Acadiana's News Leader Rising River Moving Sediment Out Into the Gulf

Rising River Moving Sediment Out Into the Gulf

RISING RIVER MOVING SEDIMENT OUT INTO THE GULF
INSTEAD OF INTO THE MARSHES THAT DESPERATELY NEED REPLENISHING TO SURVIVE

High water underscores U.S. inability to capture the sediment, freshwater and
nutrients it funnels into the Gulf each year

NEW ORLEANS – The Mississippi River flood crest is moving 1.9 million cubic feet of vitally needed water and sediments right past the eroding coast of Louisiana into the depths of the Gulf of Mexico.

"We are missing a great opportunity to combine flood control with restoration efforts," said Dr. Robert Twilley, research vice president of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, executive director of the LSU-UL-L Coastal Sustainability Studio and science adviser to the America's WETLAND Foundation. "Our message is that this flood, while threatening public safety, also demonstrates that we should be using multiple outlets linked to
coastal restoration that could save the coast."

The original design of the Bonnet Carre Spillway and its opening is sending a significant amount of the sediment and fresh water into Lake Pontchartrain on the east side of the
river rather than the west side, where it could be put to use rebuilding the marshes. Instead, the Lake receives large loads of sediment that could be used to build coastal wetlands.

"We have proof that this would work in the Bonnet Carre. But it does not deliver that sediment to regions where our coast needs nourishment during these flood events," Twilley said.

R. King Milling, AWF chair, noted that scientists who have studied coastal erosion in Louisiana have said the river's nourishing materials need to be redirected back into the
marshes the river built up over hundreds of years before the levees were built after the 1927 flood.

"At a scientific conference sponsored by AWF in 2006 and again at the AWF's World Deltas Dialogue: DELTAS2010 conference this past October 2010, scientists, conservationists and key coastal stakeholders all reached a common solution: the need to divert the river back into the marshes and harness the natural restorative powers of the river," Milling said. "That means we need to build multiple outlets for restoration
along with large-scale diversion projects on the lower river and do it in a way that protects the values of our region. We throw away our dredge spoils and we allow critical barrier islands and ridges to disappear. Because of the critical nature of the threat facing South Louisiana, we must be guided by science to guide decisions. If we don't, we will be going down a dangerous path," Milling said.

A major theme of the DELTAS2010 conference, co-sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the Nature Conservancy and the Greater New Orleans Foundation, was learning to live with water, working with nature rather than against it.

Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, chairman of AWF's Blue Ribbon Resilient Communities leadership forums, is chairing a series of 13 coastal community sessions from Texas to
Florida over the next year. The second of those forums will be in Plaquemines Parish on Monday and Tuesday, May 16 and 17. The irony is that the meeting convenes in Belle
Chase, within site of the swollen river that is carrying valuable sediment and depositing it off the Outer Continental Shelf where its value is of no use to the wetlands.

"Louisiana and the entire Gulf Coast offer irreplaceable benefits to the nation - seafood, offshore energy, critical navigation routes, tourism, and incomparable wildlife and marine habitats," Lt. Governor Dardenne said. "But as we face another natural disaster, we are reminded that we are running out of time to build resiliency across the Gulf Coast. We
need to act if we do not want to face these disasters annually in Louisiana," Dardenne said.

Louisiana contributes approximately 30 percent of the nation's energy supply, about a third of the seafood in the continental U.S., and serves as the nursery grounds for some 90 percent of all marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. Its wetlands provide a major habitat for wildlife and millions of migratory waterfowl and songbirds each year.

"These are not local issues because the infrastructure found in our region is vital to the entire nation," Dardenne said. "We need America to know that this area is endangered and requires immediate attention because, if we don't, the costs we will all share are incalculable.

"The AWF's Blue Ribbon Resilient Communities project will demonstrate the gravity of long-term consequences to those national assets if we don't act soon," Dardenne said.
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The America's WETLAND Foundation manages the largest, most comprehensive public education campaign in Louisiana's history, raising public awareness of the impact of Louisiana's wetland loss on the state, nation and world. The America's Energy Coast initiative works to sustain the environmental and economic assets of the Gulf Coast region. The initiative is supported by a growing coalition of world, national and state
conservation and environmental organizations and has drawn private support from businesses that see wetlands protection as a key to economic growth. For more information, visit www.americaswetland.com or www.futureofthegulfcoast.org