Where did the marsh go?

Following the BP spill of 2010, Louisiana has fought mightily with the federal government and BP for marsh restoration funding. At first glance, it might appear that the BP spill by itself had done irreparable damage to the coastal ecosystems in Louisiana, and the damage to plant and animal life in the area of the spill is well documented. But as pointed out in a Time Magazine article, the damage done to the marsh from the BP spill is just a “sunburn on a cancer patient” relative to what both Louisiana and the federal government have been doing to the marsh for decades.

There are two major categories of marsh damage, natural and man caused.

Left to itself, marshlands will naturally subside. More on this later as we describe as how man has greatly accelerated this natural process.

Second, Louisiana has had more than its fair share of hurricanes over the past decade, which rearranges the marsh structure and pushes salt water VERY far inland. Salt water kills freshwater plants, and the marsh dies back further.

Third, and bridging the categories of natural and man caused damage, the introduction of the fur-bearing Nutria to Louisiana in the 1930s has caused significant damage to marshland, such that the state has a formal Nutria Control Program and a $4 bounty on the head of each Nutria. This is beyond what you can get for the fur and the meat, assuming you are not looking for a new recipe.

Leading the parade of man caused damage to the marsh, decades of dredging has been done throughout the marsh in order to provide access for boats, pipelines, and shallow water oil platforms. If you want to hang one on the oil companies, here it is. Dredging opens up canals that were never meant to be there, salt water and freshwater go to where they were never meant to go, and once again, the marsh dies back. 

Canals in the marsh

But possibly most egregious is the mission of the Army Corps of Engineers.  The corps has a dual mission in Louisiana, flood control and maintaining navigable waterways, meaning the Mississippi river.  Oh yeah, and environmental stewardship.  

What this translates to in reality is the corps spends untold sums of federal dollars damming up the Mississippi throughout Louisiana, to protect cities like New Orleans (below sea level and surrounded by water) and Venice (at the furthest south tip of the delta) to name only a few.  In doing so, they are fighting nature and the natural process of repairing the marsh.  Without the natural flooding of sediment over the banks of the Mississippi, the marsh can’t help but die, and the nutrient-rich silt that would normally replenish the marsh is directed off the delta and into the Gulf of Mexico, where algae blooms and fish kills are the inevitable result.  

And now the punch line. You, the taxpayer, are picking up the bill for:

- The Army Corps of Engineers, to build miles and miles of levees to protect New Orleans and every other town in Louisiana that was never meant to stay dry when the Mississippi is at flood stage;

- The Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the Mississippi in support of the Port of New Orleans, and navigation all along the southern portion of the river;

- Marsh restoration projects that would not be needed if the Mississippi were allowed to naturally flood and change course as it has since the beginning of time;

- Various scientific studies to tell us how bad all of this has been for the marsh, and... 


- Federal funding for bounty hunters to trap big furry marsh rats. 

One last item – earlier this year, the corps was forced to open the Morganza spillway for the first time since 1973, in order to prevent further flooding in New Orleans and other locations downstream of Morganza. Not surprisingly, the corps has known since at least the 1950s that the Mississippi has been trying to change course, straight through the spillway and into the Atchafalaya basin. But the water is needed for navigation downstream through New Orleans, and the rest, like the marsh, is history.