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

Mark Schleifstein of the New Orleans Times-Picayune writing on June 19, 2008 in an article entitled, Levee authority backs national '8/29 Commission' investigation reported that the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority had passed a resolution asking Congress to create a 8/29 Commission to investigate the government's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The resolution was proposed by John Barry, the author of Rising Tide.

Barry stated,

"I'm really asking that they take a comprehensive look at the entire Mississippi River system, the entire Mississippi valley, from New York state to Idaho," Barry said. "They should look, for instance, at the dams on the upper Missouri River in detail, because they have a real impact on the amount of sediment that's carried in the river, which has a real impact on the erosion of wetlands in Louisiana."

"If the nation understood the reality of the negative impacts on us in the metropolitan area of economic decisions upstream that were made in the national interest," it might lead to better decisions in flood control involving both protection from hurricanes and high rivers."

John Barry has said it exactly right. I am not aware of anyone speaking more closely to my own thinking on the causes and solutions related to the loss of Louisiana's coastal wetlands than John Barry. The idea of a 8/29 Commission is an excellent one. The scope he suggests addresses exactly the issues that I have been raising in this blog. The loss of coastal wetlands in Louisiana is a national problem caused by the management of the Mississippi River drainage basin by the federal government. 

I am not suggesting the federal government should not manage the Mississippi River drainage basin. I am just urging the federal government to acknowledge and take responsibility for their predominant role in causing coastal land loss in Louisiana.

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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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

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The Bismarck Tribune published an editorial on March 7, 2008 entitled, Missouri River Study Could Be Spendy. The editorial concerns the current effort of certain interests along the Missouri River to have a new study done of the river and its tributaries.

The states along the Missouri River north of Sioux City, Iowa would like to see the Corps of Engineers conduct a new "Section 216 Study" of the Missouri River and its tributaries. In sum, these states would like to see the Corps rethink how it balances the navigational interests in the Missouri River which apply to those along the river south of Sioux City, Iowa against other interests in the river such as recreation, flood control, drinking water uses, irrigation, environmental protection, etc...

Most people in Louisiana probably do not think much about the Missouri River, but historically most of the sediment that built the coastal wetlands of Louisiana came down the Missouri River which enters the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. After the Corps completed a series of dams in the upper Missouri River, very little sediment continued to flow down the Missouri into the Mississippi River. The old adage about the lower Mississippi River was that the water came from the Ohio River and the mud came from the Missouri River. Hence, the Missouri River's nicknames was the "Big Muddy" and "Dark River,"  and the residents along it used to say the water of the Missouri River was "too thick to drink, too thin to plow."

The people of the upper Missouri River recognize that the volume of barge traffic on the Missouri River has fallen to the point that it is not a significant economic issue any more. Thus, these people north of the navigable section of the Missouri River would like to remove or at least de-emphasize navigation as a factor in deciding how to manage the Missouri River.

This move should be of interest to Louisiana. If the river can be managed in a way that increases sediment load in the river, this could aid Louisiana's efforts to restore the coastal wetlands. The reservoirs behind the large dams on the Missouri River trap sediment, but management techniques and construction techniques exist for flushing sediment through such reservoirs.

The impact that the operation of the Missouri River has on Louisiana should be considered in any new study of the Missouri River. This impact has not been considered in the past and that needs to change.

Erich P Rapp.

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