->BACK
There are times in our lives and the life of our nation when we
are transformed. There are times when the ways we think, act and
set our priorities are challenged to change to deal with real
crisis or opportunity. And there are times when what we do—or
fail to do—will determine how we will be remembered and judged
by history. In short, there are times when things are just different
from what went before. This is one of those times.
As we watch the images of shattered homes and communities of coastal
Louisiana and hear the stories of displacement and loss left in
the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita it is impossible to not
be moved. And the response has been overwhelming. The generosity
and compassion of the American people has given comfort, aid and
hope. But truth be told, this is not a problem that can be solved
just by sheltering the displaced, clearing the rubble and restoring
power and water. It will take more than open hearts and open wallets
to revitalize this most distinctive of American treasures. This
is not just hurricane relief. This is about confronting the factors
and policies that turned storms into catastrophes. It will take
vision and leadership.
Make no mistake, these were bad storms but we shouldn’t let
that obscure the simple fact that their impacts were made far
worse by decisions and actions made over a succession of generations
that resulted in a Louisiana and a New Orleans that were far more
vulnerable than they had to be. Nothing makes this point clearer
than the failure of the flood walls in New Orleans and the stunning
loss of over 1.5 million acres of coastal wetlands and barrier
shorelines largely due to the manner in which we as a nation decided
to manage our rivers, transport our products, and produce and
transport oil and gas. Sure there several efforts underway to
assign blame for these things, and that will have to play out,
but those efforts so far have missed the fundamental point. We
need to understand why we were so vulnerable not just so we can
hold someone responsible but so we can take responsibility for
what needs to be done to secure a safer, more vital and sustainable
future.
Because this time it’s different. In the past when we talked
about the need to restore the Mississippi River delta and coastal
plain it was dismissed as too speculative, too costly, too environmental,
too parochial, too much of this or too little of that. When we
talked about the fact that a collapsing coast was endangering
communities like New Orleans the reaction was generally one of
disbelief. Coming to terms with this crisis was just never the
priority. Well now it has to be.
As this nation contemplates what to do next every interest group
in America seems to be lining up to ride the Katrina/Rita recovery
train. Just how broad that recovery package should be is anybody’s
guess but where it should begin is clear. It has to start with
a commitment to restore the wetlands, estuaries and barrier shorelines
of the Mississippi River delta and coastal plain and a commitment
to provide real storm protection to the population centers of
the region. Protection that can only come from the integration
of levees, coastal conservation and restoration, and effective
land use planning and building codes.
If we don’t get those things right we are kidding ourselves
about the rest. No amount of subsidy for redevelopment will inspire
confidence in the recovery of New Orleans if we do not provide
assurances that the coast will not continue to disappear at the
rate of nearly 25 square miles each year and that the levees and
pumps at the heart of our hurricane defenses will not fail again.
Various ideas are starting to surface and predictably the reactions
tend to focus on just how much, or how little, is being offered
and on which private interests would benefit. All of this skepticism
has its place but too often it seems to mask a fundamental discomfort
with doing anything at all. Indeed, all of the talk of dollars
and turf betrays a disturbing lack of vision or purpose as to
what needs to be done and what value America wants to get for
its investment. If the recovery of coastal Louisiana is driven
just by a project list or a budget figure we will lose this opportunity
and sow the seeds of future disaster. An expenditure without a
purpose is a gamble, not an investment and we ought not to gamble
on the future of the communities of south Louisiana or on the
future of the greatest wetland and estuarine treasure in our country.
We have to get it right this time.
But getting it right is not just about science and engineering.
There is an abundance of high quality science and engineering
expertise to inform the coast restoration effort but that expertise
will never take the place of leadership and vision. If we are
not clear about how safe we want to be and how many functions
and values we want to be served by our natural landscape (think
fish and wildlife habitat, local tax base, storm buffers for pipelines
and navigation, water purification etc…) then we can’t
expect scientists and engineers to come up with plans that work.
So above all else the recovery plans for Louisiana must
be guided by a vision of communities that are protected from the
surge associated with a major storm, a vision of a coast in which
land elevations are maintained or increased and where the natural
functions and estuarine rhythms of the region are restored and
maintained to the greatest degree practicable. This
vision must govern not only flood protection and coastal restoration
work but inform all other activities in the region including navigation,
oil and gas activity, agriculture and development. This is not
because those other things are not important. They are. But
it should now be clear to everyone that if we don’t stem
the collapse of this coast and don’t make the developed areas
more secure the future for the rest of those activities is bleak
as well. This is not just about competing philosophies;
it is about very stark realities that need to give rise to a very
clear sense of purpose and priority.
