January Coastal Scuttlebutt: Daily Miniposts

in Coastal Scuttlebutt by Admin — January 27, 2010 at 4:03 pm | 3 comments

January 31

Steven Ward wrote an article for today’s the Advocate about the potential outcome and effect of the 2010 census, which will likely result in the loss of one of Louisiana’s congressional seats. Republican members of our delegation complain that we will lose clout in DC, whereas Sen. Landrieu’s office says that the loss won’t make a difference. I tend to agree with the latter point, given the likelihood of seven more years of an Obama presidency.

The article describes a feud among parishes that either lost or gained population because of Katrina, when evacuees relocated temporarily or permanently either out of state or inland, to the Baton Rouge Area, for example. I’m intrigued by the potential coastal implications of the new census. Has the last decade marked by devastating hurricanes seen a significant retreat from the coast?

I’m also thinking that the ongoing effort to develop a new official coastal boundary could incorporate demographic data as well as elevation, tidal influence, etc. I took the liberty of adding my sense of what the official coastal boundary should be to a graphic produced by the Advocate.

January 30

An editorial in today’s Times-Picayune sounds the alarm about the implications of another credible study documenting the growing risk to Louisiana of anthropogenic climate change. The new study, published in the journal Science, predicts fewer but more severe hurricanes during the 21st century.

In response, the editorial calls for more coastal protection and restoration – motherhood and apple pie. This totally ignores the political elephant in the room: our governor and delegation vigorously oppose the federal regulation of greenhouse gases while demanding federal support for hurricane protection. Isn’t it about time that Louisiana’s largest newspaper blew the whistle on this hypocrisy?

With each additional inch of sea level rise (SLR) every hurricane becomes significantly more dangerous. Why on earth should the feds assist a state that staunchly refuses to acknowledge SLR and that opposes doing anything about it?

January 29

I’ve been too busy lately to open the fiscal year 2011 state plan for coastal protection and restoration that was released yesterday. This plan lays out details on the cost of the program over the next three years. Mark Schleifstein did us all a favor by reading through the plan and writing an article on some of its highlights in today’s Times-Picayune. Interesting reading.

Slate.com posted a story from the Washington Post on 1/27 about the bizarre invasion of Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office by four young political activists who are apparently against health care reform. Presumably these politically connected young idiots can afford health insurance. For part two of my post on insect impacts in south Louisiana (to appear today) I shamelessly stole Slate’s amusing description of the incident “Bugs on the bayou.”

January 28

Amy Wold reported in today’s The Advocate on the first meeting in 2010 of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA). She focused on the announcement of the release of the FY 2011 draft Annual Plan that will submitted to the legislature in April. This plan, which details 3 years of projects and funding sources, can be accessed today.

My impressions of key discussion points from the meeting include the following:

1) The draft plan (which I have not seen as yet) includes a critical new element – a prioritization tool to objectively rank projects in an apolitical manner. I’m anxious to examine this tool.

the plan includes a whopping $17 Billion in projects underway, 9 for protection and 22 for restoration but presumably $15 Billion of this total is for upgrading the NOLA levee system.

An effort to quantify the potential carbon sequestration by restored wetlands is being pursued as a mean of selling credits in an emerging market. This is particularly ironic to me, given Gov. Jindal’s denial that CO2 emission are a problem.

2) A presentation by Dr. Andy Nyman from the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources on a practical and credible new technique to judge the feasibility of restoring intermediate and brackish marshes (I am hereby inviting Andy to write a guest post on this exciting new technique).

3) A discussion over the relative cost of protection v restoration.

4) A philosophical presentation by CPRA member Windell Curole on what he calls a common-sense approach to coastal planning. One of Windell’s key points that resonated with the group is that the federal agencies inevitably promote national standards, e.g., on specific engineering techniques, that tend be extremely costly and are often inappropriate for ecological engineering in a deltaic setting.

5) The lone public comment came from a retired systems engineer named King who engaged in a spirited exchange with a somewhat defensive CPRA chairman Garret Graves over whether coastal planning is operating at a real systems level or more from a project by project perspective. Commission member John Barry invited input from Mr. King, saying that we cannot afford to pass up possible new insights from a credible critic.

