Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Blog : Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Lawyer & Attorney : Erich P. Rapp : Kean Miller Law Firm : Serving New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Louisiana

The sleeping bear's eyes may have begun to open. Perhaps the Corps of Engineers is signaling that it will begin acknowledging that the management of the entirety of the Mississippi River is connected to the health of the coastal wetlands in Louisiana. In a front page story on Sunday July 5, 2009 in the Baton Rouge Advocate Richard Burgess writes an article entitled, Corps considers change in water flow into Atchafalaya. 

Nancy Powell, chief of the Corps' New Orleans district hydraulics and hydrologic branch, suggests that the Corps might operate the Old River Control Structure at the northern end of the Atchafalaya River in the interest of Louisiana coastal restoration and preservation. It seems like an obvious thing to do, but the reality and symbolism of the Corps making this philosophical shift in policy would be profound.

At a time when the Corps was just beginning to manage the Mississippi River for the purpose of navigation, the Red River was a tributary entering the Mississippi River at the northern side of what was called Turnbull Bend. In turn, the Atchafalaya River was a distributary exiting the main channel of the Mississippi River at the southern side of Turnbull Bend. In 1831, Captain Henry M. Shreve, an early agent of the Corps, dug a canal through the neck of Turnbull bend. This canal called "Shreve's Cut" changed the flow of the river in a profound way. 

Shreve's Cut made it more likely the Mississippi River's main channel would change course and adopt the course of the Atchafalaya River's channel as the Mississippi River's main channel. In the 1950's, the Corps built the Old River Control Structure in an attempt to rectify its earlier misstep digging Shreve's Cut  and to prevent the eventuality of the Mississippi River changing course from happening. The structure has since then been used primarily for this purpose. And undoubtedly an important purpose it is. The economic damage that would be caused by the Mississippi River's main channel changing courses to adopt the Atchafalaya River's channel as the Mississippi River's own main channel would be extraordinary. 

The America's Wetlands web site has a good description of the Old River Control Structure and the history of Turnbull Bend along with some useful diagrams. The section of the web site is called Controlling the River.   

The operation of the Old River Control Structure at Simmesport is the very essence of management of the Mississippi River. The Corps has not historically even considered managing the river north of the Louisiana coastal zone with consideration of the impact of those actions on the coast of Louisiana. The Corps has, heretofore, managed the Mississippi River north of the Louisiana coastal zone as though the Mississippi River to the North of the coastal zone was not casually connected to coastal land loss in Louisiana.

By acknowledging the connection of the Old River Control Structure to coastal restoration and preservation, the Corps might manage the distribution of sediment load of the Mississippi and Red Rivers in a more strategic way to aid with coastal restoration and preservation projects. The gates or "dam" at the Old River Control Structure were built to allow for the passage of sediment in the river through the gates. This allows sediment to flow into the Atchafalaya River or remain in the Mississippi River at the Corps' choice. This design is different from other large earthen dams in the Mississippi River drainage basin that trap virtually all the sediment that enters the reservoir behind the dam. This, of course, suggests that dams could be built that do not trap sediment in the reservoir behind them, but that is another story entirely.

The idea that the Corps could operate the Old River Control Structure to help with coastal restoration and preservation in Louisiana is a small gesture. The Corps has not even yet decided what to do. Nevertheless, the acknowledgment of the connection is symbolically significant.  I have to agree with the Corps' Ms. Powell as quoted in the Baton Rouge Advocate article, "It's kind of exciting."

Erich P Rapp.

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The Mississippi River does not carry enough sediment through Louisiana to sustain much less restore coastal Louisiana. That has been my nightmare fear since I began studying this subject years ago. It has also been a theme of this blog and an important argument for the monetary liability of the federal government for the damage to coastal wetlands in Louisiana. Unfortunately, the situation may be even worse than I thought.

I have long believed that one of the most important causes of coastal land loss in Louisiana has been the construction of dams and slackwater navigation pools in the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The most significant of these tributary dam systems have been in the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers. These dams have all been built by the federal government with the most important built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and additional dams built by the Bureau of Reclamation in the United States Department of the Interior. The construction of these dams has reduced the sediment load in the Mississippi River passing through Louisiana by over 50%.

