone are not enough, we need to restore our coastal lines of defense, our wetlands and cypress swamps.

To that end, Viles is asking concerned citizens to help the people of the Gulf with three simple actions:

1. Watch and share the short film "Blood and Oil" by Walter Williams, about the roots of current coastal erosion crisis;

2. Send a message calling on oil giant Shell to pay for the coastal wetlands it's damaged or destroyed; and

3. Ask leading presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain to take part in the proposed Google/YouTube debate from New Orleans, where they would answer questions from ordinary people. So far, neither campaign has pledged to participate.

Labels: barack obama, coastal protection, Election 2008, google/youtube debate, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, hurricane gustav, john mccain, louisiana, new orleans, shell oil, wetlands

As Facing South previously reported, Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal made an important commitment last week to spending a billion dollars in state funds on coastal restoration and protection projects in the coming years.

But many coastal activists continue to point out that in order to restore the coast and to fully protect Gulf communities, much larger investments will have to be made. Since oil and gas companies have played an integral part in destroying Louisiana’s coastline, these activists argue that these companies should have to pay up to restore it.

Yesterday, a group of environmentalists demanded that Shell Oil Co. “fix the coast you broke” when they attempted to deliver the corporation a bill for $362 million for the cost of restoring wetlands that the company has destroyed, reports the Times-Picayune.

Dredging by oil companies such as Shell has contributed to erosion of the coast, leaving the region more vulnerable to hurricanes. The coalition of activists from grassroots groups such as Gulf Restoration Network and Advocates for Environmental Human Rights called on Shell to pay the money to the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Trust Fund, where it could be added to other offshore drilling revenue to help rebuild wetlands and build levees.

The Gulf Restoration Network reported in their blog:

The current estimate to fix Louisiana’s coast and secure our communities is $50 billion, but taxpayers can’t and shouldn’t shoulder that burden alone. Coastal scientists estimate that oil and gas companies have caused 40-60% of the coastal land loss Louisiana is experiencing. Shell has played a major role in placing us in this precarious position, and should be a part of the financial solution.
…
According to records from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Shell Oil has dredged 8.8 million cubic yards of pipeline since 1983. These activities alone have caused the loss of 22,624 acres of wetlands in the last 25 years.
…
We feel the current situation in southern Louisiana informs the national debate around expanding offshore drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific Coast. Increased off-shore drilling would be detrimental to coastal communities, which is clear in the case of Louisiana. Decades of oil and gas activity along the coast have left the Mississippi River’s once mighty delta a pale comparison of its former glory.

Labels: coastal protection, environment, environmental health, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, louisiana, offshore drilling, oil industry, shell oil, wetlands

An editorial in today’s NOLA Times-Picayune applauds the financial commitment being made to protect Louisiana’s coast. Last week, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced plans for more than $1 billion in coastal protection and restoration projects in Louisiana - the largest investment in coastal protection in Louisiana history, reported the Environmental News Service.

Today’s Times-Picayune editorial states that:

There are hardly more important goals for Louisiana's long-term future than rebuilding our coast and improving hurricane protection -- and it's heartening that state officials are committing serious money to those efforts.
...
Louisiana has only a few years to reverse coastal erosion before it is too late. Our state is putting money down to do its part -- and Congress needs to do the same.

The projects represent "one of the largest public works efforts in the world," according to Governor Jindal. In funding the more than 150 possible projects, $300 million will go toward levee repair alone in order to meet a 2011 deadline and another $70 million will be used for floodgates, beaches and marshes.

Coastal activists have long called for more state and federal attention and funding to go toward protecting wetlands in the United States. The devastation wrought by the 2005 hurricanes brought attention to the environmental crisis on Louisiana's coast, whose wetlands are disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico at alarming rates. Louisiana’s 4,600 square miles of coastal wetlands are lost at a rate of about 35 square miles annually, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Many experts say that healthier wetlands and the natural buffers they create could have provided more protection to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast during the 2005 hurricanes.

For a long time, there has been a tension between coastal protection and levee construction in terms of funding priorities. But many environmentalists and coastal activists see the new spending plan as a step in the right direction to supporting both needs.

“We have always said that, in order to keep Louisiana safe, we need both to strengthen the levees we have now and restore the wetlands and coastal areas that serve as our natural hurricane barriers,” Paul Harrison, coastal Louisiana project manager for Environmental Defense Fund, told the Times-Picayune. “This new plan fulfills both of those priorities.”

Photo of wetlands from Gulf Restoration Network.

Labels: coastal protection, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, levees, louisiana, wetlands

The Times Picayune reported on the new study released by AMBIO, a peer-reviewed science journal, which found that coastal wetlands provide $23.2 billion worth of protection from hurricane-related flooding in the United States each year. As quoted in the Times Picayune:

“Coastal wetlands provide 'horizontal levees' that are maintained by nature and are far more cost-effective than constructed levees,” wrote the authors of the study.

The study also found that:

• Louisiana has lost $29.4 billion in flood protection benefits from the disappearance of 1,927 square miles of coastal wetlands during the past century
• Louisiana lost more than $1.1 billion in benefits as a result of the erosion of 77 square miles of wetlands during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005

Citing the importance of coastal wetlands for protection from severe hurricanes, like Hurricane Katrina, the report concluded that investing in the maintenance and restoration of coastal wetlands will prove to be “an extremely cost-effective strategy for society.”

For more discussion on the topic, check out this post on "horizontal levees" over at the Daily Kos, which underscored that the new "study provides a means of comparing, dollar for dollar, the effectiveness of manmade levees and natural wetlands in protecting against what will surely be more frequent and devastating floods."

Labels: coastal protection, environment, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, louisiana, wetlands