Getting the Boot

Louisiana has always been identifiable by its unique shape. Many have referred to it as “the boot state”due to its resemblance to a large boot. Since the 1930’s, however, Louisiana has been losing its distinct shape, and by 2050, it could lose much more.

According to documents and scientific research, Louisiana has lost approximately 1,883 sq. miles of land since the 1930’s due in part to levee building and oil and gas canals. Louisiana is currently losing approximately 16 square miles of land a year, or a football field every 48 minutes. If things continue at their current rate, Louisiana could lose another1,750 square miles in the next fifty years, leaving most of Southeast Louisiana underwater.

The repercussions go further than land loss. Half of the United States’ oil refineries, 90% ofits offshore energy production, 30% of its total oil and gas supply, a port critical to 31 of its states, and 2 million people who would have to relocate if things continue at this rate all reside in Louisiana. This is not even to mention the fishing industry and the economic impact of the New Orleans tourism industry that would be destroyed by the current trend. It’s estimated that should all of these industries be forced to shut down it could cost the U.S.economy around $300 million a day.

But what was the cause of this land loss? Bob Marshall, a researcher and writer for The Lens (a non-profit newsroom focused specifically on issues related to New Orleans) explained that the initial cause was ironically something that was intended to protect people: levee building.

In 1928, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928,commanding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct mass amounts of levees along the Mississippi River to ensure that the destruction of the Great Flood of 1927 would never happen again. Though the people in the communities were protected, this had unintentional negative consequences. The levees along theriver sealed it off from the landscape sustained by its sediment. Without that sediment, the land that previously only sank during long dry cycles began tosink constantly without stopping, thusly starting the predicament that Louisiana finds itself in today.

Marshall notes, however, that scientists believe if the levee building was all that man had done most of the land lost so far would still exist and Louisiana would be losing only millimeters of land per year instead of the 16 square miles that it’s currently losing. But man didn’t stopat just building levees.

With the construction of the levees came the discovery of vast amounts of oil reserves below the marshes and other land masses. The oiland gas industries sought to capitalize on this discovery and began dredging canals off natural waterways in order to transport oil rigs and their workcrews. Roughly 50,000 oil wells were constructed, and according to state documents 10,000 miles of canals were dredged in order to service these wells.The devastating unintended consequence of this was that salt water began toflow into the freshwater marshes and swamps, killing plants and trees that held the soil together. As a result, the shore lines began to fall apart causing water bodies to expand. Because of this, along with soil dumping and other factors, by the 1970’s up to 50 square miles of land were vanishing each year.

Though other factors contributed to the land loss (natural geological issues, nutria eating up wetlands and climate change over recent years), the U.S. Department of Interior states that oil and gas canals have ultimately been responsible for 30 to 59 percent of coastal land loss. In Barataria Bay, one of the areas Marshall says is in the most immediate danger of coastal erosion, it is closer to 90%, according to one of the sources that Marshall spoke with.

In the 1930’s, when oil drilling moved off shore and anadditional 7,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico. This required more canals to be dredged (550 miles of them to be precise) which the Department of Interior says resulted in an additional 390,000 acres of coastline to disappear.

For their part, the oil and gas companies have admitted to some fault in the coastal land loss. They have, however, avoided any and all attempts to be forced to pay for the damages. A lawsuit filed by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East against more than 90 of the oil andgas companies along the Gulf was recently dismissed by a U.S. District court judge and is currently awaiting appeal.

Regardless of who is at fault, what has caused it, or who should bear the brunt of the blame, the most important question now is: how do we fix the problem?

In 2012, Louisiana came up with the Master Plan of the Coast, which would build and preserve up to 800 square miles of wetlands and barrier islands as well as construct miles of levees over the course of the next 50 years.

On paper, the plan doesn’t appear to be particularly complicated. It primarily comes down to using sand and mud in the river to rebuild the land already lost by way of two methods.

The first method is to pump sand into sinking wetlands.This method can construct land quickly and is easy to do. However, this method is only temporary as the land created from this method will eventually sink again and the process will need to be repeated again in 30 to 40 years.

The second method is to divert sediment-laden fresh water from the river. This solution could be a permanent fixture, however it is more expensive and it could take years to work.

Even with these solutions in place, the Master Plan does not include building everything that has already been lost nor does it include saving everything at risk now. Instead the goal is to rebuild enough land toprotect communities from hurricane storm surges and provide a functioning fishery.

There are vast uncertainties about whether the plan will work, and with sea level rise and risk of hurricanes a constant things could become even more complicated as time goes on. The state has said that these variables have been accounted for in the master plan. Either way, according to Marshall, the state is all in with the plan.

“This is the state’s gamble,” Marshall told iPulse. “The best around the world said this is the best plan we have. Plan B would be to start moving people and offering up structural forces, and people have to live behind walls while the land sinks behind them in front of their eyes so this plan really has to work.”

The state has acknowledged though that there is one issue with the plan that eventhey are concerned about: how to pay for it.

The plan would last the course of the next fifty years and cost approximately $50 billion, or about $1 billion a year. Louisiana is currently involved with a law suit against BP stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. BP is expected to eventually settle in the law suit and Louisiana has said that all of the money gained would go directly to the Master Plan. However, Louisiana is one of the poorest states in the country and even with the most optimistic settlement estimate from the BP suit, Louisiana could run out of funding for the plan in the next 10 years.

So far Congress has been reluctant to provide funding for the plan, despite the potential implications for the rest of the country if it doesn’t work. According to Marshall, President Obama has drawn up a proposal that would increase the revenue that Louisiana receives from off shore oildrilling. However, this plan is not expected to be passed by the mostly Republican Congress. The House subcommittee on environment and economy, as well as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and U.S. Congressman Cedric Richmond of Louisiana never responded to requests for an interview.

So what can be done to secure funding? What can ordinary people do to try and fix this issue?

“People in other parts of the country need to get involved,” says Marshall. “People need to tell their Congressmen to do something about this. People need to realize that this isn’t just effecting the Cajuns down in Louisiana. This is about the entire economy of the nation, wildlife, and people’s livelihood. This plan is our last hope, and we need everyone around the country to get involved if it’s going to work.”