The US Coast Guard told reporter Amy Wold of The Advocate that offshore sheen hit Grand Isle's beaches on two separate days in June, and a section of the beach was closed for a day. The Advocate has followed up that report with an article about Louisiana's Oil spills, here.
NEW ORLEANS - Despite more than $22 million in repairs, a levee that broke with catastrophic effect during Hurricane Katrina is leaking again because of the mushy ground on which New Orleans was built, raising serious questions about the reliability of the city's flood defenses. Continue Here.
A federal court judge cleared the way Friday for the Army Corps of Engineers to face trial on claims that defects in its Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet destroyed wetlands and turned the navigation channel into a funnel for storm surge. Continue at Nola.com.
Reznet, the online newspaper for Native America, has been covering the impact of the hurricanes of 2005 on Louisiana indigenous coastal tribes via a year long project, "Katrina, Rita and the Houma". Journalism students Mary Hudetz, a Crow reporter from the University of Montana, and Martina Rose Lee, a Navajo photojournalist from Arizona State University, collaborated with veteran journalists Victor Merina, a former Los Angeles Times investigative reporter, and multimedia journalist Steven A. Chin to produce the special report. See the special report, here.
An anonymous commenter at the Reznet website posts the following:
John Verret, Bayou du Large, LA. (c) Matthew White
Louisiana coastal photographer Matthew White was in Terrebonne Parish last fall documenting endangered landscapes inhabited by the Houma Indians and other native coastal tribes with traditional guide, Captain John Verret. To see Matthew's photographs of Terrebonne Parish go here. (click the X upper right of slides if you prefer to view captioned photos.)
Ferries halted; spillway opening as river swells
With the Mississippi River cresting beyond the National Weather Service’s previous predictions and even higher than the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers anticipated, precautions are now in motion to prevent potentially catastrophic flooding along the river’s lower portions.From Thursday’s closure of ferry operations near St. Francisville to today’s rare opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway to the south near Norco, both public and private interests began preparations. Continue at The Advocate.
The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Warning for New Orleans
THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT NEW ORLEANS. * FROM LATE SATURDAY NIGHT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE...OR UNTIL THE WARNING IS CANCELLED. * AT 7:00 PM THURSDAY THE STAGE WAS 16.9 FEET. * MINOR FLOODING IS FORECAST. * THE FLOOD STAGE IS 17.0 FEET. * FORECAST...THE RIVER IS VERY NEAR FLOOD STAGE AND IS EXPECTED TO FLUCTUATE NEAR FLOOD STAGE THROUGHOUT THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS. * IMPACT...AT 17.0 FEET...THE RIVER WILL RISE ON THE LEVEE MAKING NAVIGATION AND DOCKING DIFFICULT. THE CITY IS PROTECTED TO A PROJECT HEIGHT OF 20 FEET. * THE BONNET CARRE SPILLWAY WILL LIKELY BE OPENED TOMORROW TO LIMIT THE FLOW PAST NEW ORLEANS AND PREVENT FURTHER RISES AT THE CARROLLTON GAUGE.
Plant a Tree on Arbor Day and Help Restore Wetland Forests at the Audubon Louisiana Nature Center
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the Audubon Louisiana Nature Center was named one of the top five urban nature centers in the United States. The Nature Center suffered considerable damage from Hurricane Katrina which devastated its interpretive center, exhibits and the 86 acres of bottomland hardwoods
and bald cypress-tupelo swamp. The swamps were inundated with muddy saltwater for nearly a month and an
estimated 75 percent of the forest was destroyed. The Nature Center has not reopened to the public since August 2005 and the resident and migrant wildlife that flourished in this area have
not returned in large
numbers.
Please volunteer on January 19th to help BRING NATURE BACK.
When: Louisiana Arbor Day - Saturday, January 19th from 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Where: Audubon Louisiana Nature Center, 5600 Read Boulevard, New Orleans East
Who: The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Audubon Nature Institute, Entergy Corporation and Restore America's Estuaries invites all interested volunteers to participate in a community based habitat restoration project at the Audubon Louisiana Nature Center in New Orleans East.
