Freshwater diversion may turn tide on coastal erosion By Glynn Wilson NEW ORLEANS, May 5 — Standing under a white tent in a sea of mud, eating from a bowl of nutria gumbo, decorated U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agent Sue Hawes watched with a sense of pride as the flood gates opened on what is being billed as the largest coastal restoration project in history. "I feel great," she said. "This is the way it's supposed to be." The can-do federal agency she dedicated her life to 31 years ago is one of the main culprits in starving coastal Louisiana of the fresh water the ecosystem craves. In it's heyday when the Corps' primary mission involved insuring navigation of the nation's waterways and controlling floods — saving cities like New Orleans from the Mighty Mississippi and the devastation of hurricanes — dredging channels and building levy walls accomplished the task. The levies preserved an economic safety net in the short term but created an environmental calamity over time. On this day of redemption and renewal for the coast and the Corps, Ms. Hawes -- who holds the unusual title "manager of the environment" for the Louisiana Corps and a master's in botany from Brown University — joined a host of public officials in saying the tide is turning in a long-running battle to save the coast. Land in south Louisiana sinks and disappears in the brine and salt water at a rate that could threaten New Orleans in 50 years. The problem is blamed primarily on diversion of fresh water and sediment from the marsh to the Gulf of Mexico down the Mississippi River, which is caused by the levies holding the river at bay. Other past causes are canals built for oil and gas exploration and other residential and commercial development in flood prone areas. One of the big worries for the future is the coming plague of rising sea levels due to global warming. The problem of coastal erosion in Louisiana is so bad, a federal administrator from Dallas once told a Cajun Congressman back in the 1980s that his people in south Louisiana "ought to just move," since up to 50 miles of coast disappeared every day into the marsh. But that Congressman, Republican Billy Tauzin of Chackbay, told the man from the Environmental Protection Agency — and a crowd under a tent in a on a gray day in March — that his family had no intention of evacuating. "This is our home. We chose to settle here. They kicked us out of Novia Scotia, and some of us came here in slave ships at the founding of America," he said. "We are a family, and this family ain't leavin'. We're going to keep fighting to keep our home." That commitment in part resulted in a state appropriation of $24 million, a 25 percent match to a $120 million grant to build the Davis Pond diversion. During the dedication, Rep. Tauzin praised the Corps for being a "lightening rod for criticism" in the past. If not for the Corps, he said, "a hurricane would have already washed us away. We can't do without the levies. But we can do something about putting the fresh water back." The diversion of fresh water away from the marsh and down the river into the Gulf of Mexico for much of the 20th century caused the erosion of enough land to make up one and a half times the state of Road Island, he said. "We were losing 50 (square) miles a year at one point," he said. "That's down to about 30 miles today." The Davis Pond diversion first received authorization in 1965, although the funding didn't become available until the Louisiana Congressional delegation pushed it through with Clinton administration approval in 1996. At its maximum, it will allow the diversion of 10,650 cubic feet of water per second. The freshwater and the nutrients it carries will work their way south through the wetlands and help turn back the northerly encroachment of salt water. "Why did it take so long?" Rep. Tauzin asked. "We live too far away from Washington, D.C.," he said. If Louisiana were as populated as Florida, he suggested, the wetlands would rank up there with the Everglades on the federal priority list. Gov. Mike Foster, a Republican up for reelection in 2004, said the state agreed to cover 25 percent of the $120 million to show good faith in the battle to save the coast, even though it didn't have to match the federal grant. "I've watched the coast disappear, a lot we caused ourselves," Gov. Foster said. "Do we know how to fix it? No, but we're closer to the answer. "Like nature, we are diverting fresh water to keep the land from sinking. There is hope for our coast now," he said. "We will do what we have to do as a state government over the next few years." Sec. Jack Caldwell of the Louisiana Dept. of Natural Resources said the project will make a real difference in the battle to halt further erosion, and that the cost/benefit amounts to a 10 to 1 benefit for the state and nation in the "daunting challenge of the disappearing coast." "The tide is turning," he said. "Will it work? You bet it will." He said $120 million sounds like a lot of money, "but Davis Pond is a bargain." Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, Corps commander, called the diversion "a testament to American ingenuity." In a statement that sounded a almost like a public apology for past wrongs, he said, "Science judgment is changing as science knowledge increases." He introduced seven principals for the future new mission of the Corps, including environmental sustainability, taking responsibility for consequences such as reparations for lost oyster lease reefs, assessing cumulative impacts of Corps projects, and listening to public input with more respect than in the past. He predicted that "fresh water in this century will be more important than oil in the 20th century. The Blue Planet is 70 percent water, 3 percent fresh water." Col. Thomas Julich, New Orleans District Engineer, said the Corps' mission was changing to create a balance between its "historic mission of development" with the new mission of using engineering technology to protect the environment. He said the diversion could help create 603,000 acres of wetlands by 2050. Some in the environmental community wondered aloud if the event truly represented a turning point for the coast and the Corps. The Corps slogan used to be: "The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little bit longer." Mark Davis, an attorney and director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, faced a dilemma in recent years when trying to sell people in Washington on how important the Louisiana coast is to the nation. As a source for much of the nation's seafood and oil and gas, the benefits are well known. The problem is that state and local governments, and federal agencies like the Corps, have a reputation for not seeing a wetlands development permit they didn't like. This hypocrisy leads to less sympathy on Capital Hill for proposals such as the CARA bill, which calls for $14 billion to fund 15 years of coastal restoration and many conservation measures around the country, everything from urban parks and greenways to Louisiana wetlands restoration. The bill died in committee last year at the hands of conservative members of Congress from the West who oppose big government programs and champion property rights. Mr. Davis was heartened by the state's commitment for Davis Pond, but he's not sure it's such a new day for the Corps. "The Corps' mission is to undertake the nation's big engineering problems. This is what the Corps is expected to do," Mr. Davis said, whether you are talking about navigation, flood control, restoring the Florida Everglades or returning freshwater to the marshes of Louisiana. To Ms. Hawes, who received the Governor's Award for Conservationist of the Year from the Louisiana Wildlife Federation this year, if everyone in the Corps acts on the new principals, the Corps will be different, and the coast has a chance. "I'm not sure we can ever restore the whole coast, or get to a point of no net loss," Ms. Hawes said. "But I think we can come somewhere a lot nearer than we are now." Relevant Links: A version of this story first appeared in The Dallas Morning News, Sunday, May 5, 2002. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Davis Pond
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