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

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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As I have written many times before, the principal cause of coastal wetland loss is the reduction of sediment load in the Mississippi River. The reduction in sediment load has been caused primarily by the construction of locks and dams in the Mississippi River drainage basin, and the dams in the Missouri and Arkansas River systems are the most significant.

For the Corps of Engineers representatives working north of Louisiana, the reduction in the sediment load is a good thing. If your primary concern is navigation in the river system, a river with little sediment load is a good river. It means the Corps does not have to dredge the river bed as much.

In contrast for the Corps of Engineers in New Orleans tasked with coastal wetland restoration, a river with a limited sediment load makes their restoration job harder. Of course, the Corps in New Orleans is also given the task of maintaining navigation on the Southern course of the river. Thus, the Corps in New Orleans also prefers the smallest possible sediment load for management of their navigation responsibilities.

Which objective does the Corps serve? How do they decide which objective to serve and when? As far as I can determine, the Corps gives no consideration to the sediment load in the Mississippi River system needed for restoration and preservation of Louisiana's coastal wetlands when the Corps makes decisions about river management north of Louisiana. As a practical matter, the Corps cannot serve both objectives with no oversight and be expected to preserve and restore Louisiana's coast. The navigation interest extends for most of the river system course and the focus on preservation and restoration of coastal wetlands is an active part of decision making only in the Southernmost section of the river. Preservation and restoration of coastal wetlands loses and navigation wins in that internal competition at the Corps. As a practical matter, it cannot be any other way. 

The responsibilities for decision making need to be split and a neutral third party needs to be responsible for balancing the two interests.

A good recent news article expressing concern with the negative impact of sediment load on navigation can be found in the Baton Rouge Advocate on April 12, 2008. The article was written by John A Colvin and is entitled, Mississippi River sediment piling up.

Erich.

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The Baton Rouge Advocate published an article on Friday February 29, 2008 entitled, Southwest La. wants coastal aid. This article summarizes recent complaints from public officials in southwest Louisiana concerning the relative balance of limited coastal restoration funds between southeastern and southwestern Louisiana.

These officials complain that in the 2009 Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority (CRPA)budget a total of $14 million in funds are budgeted for southeast Louisiana projects and only $1 million in funds are budgeted for projects in southwest Louisiana.

The chairman of CPRA, Garret Graves, seems prepared to respond. He has indicated in a recent CPRA meeting that the Jindal administration is considering a restructuring of the board to allow more balance. The type of restructuring that is under consideration is using land mass or population to determine representation.

Erich P Rapp.

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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. 

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