That is not how things got done in the past and we are all living
with the terrible consequences. This time it’s different.
It has to be.
The Challenge.
Prior to Katrina, the prospects for advancing the coastal restoration
agenda, hurricane protection and other water resource projects
were confined to the Water Resource Development Act. The restoration
package had been scaled back to a $1.9 billion near term effort
that focused almost exclusively on the eastern side of the state,
leaving much of the coast—recently ravaged by Rita—until
later for consideration. The WRDA bill was largely a list of projects
from Louisiana and across the nation. In short, every project
was in competition with every other project with no real regard
for any overarching national policy or public works agenda.
The two storms have starkly exposed the lack of any meaningful
national water resources agenda. We are now paying the price for
it. It has also made clear the need to move immediately to address
critical coastal restoration and hurricane protection measures
apart from the WRDA process, a process that has failed to authorize
anything in five years and that guarantees not one penny in funding.
It is vital that this nation now identify and prioritize its true
water resource needs and that Louisiana’s hurricane protection
and coastal restoration and conservation needs be the cornerstones
of that agenda. It is also vital that Louisiana identify and prioritize
its true water resources needs around the same principles. To
do less will only sow the seeds of future tragedy and undermine
the confidence of our citizens, businesses and friends across
the nation to believe and invest in the future of our state. That
is not acceptable.
This will not be easy. Making hard decisions about priorities
and convincing a sceptical public and Congress to invest in our
state and to expand the role of the Corps of Engineers and other
agencies will not be simple. Legitimate concerns often mask cynicism
or a more fundamental lack of concern about our plight. We must
be focused on addressing the former and exposing the latter for
what it is. And we must act in every instance to build trust and
confidence that we are in fact building a Louisiana that is ecologically
and physically secure and sustainable.
The Opportunity
We have a unique opportunity to forge a path to a more secure
and sustainable Louisiana, but this opportunity will be short
lived. We must identify those actions and projects that are both
vital to the region’s cultural and ecological integrity and
by extension to its economic vitality. The immediate emphasis
must be on those actions because without secure communities and
a sustainable environment there is no prospect for a robust economy.
To make the most of this opportunity we urge the focus of action
at the federal be one the following points:
1)
Frame a Vision.
We don’t think that typical legislative authorizing language
will capture the importance of moving with great purpose and urgency
or provide the guidance to whatever agency or commission is ultimately
charged with implementing the pieces of the restoration/revitalization/
coastal protection program. There needs to be a clear expression
of Congressional intent that this is important and urgent business.
Suggested language could include the following:
The catastrophic losses caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
combined with our knowledge of the ongoing collapse of the landmass
of coastal Louisiana make clear the relationships between hurricane
protection and the conservation and restoration of the wetlands
and barrier shorelines of coastal Louisiana. It is further clear
that both the level and quality of hurricane protection structures
and the extent and vitality of Louisiana’s coastal environment
must be enhanced if population centers, valuable fish and wildlife
habitat, and vital energy and transportation infrastructure are
to be safeguarded. It is in the public interest of the people
of the United States that the population centers of the region
have effective protection from hurricane storm surges up to those
associated with a category 5 storm to the extent practicable and
that the wetlands, barrier shorelines and estuaries of the region
be managed to enhance their natural estuarine and coastal functions
and to work in a complimentary fashion with structural flood protections
to reduce the risk of catastrophic flooding from hurricane surges.
2)
Commit to the LCA. The Coast 2050 plan mapped out a program that cost
$14 billion dollars to implement over time. This program is more
essential than ever and the price tag now seems incredibly inexpensive
compared to the costs of doing too little or waiting too long.
A major focus should be to encourage land elevation, and maintain
and enhance these wetlands and marshes. In the past there has
been an emphasis on salinity regimes and wetland acreage without
much regard to the implications for the overall elevation our
coast. (For example, wetlands in impounded areas may actually
lose elevation if they are under pump and, while they may have
many values, do not serve the same storm buffer role as do marsh/swamp
areas that are above sea level. This is particularly true in the
delta. We believe that the main thrust of coastal restoration
in the delta should be on maintaining and increasing marsh elevations.