6) Both Windell Curole and John Barry emphasized the amazing success of the evacuation of NOLA prior to Hurricand Katrina, a success story that has been largely ignored (~1 million people evacuated in 36 hours).

January 27

Molly Reid wrote a story for the Times-Picayune about a proposed Green Platform for the mayoral candidates in New Orleans. Reid’s description follows:

Among other things, the platform calls for green building incentives; programs to help finance energy-efficiency measures; green economic development through a public-private partnership; restored municipal recycling service; increased local water management and coastal restoration advocacy; and greater remediation of sites contaminated by lead, arsenic and other toxins.

The platform was put together by my friend and colleague Beth Galante with Global Green. I didn’t see Mitch Landrieu’s name on the list of mayoral candidates who signed onto this important platform. What about it Mitch?

Slate.com announced today that following his State of the Union speech tonight President Obama will be in Tampa tomorrow with his train-loving VP to announce the beginning of the $8 billion high speed rail system of which Louisiana inexplicably turned up its nose. Wired Magazine is carrying a major story on the same issue, describing proposed state of the art systems for Texas and Florida, with nothing in between along the Gulf Coast. Shame on us.

January 26

A reminder that the Coastal Prtotection and Restoration Authority meets at 9:30 tomorrow (1/27) in House Committee Room 1 in the State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Here’s the agenda:

I. Call to Order

II. Roll Call

III. Approval of Agenda

IV. Old Business

V. Fiscal Year 2011 Annual Plan- Karim Belhadjali, Office of Coastal

Protection and Restoration

VI. Resolution on OCPR’s Emergency Operations Plan- Jerome Zeringue,

Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration

VII. Resolution Supporting RAND Funding Analysis- Kyle Graham, Office of

the Governor

VIII. Approval of the Atchafalaya Basin Annual Plan- Stephen Chustz,

Department of Natural Resources

IX. Presentation on Impacts of Freshwater Diversions on Coastal Wetlands-

Dr. Andy Nyman, Louisiana State University

X. Discussion on Realities in New Orleans during Katrina- Windell Curole,

South Lafourche Levee District

XI. Discussion on Establishment of CPRA Committees- Garret Graves,

Chairman

XII. Public Comments

XIII. Adjournment

January 25

A story in today’s Advocate by Robert R. Jones III describes the emergence of a strong advocate of the protection and restoration of southwest Louisiana, a retired oilman named Tim Creswell. According to the article, Mr. Creswell is an Abbeville native who has allied with Congressman Charles Boustany and Garret Graves from the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities in the promotion of hurricane protection for Vermilion Parish and its adjoining coastal parishes in the Chenier Plain. I am particularly interested to read that Mr. Creswell, who is not a scientist, supports basing projects on a large scale study of the hydrology of southwest Louisiana that is based on advanced computer modeling. Too many people in leadership positions have said, “Enough with the studies, already.”

January 24

Today’s NY Times carries an editorial debunking the predictions of economic disasters that would accompany the passage of a bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions. It strikes me as patently bizarre to predict that south Louisiana will suffer more job losses if a price is put on CO2 than if the coast goes underwater.

Retired guru of coastal management Jim Rives forwarded this link to a recent article by Jeremy Alford in The Gambit that provides an update on the MRGO lawsuit decision by Judge Duval.

Today the Times-Picayune endorsed the election of Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu to replace Ray Nagin as NOLA Mayor. From a coastal standpoint, I think it’s a good call.

January 23

This article by Gary Perilloux in the Advocate on Louisiana job losses during 2009 caught my eye. I would encourage Gary to follow up with a story on estimated job gains during 2010, based on projects related to the $15 bilion being spent by the Corps of Engineers to bolster the NOLA levee system and hundreds of millions by the state on coastal protection and restoration projects. All this coastal money must be having an effect.

January 22

There’s a lot of coastal news today:

1) NOLA suburbs hurting: An article in Huffpost yesterday ranks the NOLA suburbs as a highly depressed area.

