Expert Says Wetlands Require Urgent Action
The Baton Rouge Advocate published a letter on March 5, 2008 under the headline, Letter: Wetlands require urgent action. Kerry St. Pe, the program director for the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, wrote in the Baton Rouge paper that all stakeholders must join together to move quickly to restore coastal Louisiana.
St. Pe concludes that the state cannot afford delays that might be caused by strategies that could result in drawn-out disagreement. He emphasizes the adoption of proven technology on a large scale. In particularly, he suggests using existing sediment delivery technology such as dredges, pumps and pipelines need to be employed immediately. The land built through the sediment delivery processes must then be supported with small to medium size river diversions. These diversion will sustain the new land.
St. Pe expresses concern about the disagreements arising from large scale river diversions. He views large scale diversions as potentially contentious and questions whether such diversion have long term benefits.
In sum, St. Pe thinks Louisiana should focus on the strategies where consensus exists.
Erich P Rapp.
