Friday, March 6, 2009

Sense of urgency grips Louisiana coastal restoration summit

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Participants in a two-day summit on using river diversions to rebuild Louisiana's coastal wetlands repeatedly challenged federal and state officials to stop talking and do something -- anything -- to begin the restoration process. The summit was prompted by repeated demands by a number of influential coastal scientists and state restoration officials that the Corps of Engineers speed up efforts to include very large diversions of water from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers in its plans for coastal restoration.

The meeting occurred against a backdrop of angst over long delays in the corps planning process for so-called "category 5" flood protection, a mix of coastal restoration and levee work needed to protect southeast Louisiana for the long term.

In the next few weeks, the corps is expected to finally release a draft of its Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Study, including recommendations to Congress. State officials have complained, however, that the report won't include a list of specific projects -- including river diversions -- that Congress can authorize immediately. Instead, the corps has said it will offer several sets of alternative plans for Congress and the state to consider -- which critics call a recipe for endless additional delays.

Jim Tripp, senior counsel to the Environmental Defense Fund and a member of the state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, also warned that delay in implementing diversion projects could have legal consequences. "The Corps of Engineers and the other federal agencies represented here today have a legal responsibility to do this," Tripp said. "There is a clear legal policy direction from the Congress of the United States. This is a congressional and legal mandate." And, he said, "there is a moral obligation we all have not to let this kind of travesty continue."…

The Atchafalaya River delta, US Army Corps of Engineers

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