2) West Bay river diversion project killed: Mark Schleifstein wrote an article for yesterday’s Time-Picayune about a decision by the federal state Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) to pull the plug on the first river diversion project approved in 1991. This project, always controversial since it was constructed six years ago, has failed to build land and has been (unfairly) blamed for causing shoaling in an anchorage area above head-of-passes. The project has provided highly useful information for critical modeling efforts necessary for larger diversion projects further upriver – projects on which success or failure of the entire coastal restoration program is contingent. Dr. John Wells, Director of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and authority on the Mississippi river delta, says that shutting the project down at this time will cause the loss of critical information.

3) The CWPPRA task force also approved an ambitious list of new coastal restoration projects listed in this article in nola.com. The CWPPRA task force has a record for building projects with questionable benefits, although I think the project selection process may have improved since I sat on the task force. I remain cynical while hoping I’m wrong.

4) Pontchartrain Basin target of expedited restoration projects: Sheila Grissett reported in today’s Times-Picayune that Tim Doody, Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East president, has appointed a three person “dream team” to expedite the implementation of a backlog of projects for the Pontchartrain Basin. I’m happy to report that Mark Schexsnayder, LSU AgCenter and Sea Grant Program, Carlton Dufrechou, Pontchartrain Causeway Commission, and John Lopez, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, make up this team, which may be expanded later.

5) Last but far from least, my heart sank to see that my friend Senator Mary Landrieu is leading Louisiana’s suicidal charge to deny the relevance of climate change and sea level rise (SLR), joining forces with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski and industry lobbyists to fight CO2 regulation. Read this article in Climate Progress. I really do like and respect Mary but in my opinion she is dead wrong on this.

January 21

An article by Frank Donza in today’s Times-Picayune reports that Mitch Landrieu has emerged as a clear front runner in the race to replace Ray Nagin as mayor of New Orleans. In my twenty years of employment in Louisiana state government, eighteen in the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities, I have observed and talked to Mr. Landrieu informally on coastal matters, both while he was a state representative and as Lieutenant Governor. During this time the Mayor’s office of New Orleans has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to critical coastal issues, including the controversy over MRGO. Several bright and caring women have headed the mayor’s office on environmental affairs that was created in 1994 under Marc Morial, e.g., Yarrow Ethridge and Wynecta Fisher, but they haven’t really had the ear or the support of either Morial or Nagin. For example, click on this link on coastal restoration to see an absolutely empty web page.

New Orleans desperately needs to discover itself as a coastal city, fully integrated with comprehensive coastal planning. I believe that Mitch Landrieu is best positioned to make that happen. His sister Senator Mary would be an especially important ally in that mission.

January 20

The heat in the White House political kitchen is markedly higher than it was yesterday, before a Republican unknown named Brown captured Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat. Not only are health care reform and consumer financial protection at risk but so is a cap-and-trade carbon bill that had been scheduled for Senate debate during the summer. How ironic, just as the AP reports that new data show that the 2000s was significantly hotter than the 90s! Louisiana Congressman Bill Cassidy, who campaigned for Brown, is probably celebrating, while his state and ours becomes ever more flood prone. Be careful what you wish for, Dr. Cassidy.

January 19

Since creating LaCoastPost a growing number of coastal ‘whistleblowers’ have been emerging to share politically sensitive information without fear of retribution. Last night I received an email from a coastal professional who said he was embarrassed to see a letter* from Denis Riordan with the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) announcing that Louisiana no longer has a federal advisor from the agency that bears the primary responsibility for precise measurements of landscape elevation with respect to sea level – because no state agency has agreed to sponsor the position. This from the state most at risk from subsidence and sea level rise! I’m embarrassed as well and would love to see this critical issue addressed at the upcoming Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) meeting ti the State Capitol on January 27.

*The NGS letter can be seen in today’s post on coastal cities.

January 18

Thus I propose that those of us who support the re-creation of a sustainable south Louisiana explicitly add environmental justice as an additional rallying cry for federal help with the cause.

