LiveGreenNOW

By Emma Chapman

General Robert van Antwerp (photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, recently made some startling comments regarding the future of New Orleans. According to him, we cannot stop New Orleans from flooding: “Protect the city, no, reduce the risk, yes. We can develop better early warning systems, better evacuation plans, better levees to hold back most of the water but we cannot stop levees being overtopped and the city flooded.” When The Guardian reporter Paul Brown went on to ask him whether or not New Orleans should be abandoned, Antwerp did not directly answer.

We all know that it won’t be easy to fully protect this city. Louisiana is losing between 25 and 35 square miles of wetlands per year, and if this continues nearly 640,000 acres will be underwater by the year 2050. Much of this can be attributed to the oil and gas pipelines that cut through the freshwater wetlands and allow saltwater to penetrate, killing many of the plants that serve to protect the coastline. According to experts referenced by The Times-Picayune, “we have no more than 10 years at best to launch serious coastal restoration work, before the problem becomes too vast and too costly to solve.”

So, yes, this is a huge problem that will require a concerted effort on behalf of scientists, politicians, and engineers. But who is to say it’s impossible? A recent study completed by two University of Texas geologists presents computer models that show that up to 45% of the expected area to be depleted by 2110 could be made up by a diversion of the Mississippi River (photo courtesy of AGU/EOS). Levees in the New Orleans area have prevented the Mississippi River from depositing sediment into the delta area, contributing to the rapid erosion. However, by diverting the river and allowing it “to flow across the marshes and rebuild the sediment, the swamps would regrow and a buffer could be recreated.” It has been widespread knowledge for years that diverting the Mississippi would help to restore the Gulf Coast. However, this new study is the first to make testable predictions about the actual effects of such a project.

General Antwerp’s statements undermine the local, state, and federal efforts to protect the Gulf Coast, including the work being done by the Army Corps of Engineers. His job is to come up with ways to protect New Orleans and he should be encouraging the development of ideas rather than saying nothing will work. If the Netherlands can protect itself from a 10,000-year flood (one that has a 1 in 10,000 chance of occurring each year), so can New Orleans.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Wetlands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.