Nursing the Gulf Coast back to health

Two years after BP’s recording-breaking oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans and neighboring communities remain vulnerable to hurricanes. And Louisiana’s wetlands, which nurture the region’s $23 billion fishing industry, are in bigger trouble than ever.

Every year, the state loses up to 17 square miles of coastal wetlands. This decades-long erosion is mostly caused by channels and levees, which deprive the delta of the Mississippi River’s water and sediment. The BP disaster, which spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, only worsened this ecological crisis.

Yet the very size and urgency of the Gulf’s problems have created an opportunity to fix them.

Coastal Master Plan gets green light

In a big step forward, in May 2012 Louisiana's state legislature unanimously approved the state's Coastal Master Plan, a comprehensive vision for restoring its wetlands and protecting communities from hurricanes and flooding. The plan lays out 145 projects along 400 miles of coastline, stretching from the Chenier Plain to the Mississippi border.

Based on rigorous science and guided by a diverse team of stakeholders, the plan balances the use of natural processes to rebuild wetlands with traditional engineering and flood protection projects, including levee construction and home elevation.

A 35-year mission in the Gulf

EDF senior counsel Jim Tripp and our coalition partners played a major role in developing the plan. In particular, they provided a strong voice in favor of using the natural dynamics of the Mississippi to repair and sustain cypress swamps, coastal marshes and barrier islands.

EDF coastal scientist Dr. Angelina Freeman works on rebuilding wetlands by reconnecting the Mississippi to its natural floodplain.

Photo by: Yuki Kokubo.

Destruction of the Mississippi River Delta is “by far the largest and most tragic loss of ecological resources in this country,” says Tripp, who has worked since 1973 to preserve Louisiana wetlands. He is a longtime member of the Louisiana Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation.

The coastal plan proposes six large sediment diversion projects for rebuilding wetlands south of New Orleans. One of them is the Myrtle Grove project in northern Barataria Bay, an area losing land at one of the highest rates in Louisiana.

EDF’s coastal scientist, Dr. Angelina Freeman, co-managed a team of scientists and engineers that developed models showing how reconnecting the Mississippi River to its natural floodplain would rebuild wetlands.

The Army Corps of Engineers is now using the results in its feasibility study. Exploiting the natural energy of the river to build land lasts longer than pumping and dredging, which is also more expensive.

Saving fisheries, alligators and wading birds

“Louisiana’s plan reflects the science behind projects that harness natural deltaic processes,” says Dr. Freeman.

Restoring wetlands protects coastal communities as well as threatened species like this Louisiana black bear cub.

Photo credit: Lockwood/Animals Animals

Projects such as Myrtle Grove, she notes, will benefit the ecosystem and help sustain alligators and waterfowl like the roseate spoonbill.

The plan envisions creating nearly 860 square miles of wetlands over 50 years and would save $18 billion in annual flood damage. Without action, the land loss experienced since the 1930s would double over the next 50 years, to nearly 4,000 square miles.

RESTORE Act will help fund the Coastal Master Plan

Making this vision a reality hinges on funding. The plan calls for a $50 billion investment.

A substantial part of the money will come from The RESTORE Act, legislation signed into law in 2012. The RESTORE Act will spark one of the most ambitious environmental restoration projects in our country and improve the lives of everyone along the Gulf Coast.

It dedicates an unprecedented amount of money — $4–$17 billion depending on the final settlement with BP and others responsible — to ecological and economic restoration of the Gulf Coast. With these new resources, EDF’s vision for a healthy, vibrant Gulf Coast can now become a reality.

“This is absolutely historic for the recovery of Gulf Coast communities, and in particular Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands,” says Tripp.