New Orleans area mud-wrestles the Corps

[Louisiana1976]

There shouldn't be any question about what to do with the 60 million tons of sediment that the Army Corps of Engineers dredges from the lower Mississippi River every year, much less a conflict over it.

The sediment is a precious resource that must be used to rebuild the coastal wetlands that Louisiana is losing at a catastrophic rate. It could build 10 to 16 square miles of wetlands per year, according to Garret Graves, the governor's chief advisor on coastal matters.

But instead of agreeing to help with this urgent endeavor, the corps wants to quibble. The agency says it's required by law to dispose of the sediment in the most cost-effective way and hauling it to places where it's needed for coastal restoration work is too expensive. So the corps is continuing its wasteful ways, either resuspending the sediment in the river, which carries it out into the Gulf of Mexio, or dumping it in disposal sites in deep water.

The agency isn't only failing to help, it's contributing to erosion by storing material at Pass a Loutre, blocking the flow of sediment and freshwater into the eastern side of the river's birdfoot delta.

The corps' sins of omission and comission are intolerable. Louisiana is losing the equivalent of a football field in wetlands every 38 minutes and has less than a decade to reverse that destructive trend. We shouldn't have to fight the federal government to use available resources in that struggle instead of dumping them into the Gulf.

snip

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2009/11/new_orleans_area_mud-wrestles.html

[tularetom]

1. Once again the corpse of engineers is taking the short view

Ultimately, hauling the sediment to places where it's needed for coastal restoration IS the most cost effective way of disposing of it.

New Orleans should just tell the corpse to stay the fuck away and let somebody else work on their problems.