Environmental Defense Praises Senators for Work to Restore Louisiana

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Sharyn Stein, (202) 572-3396, sstein@environmentaldefense.org

(New Orleans, LA - February 26, 2007) – As a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing gets underway in New Orleans today, leading national conservation group Environmental Defense is praising lawmakers for making coastal restoration a focus of the discussion.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the Committee Chair, is conducting the field hearing at the Louisiana Supreme Court Building. Boxer and half a dozen other U.S. Senators will hear testimony from experts about comprehensive approaches to storm protection in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“We are thrilled that Senator Boxer is looking into the problems facing Louisiana’s natural hurricane buffer — its coastal wetlands,” said Paul Harrison, Coastal Louisiana Project Manager at Environmental Defense. “We need better levees, but we’ll never be able to wall off Louisiana from the sea; it would be too expensive, too technically difficult, and destructive to the remaining wetlands. Instead of relying on levees alone, we need to protect the ecosystems that protect us.”

Louisiana was once ringed by cypress forests and marsh lands. For centuries, the vegetation in the bayous helped protect the area from the vicious winds and storm surge of the annual hurricane season. But in the past century we’ve lost more than 2,000 square miles of trees and wetlands along the Gulf of Mexico. The land loss is primarily man-made, a result of poorly planned levees and shipping canals that shut off Mississippi River freshwater and sediment flow to the wetlands and allowed saltwater to flow in and poison the area.

The Louisiana Congressional delegation has been working for years to draw attention to state’s disappearing wetlands.

“Senator Landrieu has always pointed out that levees are designed to be the last line of defense against hurricanes, and the coastal wetlands are supposed to be the first line of defense,” said Harrison. “She encouraged Senator Boxer to hold this hearing in New Orleans, with a bipartisan group of lawmakers. Senator Vitter is also a leader on the issue, for example making sure that the Army Corps of Engineers is nimble and effective in using funding provided to close the destructive Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. Today’s hearing will help bring their message to the rest of the country. Now, with Senator Boxer’s leadership, we hope we can make real progress on repairing the natural storm barriers along Louisiana’s coast.”

Challenges for Congress include making sure that wetlands restoration priorities are funded, that planners strike the best balance between levees and wetlands, and that a reformed Army Corps prioritizes and expedites critical public safety and environmental issues like restoring the Louisiana wetlands.