What: Volunteers will assist the Coalition and other partners to plant over 1,000 trees in five acres to begin restoration of this devastated forest.
REGISTER NOW Email Natalie Snider at nsnider@crcl.org or call (888) LACOAST Please respond by Friday, January 18, 2008
Associated Press - November 30, 2007 8:54 AM ET LONG
BEACH, Miss. (AP) - A hurricane expert says Louisiana's levee system
was partly to blame for the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina's storm
surge in Mississippi. Continue here.
Cocodrie -Terrebonne Parish, La. © Matthew White
WASHINGTON -- Louisiana's hopes for repairing and restoring its tattered coast took a major step forward Thursday as the Bush administration approved the state's plan to use $255 million in federal money for more than 100 conservation and diversion projects, including major efforts in the New Orleans area. More at the Times- Picayune, here.
Source BTNEP.org
On Wednesday, November 14, 2007 WWL TV, out of New Orleans, aired a segment titled "Solution to Louisiana's coastal erosion half a world away." The piece highlights simple principles that are used both in Louisiana and in the sea off of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to build new landmasses.
Darin Lee, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources; Patricia Taylor, Environmental Protection Agency; Shea Penland, UNO; Ivor van Heerden, LSU Hurricane Center; and BTNEP Director Kerry St. Pe' discuss effective coastal restoration tools, strategies and techniques that could be used to distribute the sediments that we so sorely need to rebuild our coast immediately. The 7 minute segment by Dennis Woltering of WWL-TV can be seen at: http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl111407kherosion.3e6b5d8.html
Reported by Associated Press
About 1,300 acres of Cameron Parish marsh damaged by Hurricane Rita is set for restoration under a 1 million dollar federal conservation grant. Continue here.
STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. – The Gulf of Mexico Program recently announced that the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Baton Rouge, Louisiana will receive a first place Gulf Guardian Award for 2007 in the Government Category, for their “Integrated Ecosystem Restoration and Hurricane Protection: LA Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast”. The awards will be presented during the 2007 Clean Gulf Conference on November 14, 2007 at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Bayside Ballroom in Tampa, Florida beginning at 6 p.m.
For the first time in Louisiana history, the state has a
comprehensive master plan that integrates coastal restoration and
hurricane protection for sustaining Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. To develop
this plan, the state first created the Coastal Protection &
Restoration Authority (CPRA) in December 2005 with authority to
articulate a clear statement of priorities and focus development and
implementation efforts. In a remarkable 18-month public process, lead
by the expertise of the Department of Natural Resources, the Department
of Transportation and Development and other state agencies, Louisiana
now speaks with one clear voice for the future of Louisiana’s coast.
The Gulf of Mexico Program initiated the Gulf Guardian awards in
2000 as a way to recognize and honor the businesses, community groups,
individuals, and agencies that are taking positive steps to keep the
Gulf healthy, beautiful and productive. A first, second, and third
place award are given each year in seven categories – individual,
business, youth and education, nonprofit organizations, government,
partnership and bi-national efforts.
"Gulf Guardian awards showcase accomplishments from a broad
spectrum of environmental leaders -- from committed individuals to
dynamic corporations" EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene
said. "I applaud their success in preserving the vital resources of the
Gulf Coast, one of our most valuable national treasures"
The Gulf of Mexico Program began in 1988 to protect, restore,
and maintain the health and productivity of the Gulf of Mexico
ecosystem in economically sustainable ways. The Gulf of Mexico Program
is underwritten by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is a
non-regulatory, inclusive consortium of state and federal government
agencies and representatives of the business and agricultural
community, fishing industry, scientists, environmentalists, and
community leaders from all five Gulf States. The Gulf Program seeks to
improve the environmental health of the Gulf in concert with economic
development.
Bryon Griffith, Director of the Gulf of Mexico Program said “This is the 8th year of the Gulf Guardian Awards Program and I am proud to say that each year the winners in all categories have represented the very best of environmental accomplishments in the Gulf of Mexico. The 2007 award winners truly exemplify the bond that enthusiastic and committed citizens, communities, governments, and businesses share in addressing complex problems to improve, protect, and sustain our regional and national treasure, the Gulf of Mexico.”
