John Barry States Federal Government Should Pay for Coastal Protection and Restoration in Louisiana
John Barry, the author of Rising Tide, has published an Op-Ed piece in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday April 23, 2008 entitled: Who Should Pay to Protect New Orleans. I have never seen the cause of the coastal land loss problem described more succinctly or the solution described more accurately.
Barry points out what I have been saying less artfully for many years. The most fundamental reason that the coastal wetlands in Louisiana has been lost, particularly below New Orleans, is the reduction in the sediment load in the Mississippi River drainage system. This reduction has resulted from the construction of dams in the tributaries with particular emphasis on the dams built in the Missouri River in North and South Dakota. The lower portion of Louisiana's "bird's foot" did not erode to open water because of levees in Louisiana. Below a point, no levees separate the wetlands from the river and yet the land continues to dissolve into the Gulf. The problem is not the result of a local action.
Louisiana derives no direct benefit from those Corps dams in the Dakota's and Montana. They were built to control flooding and improve navigation on the Missouri River. In fact, the Corps of Engineers claims that it has no authority to manage the Missouri River system and those dams for the benefit of the Mississippi River or its users in any way. The Mississippi River is treated as disconnected and unrelated to the Missouri River for all purposes that the Corps of Engineers considers.
John Barry is exactly right when he says the coastal land loss problem in Louisiana has been caused as the result of actions that benefited other parts of the nation far removed from Louisiana. The protection and restoration of coastal Louisiana is a national problem requiring federal action.
Erich P Rapp
