Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
Twenty years ago, Louisiana began two campaigns essential to hopes for the long-term habitability of the coastal zone, its most populous and economically important region. One was to prevent the state’s bottom third from sinking below the Gulf of Mexico. The other was to provide reliable hurricane risk reduction for the millions of residents and billions in industry located there. Those two efforts produced steady success based on two guiding principles: science and sustainability. Today, those efforts are being pushed to the edge of failure by two other guiding principles from Gov. Jeff Landry: politics and hubris. Here’s why. In 2007, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority introduced the 50-year, $50 billion Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast. That meant no quick fixes; only projects that would bring permanent benefits. From the beginning, river sediment diversions were the key to that sustainability. While dredge-and-fill operations could provide quick solutions to small areas, they would have to be repeated about every 20 years due to unstoppable subsidence. With tens of thousands of acres needing treatment, that was economically unsustainable. The eight diversions in the original plan were the very definition of sustainability. They could deliver mud into the sinking marshes as long as the river flowed, as well as extending the life of dredge-and-fill projects. Over the years, there were changes. More than $360 million would be added to help commercial fishermen move their operations as freshwater relocated their target species. And the estimated price for the first diversion of $600 million would soar to $3.1 million. Yet the scientists and engineers at CPRA said diversions were worth the extra costs. They remain the best chance for long-term sustainability over the largest areas protecting the greatest populations. But an even bigger, more challenging change had arrived: Impacts from climate change caused by emissions from fossil fuels. Sea levels are soaring at their fastest rate in 4,000 years. Recent scientific research indicates the combination of subsidence and surging Gulf could put 87% of our coastal wetlands under water by 2050. Indeed, the latest iterations of the master plan indicate another 3,800 square miles of the coastal zone could be lost by 2067. All those scientific facts mean that unless the world begins reducing the use of oil and gas, Louisiana’s coastal zone could be very close to Gonzales for the next generations of Louisianians. But Landry thinks he knows better than all those scientists. He’s an oil man turned politician and a noted science skeptic. He spent years calling climate science a hoax and claims Louisiana’s future is in more oil and gas production — even though the sector now makes up about 4.5% of the state’s income and ranks 15th in total employment. Calling diversions a threat to Louisiana culture due to impacts on oyster fishers, he killed the first two diversions. What about the science showing without diversions, many areas would become too salty for oysters? He knows better. What are the plans for the future of the master plan, and what will they be based on? He didn’t announce any. Trust him. He knows better than the CPRA. Meanwhile, his civilian consigliere for all things New Orleans, wealthy businessman Shane Guidry, was given a green light to remake the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. It was created by law to end the corruption and malpractice of politically appointed levee boards that oversaw the levee system that failed during Hurricane Katrina. The change resulted in one of the best levee systems anywhere. Guidry’s reason for the shake-up? “Just because you ran it one way for 30 years doesn’t mean it needs to run that way tomorrow,” he said. Creative destruction might be an OK gamble with your own company, but not with protection for the lives of more than a million people. But this is what happens when politics and hubris are the guiding principles for a government. Bob Marshall, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Louisiana environmental journalist, can be reached at bmarshallenviro@gmail.com, and followed on Twitter @BMarshallEnviro.