House overwhelmingly overrides President’s veto of WRDA
By an overwhelming vote of 361–54, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to override the President’s veto of the Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA), legislation that authorizes billions of dollars for Louisiana flood control, hurricane protection, coastal restoration, waterway improvements, and ecosystem rehabilitation projects. On the local level, WRDA provides an authorization of $187 million for flood control projects in East Baton Rouge Parish.
U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge, who serves as the ranking Republican member of the Water Resources subcommittee and served as a lead House negotiator on the House-Senate conference committee that authored WRDA, issued the following statement:
“This is a battle I have waged for 7 years, and on behalf of the citizens of Louisiana I am gratified to have finally won. Louisiana has faced incredible challenges since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and today we are making the investments in coastal restoration and hurricane protection that our state so urgently needs. I commend my colleagues in the House for overriding this veto and urge the Senate to schedule a veto override vote very quickly.”
On the authorization of $187 million for flood control projects in East Baton Rouge Between raising the authorization level and changing the cost-share formula, we’re talking about a substantial increased federal investment and savings to the parish of $40 million for projects that mean greater safety for people and property.”
The bill also includes language authored by Baker to allow the Corps, for the first time, to participate with other agencies to assess and seek solutions for the “hypoxia” problem or the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico impacting Louisiana fishing, which recent reports indicate is growing worse. The provision would bring the Corps’ unique expertise in wetlands, specifically nutrient filters that mitigate against hypoxia, and waterways that deliver the nutrients, to bear on a unified plan to deal with hypoxia.
Louisiana and Sixth District area projects in the WRDA bill include:
St. Francisville Drainage: Authorizes the Corps to initiate improvements for flood-prone areas of the town.
False River: Expedites Corps work to address the siltation problem harming this vital Pointe Coupee Parish lake.
Intracoastal Waterway Stream Bank Restoration: Directs the Corps to address severe erosion problems Gulf Intracoastal Waterway near the Bayou Sorrel Lock in Louisiana Coastal Area:Authorizes $1.9 billion for Louisiana’s coast, which represents the largest coastal restoration project in American history.
Morganza to Gulf: Authorizes the $886.7 million project for the area between the Atchafalaya and Mssissippi Rivers from the Morganza Floodway in Pointe Coupee Parish to the Gulf Coast and including the watershed area that makes up most of Acadiana. This project authorizes the Corps to conduct extensive flood and hurricane protection; wetlands, natural resource, wildlife habitat, and ecosystem conservation; and will facilitate recreational, commercial, and outdoor activities.
East Baton Rouge: Expands a 1998 authorization for the Corps’ riverfront work in West Baton Rouge Parish now to include East Baton Rouge Parish and West Feliciana Parish.
University/City Park Lakes: Authorizes the Corps to expedite this dredging and ecosystem restoration project.:
East Baton Rouge Parish Flood Control: Authorizes a new, higher level of $187 million for this important flood control project. The bill language also changes the federal cost share from 65/35 to 75/25. The higher authorization, combined with the cost-share change, will provide a $40 million increase in federal investment and savings to the parish.
Bayou Sorrel Lock: Authorizes the Corps to reconstruct the $100 million lock in Iberville Parish, a critical choke point for the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
Bayou Plaquemine: Saves the city of Plaquemine $400,000 toward a $2 million project that provides environmental enhancement of Bayou Plaquemine by increasing the level of dissolved oxygen and lowering the temperature of bayou waters, which are currently experiencing habitat degradation.
Watershed Management programs: Provides technical, planning, and design assistance to non-federal interests for carrying out watershed management, restoration, and development projects at the Amite River Basin and East Atchafalaya River.
Flood mitigation priority areas: Provides technical, planning, and design assistance to non-federal interests for carrying out flood mitigation, restoration, and development projects in Ascension, EBR, Iberville, Livingston, and Pointe Coupee parishes. The Corps is authorized to conduct projects that reduce flooding while trying to restore rivers to their natural condition.
EBR, Livingston and Ascension parish wastewater: Increases authorized funding level from $20 million to $35 million.
Plaquemine sanitary, sewer and wastewater infrastructure improvements: Authorizes funding level of $7 million.
