Like Making a Giant Mudpie


Today's Advocate has (oh, here's something sort of unrelated, but remarkable nonetheless--a letter to the editor that's really good)--anyway, today's local paper has a sort of catchall story that begins with scientific recommendations to build what would be essentially spillways off the main Mississippi River channel--which, with proper, careful planning--could become a major component of coastal restoration:

The 120 million tons of Mississippi River sediment lost to the Gulf of Mexico annually could be redirected into southeastern Louisiana’s rapidly vanishing coastal wetlands by diverting the river between Myrtle Grove and Venice in lower Plaquemines Parish, a group of scientists recommended Thursday, the first day of the 2006 hurricane season.

The three dozen local, national and international scientists, who met in April in New Orleans and toured the coast, said such a bold plan is needed to rebuild, replenish and sustain coastal Louisiana — the first line of defense against killer hurricanes such as Katrina.

The scientists are not advocating diverting the entire river, but instead creating one or more channels off it...

The scientists suggest creating a new river channel or channels between Myrtle Grove and Venice, which would redirect the main flow of sediment and fresh water from the river closer to shore and the upper continental shelf. Tides and waves would transport the sediment toward the shore and rework them into a mosaic of wetlands, shallow bays and barrier islands, they say.

[University of New Orleans earth and environmental sciences professor Denise] Reed said diverting the river to capture the sediment that falls uselessly off the continental shelf into the deep Gulf waters will be costly and time-consuming, but it is vital.

“There are no quick fixes,” King Milling, chairman of the America’s WETLAND Campaign to Save Coastal Louisiana, said at the news conference hosted by the campaign.

“The important thing is we start taking this sediment loss seriously,” Reed said.

The report continues:

Earlier in the day, America’s WETLAND and the “Women of the Storm” group co-sponsored a rally-style event at New Orleans City Park’s Tad Gormley Stadium to dramatize the increased danger caused by the continuing loss of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands and to highlight which states have sent members of Congress to visit New Orleans since Katrina hit Aug. 29 — and the seven states that have not.

“No one has bothered to come in nine months — no one,” Anne Milling, wife of King Milling and founder of Women of the Storm, said of Indiana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Twenty-one states have not sent a U.S. senator to the storm-ravaged city, she said, and 19 have not sent a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“While we thank the members of Congress who have visited and gained an understanding of our plight, we remain shocked that 400 U.S. senators and representatives have not found the time to visit the site of the worst natural disaster ever to strike our nation,” Anne Milling said.

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., spoke at City Park and said the “economic security” of the nation — both in terms of oil and gas and also fisheries — “begins right here at home” in southern Louisiana.

“We’ve got a lot to fight for,” she said. “Keep the message alive.”

(Maybe if we told Dennis Hastert that it WAS mudpie--delicious, and chocolaty--he and an army of literal fat cats would waddle down in such a hurry it'd register on the Richter scale...but, then again, they might eat through all of Plaquemines Parish)...

Gov. Kathleen Blanco told a small Tad Gormley crowd — including schoolchildren wearing orange life jackets and Women of the Storm members toting umbrellas the same color as the all-too-familiar blue FEMA roof tarps — that Thursday was “the most important June 1 in Louisiana history” because of what happened last year with hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“We are better prepared than ever before. Yes, Louisiana is ready,” the governor said. “But we don’t have a federal commitment to coastal restoration. We must have a restored coastline.”

Blanco pledged to follow through on her promise to block an Aug. 16 oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf in an attempt to get Louisiana a larger share of offshore oil and gas revenue — money that would be used to fund the state’s coastal restoration work.

“I definitely mean business,” she said. “Some may view this as an idle threat. They shouldn’t. I will stand firm. I will not back down.”

Sidney Coffee, executive assistant to the governor for coastal activities and chair of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said at the hotel news conference that the state’s dispute with the U.S. Minerals Management Service lease sale will “likely be a protracted legal situation.”

Coffee said the state needs a “steady stream of revenue” to shore up its coast.

Plaquemines Parish President Benny Rousselle, who attended the Tad Gormley rally, said that his parish is the New Orleans area’s first line of defense against storm surge and that a greater share of offshore oil and gas revenue would help the state battle the surge by bolstering the coast.

“We think we ought to be treated fairly,” he said. “We could in fact handle our own problems a lot better.”

Ed Renwick, a Loyola University New Orleans associate political science professor, who polled 600 voters statewide between May 1 and May 10, said 90 percent of those surveyed agree that Blanco should play hardball with the federal government on the revenue-sharing issue.

“Louisianians finally found something they can agree on,” he said at the America’s WETLAND news conference.

Count me in with the 90 percent. Hell, I think anyone arguing against Gulf Coast reconstruction ought to be required to pay an extra dollar a gallon. Give 'em a taste of what they're advocating.

And, finally: Hopefully I'll be a little better about posting next week. Usually I try to time my cyclical writer's blocks around travel/vacation...this year, with increased expenses, vacation has to wait for a while. Oh well--it was a good trade, under the circumstances. But I'll see if I can up my production just a bit till then...