I also propose an aggressive campaign to expand the size of the coastal community ‘tent’ to include more of our cousins of color. At the upcoming CPRA meeting on January 27 I would predict that I’ll be able to count on one hand the number of non-Caucasians in attendance. That does not reflect the diversity of the coastal population at serious risk and it should not be acceptable.

January 17

Hal Leggett, outgoing secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and, based on his vehement opposition to the regulation of industrial CO2, a denier of anthropogenic climate change, has announced that he may run for an elected office in Louisiana, perhaps in the state legislature. So much for his interest in spending more time with his family!

January 16

On the other hand, they were victimized by corrupt politics, ignoring scientists’ warnings, deforestation and poverty – sound familiar?

The accompanying cartoon, copied from Slate.com, captures some of the exquisite irony of this unnecessary consequence of a natural occurrence. Please contribute if you haven’t already.

January 15

Back in the good ol’ days, before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita shook up the system, coastal restoration seemed much less complicated. A Science Advisory Board (SAB) of senior out of state academic experts had been established to provide recommendations to the state and the corps of engineers as hundreds of restoration projects were being vetted for inclusion in the newest Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) awaiting authorization in Congress.

The storms of ’05 resulted in the dramatic expansion of what had been the Louisiana coastal area restoration program (LCA) to coastal protection and restoration. The SAB continued to meet but its mission was never officially expanded beyond coastal restoration. Unfortunately, this means that the potential impacts on the coast of massive new flood protection projects (levees) are not being seriously discussed by this group.

This week the SAB has been meeting in New Orleans to hear the latest results of a year-long study of river diversion projects. The study has been investigating: (1) whether the Mississippi River, constrained as it has become, could realistically reverse land loss within the delta (our coast); and (2) how best to accomplish that challenge.

I attended the first two days of the meeting, coming away with a blend of excitement to at long last to see real river science at work and frustration that no one with policy authority for either the state or the corps was in attendance. Amy Wold wrote an article in the Advocate describing the SAB’s discussion of the embattled West Bay river diversion project, a test case for whether conflicting environmental and economic interests in river management can be reconciled.

January 14

I have worked in south Louisiana since 1973, so hearing a new idea on coastal restoration is as rare for me as sighting an Ivory billed woodpecker – or a native jaguar. This morning I read a story about such an idea – the suggestion that the jaguar be re-introduced into its former habitat in coastal Louisiana, where it could help control nutria that destroy marshes as fast as they can be restored in some areas.

Mark Schleifstein has a story on this subject in the Times-Picayune. He quotes officials from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which is presumably considering releasing some jaguars from Mexico into Arizona and New Mexico. Unfortunately our state’s history of rebuffing federal efforts to help us save our coast is all too well known in DC. The feds have already decided that this idea would not be politically viable in the Bayou State. They’re probably right. Southern University students – any interest?

January 13

Listen to this: Yesterday morning John Maginnis, noted writer and sage political commentator on all things Louisiana was interviewed on the Jim Engster Show (WRKF-FM 89.3). I called in to ask him to comment on the irony of our coastal vulnerability to climate change and Gov. Jindal’s campaign against the regulation of CO2 by EPA. John’s candid comment begins at 41:15 into the interview and it’s well worth a listen.

Jim Rives, now retired from heading the Coastal Management Division at the DNR, forwarded a link to this

January 12

The state coastal protection and restoration program has evolved and expanded since 2006 when the first Master Plan was approved. This expansion included the formation of a new technical Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration (OCPR) with staff co-located into a common space and headed by Steve Mathies. (See January 9 item on the new OCPR logo). Amy Wold interviewed Mathies for a story in the Advocate in which he described plans to streamline the bureaucracy so as to allow the state to spend money on coastal projects ten times faster than in the past. The most interesting part of the story from my perspective is the promise to recruit ‘world class’ scientists on a two year rotating basis to weigh in on project priorities. I was disappointed that no names were included as examples. I wish Steve the best of luck in his difficult mission. Maybe he will grant me an interview one of these days.

Editor’s note: the first miniposts for January 2010 can be found here.