This will require a greater emphasis on sediment management and
the use of riverine inputs to facilitate the maintenance and creation
of organic soils. This is what the LCA, at least the near term
piece is really all about. We need to be clear about that so there
will be a context for understanding why the LCA, particularly
as it was originally conceived in the October 2003 draft, is worthy
of authorization and funding. The approach to authorizing the
LCA should not be confined to the traditional processes that have
held sway in the past. The WRDA process has proven itself to be
too unreliable, too political, and too limited in its scope to
do what must be done. Alternatives must be considered that allow
urgently needed authorizations to be obtained without sacrificing
fundamental accountability measures. One option that should be
expressly considered is a more robust use of the CWPPRA authority,
which as originally conceived could serve as the authorizing vehicle
for much if not all of the LCA plan.
3)
Apply OCS Funds to Restoring the
Coast and Protecting Communities.
a.
Make it clear that OCS funds allocated
under the Energy Bill can be used as local cost share on State/Federal
projects. There is still uncertainty about whether the funds recently
provided by the Energy Bill can actually be used to cost share
projects with the Federal Government. We should remove this uncertainty
by affirming the Administration view that the funds be usable
to leverage other federal dollars on qualified projects.
b.
Provide planning assistance funds. Local
governments face a Catch-22 dilemma when it comes to participating
in efforts to plan for the recovery of their communities and the
future of the coast. On the one hand, broader assistance is held
in abeyance until the locals can demonstrate their plans for using
new funds while on the other hand there is a scarcity of planning
funding and personnel in some communities to prepare plans that
truly meet the challenges of today. For example, before local
governments can receive a share of the Outer Continental Shelf
(OCS) funds provided by the 2005 Energy Bill they must prepare
and submit a plan to the state and the Department of Interior.
Presently, the ability of some of our coastal parishes to prepare
such plans may be compromised. Planning assistance funds could
be provided via the Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary Program
and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation to ensure that adequate
plans are in fact prepared for those parishes.
4)
Commit to “Category 5”
protection for our major population centers.
If one thing is certain, it is clear that we cannot evacuate all
sectors of our communities and that our current reliance of structures
designed a generation ago have failed us. We support a renewed
commitment to strong systems of levee’s and other structures
that together with a robust coastal conservation and restoration
effort gives real and lasting protection to the people of south
Louisiana. For population centers such as New Orleans this protection
should be scaled to afford protection from the storm surge of
a category 5 storm. In the context of immediate action we believe
enhancement of the metro New Orleans system and the Morganza to
the Gulf project should be authorized, funded, and expedited.
5)
Plan for the future we expect, not
the past and use the best available science and engineering. While planning for the future of our coast and
its communities must be rooted in a vision as stated above, those
plans and projects need to be developed using the best science
and engineering practices to achieve the envisioned outcome. Simply
put, good science and engineering will not substitute for a vision,
but a vision without good science and engineering to steer its
implantation is little more than a dream. Additionally our plans
must now also be rooted in likelihood that we will continue to
experience rising seas and, at least for the foreseeable, more
frequent and intense storms. Such factors should not only influence
the design of levees and structures but the development of land
use plans, building codes, and emergency response plans.
6)
Commit to good planning and conservation. One lesson is already clear: Many of the storms
impacts could have been lessened had better conservation and planning
been used to guide development over the past 50 years. The areas
most prone to flooding were more at risk in part as a result of
development practices and engineering decisions that frequently
predated many of the laws and programs that have helped reduce
wetland loss and set the stage for coastal restoration. We believe
is vital to maintain those programs in this time of crisis and
planning for the future. While those programs may need to be applied
with special sensitivity it is critical to note that we did not
get into this situation by being too focused on conservation or
too inclusive in our decision making.
The Choice
Just as our current calamity was
largely the result, albeit an unintended one, of the choices we
have made as a nation, a state and a people over the span of generations,
so will the our future be a function of the choices we need to
begin making today. Too much attention has been focused on those
voices that have seemed to call for the abandonment of our coast
and its communities. The issue is not whether we must accept the
decline and abandonment of our coast, but whether we want some
other result. We have to recognize that if we stay the course
we were on before these storms—and that we are still on—that
by default it is our plan to perish as a region, as a culture,
and as a community. The affirmative rejection of the policies,
projects, and practices that make up our status quo is essential
and urgent.
We are in difficult but not impossible times. The wisdom, courage,
and resolve we display now will determine how bright our future
is and how history judges us. This game is not over but time is
not our friend. The choice is ours. The responsibility is ours.
The choice is clear.