Hypoxia: Authorizes the Corps to begin working with federal, state, and other agencies to address the hypoxia situation in the Gullf of Mexico.
For more news about Congressman Baker, please visit www.baker.house.gov
President Bush has lost an override vote for the first time in his presidency. The $23 billion water resources bill authorizes funding for hundreds of projects in congressional districts across the country...The bill, which the President says is too costly, would authorize up to $7 billion in federal spending for 16 coastal restoration and flood control projects in Louisiana. Continue
oh my gawdddd... An Op Ed by Robert M. Thornson writing for the Hartford Courant is stirring up some passion in the blogosphere. Thornson calling displaced New Orleanians "climate refugees" writes: "My plan has only one point. That we not spend another dime on U.S. properties below sea level - and use that money instead to help sea-level refugees find safer homes elsewhere". ouch. And just who he referring to as sea level refugees? - that label applies to almost every citizen in the New Orleans area. New Orleans blogger Ashley Morris responds to Thornson in his Letter to the Hartford Courant as does Alan Guiterrez (Think New Orleans) in his post Climate Refugees as does geologist Maitri Venkat-Ramani. Read them and weep.
By: United States Army Corps of Engineers
Published: Jul 11, 2007 at 08:36
The United States Army Corps of Engineers today released the draft
Hurricane Protection Decision Chronology (HPDC) for the Lake
Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project (LP&VHPP)
in the Greater New Orleans area. The report is being released for a
30-day public comment period during which time the report's authors are
soliciting any additional relevant documentation that was not available
to them while compiling the draft.
The HPDC is an exhaustive examination of the complex 50-year record of
LP&VHPP decision-making and project implementation involving the
Corps, local sponsors, government at all levels, and the courts.
The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, John Paul Woodley,
Jr., and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Director of Civil Works,
Major General Don Riley, commissioned the HPDC shortly after Hurricane
Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States on August 29, 2005.
Woodley said, "The Hurricane Protection Decision Chronology, while
important because of what it tells us about the past, will be of even
greater value as a national resource for planners and decision-makers
to make better future decisions about the nation's critical public
works infrastructure.
"This is an opportunity to learn from the past to inform the future."
The report was to provide an explanation, as opposed to an evaluation,
of how Corps policies and organization, legislation, and financial and
other factors influenced the decisions that led to the LP&VHPP that
was in place when Katrina struck.
The HPDC is a separate, but complementary, report to the Corps-
commissioned Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force study that
analyzed the performance of the LP&VHPP during hurricanes Katrina
and Rita. The HPDC seeks to answer the "why" and "how" of the hurricane
protection system that was in place when Hurricane Katrina made
landfall by documenting the record of decisions, planning and design
that led to that system. The IPET report is a "what happened" record of
the system's performance during the hurricanes.
Donald Powell, Chairman of the Gulf Coast Rebuilding Office, said, "I
commend the Army Corps of Engineers on commissioning this independent
study. Such a thorough analysis is an important step toward greater
transparency and accountability in the decision-making and budgeting
process.
"This report speaks to the commitment of the Corps and its leadership
to communicating risk and providing quality engineering services to the
nation."
The Corps Institute for Water Resources commissioned an independent
study team of Drs. Douglas Woolley and Leonard Shabman, water resources
planning and policy experts, to conduct the HPDC inquiry and prepare
the report. The draft HPDC is based on all known available records
related to the LP&VHPP in the custody of the Corps and of limited
records volunteered by the state and local governments.
The HPDC was reviewed by the Corps to help identify missing documents
and errors of logic, and externally reviewed by the National
Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies.
Maj. Gen. Don T. Riley, Director of Civil Works for the Corps, said,
"Both the chronology and the IPET studies have contributed in
meaningful ways to the ongoing hurricane damage reduction work we are
doing around New Orleans and to the Corps' new initiatives.
"The Chronology in particular serves to emphasize the importance of
using systems approaches in our public works infrastructure; adaptive
management over the life of projects; and the critical importance of
understanding risk management and effectively communicating that risk
to the public and decision makers," said Riley.
