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

The Corps of Engineers claims it learned of Louisiana coastal land loss in the early 1970's.  The Corps' November 2004 Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study suggests discovery "in part" from the publication of a 1972 study. No earlier date is mentioned. Discovery in 1972 is not true "in part" or otherwise.

The Corps knew long before the1970's that Louisiana was losing coastal wetlands and that the cause was their management of the Mississippi River. They even knew the wetlands below New Orleans were being lost more quickly than wetlands to the west. As described in my prior blog entry, they also knew the consequences of the land loss on hurricane storm surges. 

Culpability is a function of knowledge. If the Corps knew when it took action that the action would cause damage, they have greater responsibility than if they did not know. Suggesting discovery in 1972 would tend to reduce responsibility for the consequences of  what the Corps did before.

On December 29, 1961, the Corps published: Interim Survey Report Mississippi River Delta At and Below New Orleans. The report was mentioned in my last blog entry about hurricane storm surge. In appendix B of this report on page B-2, it states:

 "The shorelines of the ponds, lakes, and bays within the marshland and the seaward edges of the marshland are being eroded by wave action. At present very little (and in the greater part of the area none) of the sediments carried down by the Mississippi River reach the marshlands. The bulk of the sediments is carried into the gulf and deposited along the outer continental shelf in the vicinity of the mouth of the river. Although wave action is contributing to the destruction of the marshlands, the irregular jagged shorelines in the area show that subsidence has been the dominant factor. Both subsidence and wave attack will continue in the future and unless sediment laden water is introduced into the area to replace material being lost, and to compensate for subsidence, the inland bodies of water will continue to enlarge and the seaward facing edges of the marshland will continue to retreat. This will happen much faster on the east side of the Mississippi River where the marshlands are more exposed to prevailing winds, and there is less to destroy." (emphasis added).

This 1961 report was not an original statement, but it was an eloquent one. More to come.

Erich P Rapp.

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I appreciate the people of Pennsylvania for being leaders in the dam removal movement. Dams and locks damage river systems. Dams and locks in the Mississippi River drainage basin damage the Louisiana coastal wetlands by trapping sediment that would otherwise travel to the river delta and help sustain the coastal wetlands.  

The Harrisburg Patriot-News posted an article on Pennlive.com on August 6, 2007 entitled: Old Dams: Removing these barriers allows waterways to regain free-flow. 

Over 1/3 of Pennsylvania is within the Mississippi River drainage basin. According to the Patriot-News, Pennsylvania has removed 70 dams in the past decade and is removing an additional 3 dams on one creek in the next year. Although the removal of a dam in Pennsylvania will not directly improve the health of the coastal wetlands in Louisiana because so many dams and locks remain in place between Pennsylvania and Louisiana, the dam removal movement should be encouraged.

Officials in Louisiana should monitor the water resource policies of other states. They should encourage good decisions and discourage bad ones. What is done in the Mississippi River drainage basin outside of Louisiana matters, but is often ignored in Louisiana.

Erich P Rapp.

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The New Orleans Times Picayune has created an interactive graphic to depict the scope of coastal land loss in Louisiana.

Select the interactive graphic entitled: The Rise and Disappearance of Southeast Louisiana. The presentation will explain in about seven minutes how the hydrologic cycle described in my last blog entry applies to the Mississippi River and Southeast Louisiana.

Most important when the active presentation ends, you will be left with a map of Louisiana and to the right side of the screen, you will have the ability to select a map of Southeast Louisiana as it existed in 1932, 2000, 2005 and a projection for 2020. Leaving aside what might come to be in the future, alternate views between the map as it was in 1932 and as it was in 2005. What you see will take your breath away.

The interactive graphic is an excellent presentation of the basic geology, but it leaves out an important part of the story. Dams are destroying the wetlands at the mouth of the Mississippi River and not levees. Near the mouth, there are no levees.

Erich P Rapp. 

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The Mississippi River built the part of Louisiana now being lost to the sea. All water running across land carries sediment. All rivers and streams carry sediment. Rivers, streams and the sheet flow over the adjoining land are eroding sediment in one place and depositing it in another.  This natural process has existed as the earth has existed.

Transport of sediment in rivers is part of the hydrologic cycle. 

Water evaporates out of the ocean. The clouds moves over land, and the water returns to earth as rain. The rain runs across the land eroding sediment as it gathers in streams and rivers and makes its way back to the ocean. This description is a gross simplification, of course, because some of the water goes into storage as ground water, in lakes, plants and elsewhere along the way from falling as rain to its return to the ocean. 

As a result of the hydrologic cycle, water transporting sediment in the Mississippi River and depositing it at or near the coast built much of Louisiana over a very long period of time.

The law applies to this process. The transport of sediment in rivers is a natural process that creates a legal relationship between the land along the upstream portions of a river and the lands adjoining the same river system much closer to the ocean. If the process is disrupted, the land building and maintenance stops and as will be described later, the land slowly turns back to open sea.

This blog will show how the law protects property rights associated with the sediment transport process in rivers.

Erich P Rapp.  

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The article published on August 6, 2007 on CNNMoney.com is worth reading. The article is titled: The next energy crisis. More than a quarter of America's oil flows through southern Louisiana. Too bad the land is slowly sinking into the sea, and was written by Fortune Magazine senior writer Nicholas Varchaver. This article is different because it was written about the views of business people in the energy industry on Louisiana coastal land loss. This article describes how important the Louisiana coastal wetlands are to the production of 27% of America's oil and 30% of its natural gas. It also describes the challenges that businesses in the energy industry are facing as Louisiana's coastal wetlands are lost to open sea.

Erich P Rapp.

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