Over the last year or so, I have traded a small set of email correspondence with Michael D Blum, a now former geology and geophysics professor at Louisiana State University. Blum has been conducting research on the amount of sediment carried by the Mississippi River and the river's potential for carrying sediment in the absence of the dam systems. His research is being published on Sunday June 28th in Nature Geoscience in an article entitled,  "Drowning of the Mississippi Delta due to insufficient sediment supply and global sea-level rise." A fee is required for the purchase of the article. Blum's co-author is LSU professor emeritus of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Harry H. Roberts.

Sadly, this article concludes that even if the dams in the Mississippi River tributaries were removed, the rate of global sea rise would still more than offset the sediment deposit from the Mississippi River were the river and the coastal wetlands reconnected.

If this research is accepted as accurate, this leaves Louisiana with some rather stark and unpleasant decisions that need to be made. Some of the early decisions will concern what efforts will be made to reconnect the river to the wetlands and how will the limited sediment supply be allocated to sustaining some portion of the coast. Implicit in this decision is the question of what areas will be abandon. I again also raise the question of whether the federal government should be held financially responsible for the loss of the coastal wetlands in a court of law. A related judicial question concerns whether the federal government should be compelled to consider the impact on coastal Louisiana of actions in the management of the Mississippi River system including the tributaries far to the north of Louisiana. Numerous existing federal statutes would appear to require this consideration.

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Blum and Dr. Harry H. Roberts on the publication of their article and on the completion of his research.

Erich P. Rapp.

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On Sunday December 14, 2008 and Monday December 15, 2008, the New Orleans Times Picayune has published the first two parts of a three part series on the loss of Louisiana's coastal wetlands. This series is an excellent media tutorial on what, where, when and how Louisiana is losing its coastal wetlands. The series has been published on the front page of the Sunday and Monday paper. The third party will be published on Tuesday December 16, 2008. This series is a great opportunity for the general public to learn what is happening to coastal Louisiana and why.

The first part is entitled - Losing Louisiana Part 1: Because of subsidence and global warming, Louisiana is slowly disappearing.  

The second part is entitled - Losing Louisiana Part 2: Southeast Louisiana is sinking under its own weight.

The third part of the series is entitled - Losing Louisiana Part 3: Protecting southeast Louisiana will be extraordinarily expensive.

The effort that the New Orleans Times Picayune has undertaken here is extraordinarily important. Everyone in Louisiana speaks of Louisiana's coastal land loss at some point, but not everyone understands what is happening. If we from Louisiana are to persuade the nation to support our efforts to protect and restore Louisiana's coast, the path will require as many knowledgeable advocates as Louisiana can find and educate. The New Orleans Times Picayune is helping that cause and I applaud them.

Erich P Rapp.

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If Gustav comes ashore on the path that is currently being projected, the coastal wetlands of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes will likely be damaged. The current projected path is diagonal across these wetland areas.

These wetlands were build during an earlier time when the path of the Mississippi River was further to the West than its current course. This has been an area of significant coastal wetland loss, and it is a particularly fragile area because of the absence of new sediment being deposited from the Mississippi River system.

In 1905, Bayou Lafourche, a former distributary channel of the Mississippi River was separated from the river by a levee. Now, none of the sediment bearing water from the Mississippi River enters Bayou Lafourche or reaches these wetland areas. The wetlands around Houma, Louisiana in Terrebonne Parish are also very fragile and vulnerable to damage and loss. This area was the path of an even earlier channel of the Mississippi River.

One section of the central coast of Louisiana does have river delta land building capacity. This is the area around the mouth of the Atchafalaya River. This area can to some extent recover from a hurricane damaging the wetlands.

Those responsible for coastal wetland restoration in Louisiana are also considering some re-connection of the sediment bearing waters of the Mississippi River to Bayou Lafourche. This would seem to be a good idea whose time has come.

Erich P Rapp.

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Ducks Unlimited is a friend to the movement for the restoration of Louisiana's coastal wetlands. Bob Drew, the manager of conservation programs for Ducks Unlimited has properly stated that state and federal agencies are the only ones that have the capacity to implement large scale coastal restoration programs which Ducks Unlimited supports.

For this reason among others, Ducks Unlimited announced the appointment of Jennifer Grand as the Louisiana government affairs director for Ducks Unlimited. Grand is based out of their Lafayette office. For more information on the appointment of Ms Grand, see the April 10, 2008 article in the Lafayette Advertiser entitled: Wetlands warrior: Conservation organization creates post.

Erich P Rapp.

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