The Hurricane Protection Decision Chronology is available on the
internet at
http://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/inside/products/pub/hpdc/hpdc.cfm. The
public comment period to submit relevant additional documentation runs
though August 10, 2007.
MIAMI, Jul 12 (IPS/IFEJ) - Despite mounting
data that storms coming out of the Gulf of Mexico could bring
catastrophic flooding to the U.S. Gulf Coast, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE) failed to implement a proposed barrier plan in New
Orleans that would have used floodgates to keep storm surge out of Lake
Pontchartrain and the canals leading into the city. A
self-assessment released Wednesday by the USACE said that a long-term
budget crunch, flawed levee design and shoddy construction materials
all contributed to the disaster.
"There were 53 breaches (of levees) in greater New Orleans due
to Katrina," Sandy Rosenthal, executive director of Levees.org, a
citizens oversight group, told IPS.
"At the base of our discontent is the work of the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. There's been plenty of mea culpas from them, but
there's been no change in the day-to-day operations of the Corps here,"
she said. Continue Here.
Nola.com has a really good article on the battle to save Louisiana's barrier islands here - another topic near and dear to the heart because of my love for these unique landscapes.
Inasmuch as I'm internally motivated "to inspire others" unfortunately it isn't very often that I find myself inspired. I have high standards around inspiration I suppose. :) So when I get a "hit" that ignites "something" in me it really makes my day. Having said this, I just read some very provocative thought leadership at a photography focused blog called The Exposure Project ---The Effect of Disaster Photographed. And it did make my day because it addresses a subject that is near and dear to my own heart.
The topic at hand is focused on the "thousands of hours of news footage" and "innumerable still photographs depicting the devastation of both the landscape, and the livelihoods of the people affected" by Hurricane Katrina. The concern raised there is this one: "In a media-saturated world, the bombardment of imagery can have both a positive and negative influence on how we view the world. In one respect, media has allowed information and imagery to be widely accessible to millions of people who might not otherwise be able to obtain it. On the other hand, the over-saturation of this imagery can act as a numbing agent to people's sensitivity to important world events".
One day shortly after the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I was attempting to post a slew of Biloxi/Gulfport, Mississippi devastation photos that someone had given me. Suddenly in the middle of the posting I got sick to my stomach. I realized I was just numbed out on devastation photos, indeed numbed out on devastation period. I was desensitized, I couldn't feel anymore...not compassion, not concern, not any sense that this was the reality even though I had seen that reality over and over again with my own eyes. What I was experiencing was akin to some sort of shell shock.
Interestingly though, when you bring a condition into your awareness that needs to be healed or transformed, it is often true that the antidote is soon forthcoming. In this case it was an introductory inquiry from photographer Matthew White. He spoke the right words. He told me his photographs were not about incongruity. And he outlined the reasons for that. And that changed the whole focus of the blog for me from then on. My decision was to continue to report the realities of Katrina and Rita recovery while balancing it out with beauty and positivity...to depict the natural and unique culture and landscapes of Louisiana (and the gulf coast) and why it needs to be preserved and rebuilt.
And instead of forcing this message on people in an in-your-face sort of way, I decided to let the pictures tell the story...as in every picture is worth a thousand words. Given that form follows function, shortly after I made that decision other contributors (in addition to White) came forward who had the same idea, for example Yoshio Toyama and Maida Owens.
Now there is a lot more I can say on this topic. The Effect of Disaster Photographed addresses the issue of over saturation through the constant bombardment of disaster images as well as its desensitizing affect on people. There are other important themes to consider though. Matthew White has taken on some of these themes in posts such as Polidori Plunders New Orleans. This one addresses the issue of survivor intrusion (and indeed the exploitation of the disaster's victims).
During an early tour of devastated New Orleans I was advised not to take photos of people's destroyed homes if they were present or nearby. It upsets some survivors and they will sometimes lash out at you. People don't want to be the spectator sport in what amounts to a horrific but very real freak show called Katrina's aftermath. Now remember I "are one too", (a survivor that is) although not to the same extent as those whose entire homes (and indeed communities) were destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
At any rate, I still have a lot to say on this topic. Since this is getting long winded for a blog post, though, I am more than likely to take up this theme in future posts.
Margaret Saizan
