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

The US Army Corps of Engineers responded on August 13, 2007 to the Time Magazine story, The Threatening Storm. The Corps contends that the Time story contains "many errors and misrepresentations" and describes it as a "wreckless disregard for the truth." 

The Corps response appears to contain at least one significant omission. The response states: "The Corps acknowledges that wetlands have a beneficial role in storm surge and wave dissipation, but adequate quantitative information about that role has not been developed." 

At least as far back as December 29, 1961, the USACE published a report entitled: Interim Survey Report Mississippi River Delta At and Below New Orleans. Much of appendix A deals with hurricane storm surge and on page A-11, the report suggests the difficulty in finding meaningful correlations to specific characteristics of hurricanes. Nevertheless, the report reaches a very simple conclusion:

"The study of available observed high water marks at the coastline and inland indicates a fairly consistent simple relationship between the maximum surge height and the distance inland from the coast, as shown on plate A-6. This relationship exists independently of the speed of hurricane translation, wind speeds or directions. The data indicates that the weighted mean decrease in storm surge height inland is at the rate of 1.0 foot per 2.75 miles. The relationship remains true even in the western portions of Louisiana where relatively high chenieres, or wooded ridges, parallel the coast."  An excerpt of the report is linked.

The existence of coastal wetlands south of New Orleans decreases storm surge at New Orleans and the loss of wetlands increases storm surge at New Orleans. The Corps has known that for many years.

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 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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