Ivan proves Louisiana coast on its last leg, researcher says
After many decades of destruction from the most fierce forces of nature, Louisiana's Candeleur Islands are on the verge of vanishing. This story may be printed for FREE in any print publication. The tagline must be printed along with the story.
(PRWEB) November 29, 2004 -- In 1998, Hurricane Georges left the Chandeleur
Islands in tatters when it roared past the island chain, but University of New
Orleans researcher Shea Penland said they had regenerated and were in better
shape than ever by this year.
“The islands had reconnected,” said Penland
of UNO’s Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Studies. “They were a
continuous chain. It was amazing to see how rebuilt the islands were since
Georges.”
And then Ivan blasted by about 100 miles east of the spits of
sand marking Louisiana’s eastern-most boundary.
“It was devastating,”
Penland said. “Islands were there one day and gone the next. It was that
dramatic.”
The chain was torn asunder again, with 35 to 40 percent of the
visible islands disappearing. Curlew and Gosier islands were lost.
“It
was a phenomenal storm,” Penland said. “If Ivan had come through (New Orleans),
there’s no doubt that I would not be living in my house right now.
“If
that eastern eye-wall would have come through Louisiana, we would have used body
counts to measure its intensity.”
But the northern islands survived
remarkably well, and this veteran of the wars to save Louisiana’s coast said
that fact has changed his entire outlook on how coastal restoration should be
approached.
“The plantings worked beautifully,” Penland said. “That
showed that building that marsh behind that island was a cheap, effective
alternative.”
That’s no big change in his philosophy: He’s always
believed the key to stemming coastal erosion is maintaining the series of
coastal barrier islands.
The real change is his belief that decades of
planning for projects are a waste of time.
“We can’t wait 10 years,” Penland
said. “It just reinforces the urgency of the large-scale restoration taking
place.
“We’ve got to move away from all these small, incremental
projects.”
In the weeks since Ivan’s winds and storm surge ripped at the
coast, Penland said he has looked at the restoration projects and experienced a
revelation.
“If you look at the work at Timbalier Island, this is what we
should be doing,” he said. “We need dredges moving sediments, building
land.
“Ivan has just told us, ‘I wouldn’t worry about 10 years from now.
Let’s worry about next year.’”
The priority should be on pumping
sediments into the boundaries of the barrier islands all along the Louisiana
coast.
“They’re kind of like a moving barricade,” Penland said. “Even
when they’re under water, they’re still providing the first line of
defense.”
But the effort to build land should go beyond that, he
said.
“We should start on the barrier islands, on the framework of the
coast, and build landward,” Penland said. “Build it in the barrier islands.
Build it in the marshes. Build it behind Houma.
“I would just buy me a
bunch of dredges and go to work making land. That’s the K-Mart
plan.”
Penland recognized the need for ongoing studies, but said he
wouldn’t even worry with ensuring that any rebuilt land is correctly engineered
to exacting elevations. Such work, which many coastal experts say is necessary
to ensure vegetation can grow to hold land together, takes a lot of planning and
slows down work, Penland said.
“I would stop worrying about if it’s plus
1 (foot in elevation) or plus 2. We just have to get the land out there,” he
said. “It’s going to be that land that protects us.”
Of course, Penland
also recognized that such work is very expensive and can’t be funded solely by
state coffers.
He also said the current federal commitments are laughable
when considering the importance of the Louisiana coast.
“Coastal
Louisiana has been such an important part of U.S. history,” Penland said. “I
think we’ve been screwed by cheap everything: cheap oil, cheap transportation,
cheap natural gas.”
So he proposes the state be aggressive in flexing its
muscles to prove the value of its coastal resources.
“I think we should
put an embargo on oil and natural gas. We should embargo shipments on the
river,” Penland said. “They’re screwing us, and people in Florida (and elsewhere
in the country) will be worried about saving the coast of Louisiana when the
cost of gas is $3 a gallon.”
In the meantime, Penland said he is very
worried about the viability of accomplishing much.
“My planning horizon
has been adjusted from decades to years,” he said. “In some ways, I think we’re
being pushed into a corner.
“We’re past Christmas trees and rocks on
shorelines. They’re not doing anything.”
That leaves only one option that
can make immediate impacts in favor of coastal restoration.
“What is the
only tool available to use that works? I think it’s land building,” Penland
said. “We have proven that we can do it in Terrebonne and Lafourche
Parish.
“Now we need to do that on a larger scale.”
But even if
dredges began working tomorrow, Penland said he has no illusions of a return of
the thousands and thousands of acres lost in the past several
decades.
“Do we think we can rebuild the coastline back to what it was in
the 1950s? No,” he said. “We can’t stop New Orleans being on the coast in 2090,
but I think we can make New Orleans a functioning city on the coast by 2090 if
we act now.”
However, any real benefit in coastal restoration calls for
immediate action.
“The single goal should be land building,” he said.
“Let’s get the foundation built first.”
In the meantime, however, Penland
said he worries about the communities in the areas most susceptible to
erosion.
“I think people are kidding themselves when they’re building new
subdivisions in Cocodrie,” he said. “Highway 57, Highway 55, Highway 56: These
things don’t have 10 years.”
By Andy Crawford: Louisiana Sportsman
Magazine
Louisiana Sportsman Magazine brings the outdoors indoors by
providing readers with the most up-to-the-minute hunting and fishing news found
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/11/prweb181689.htm