Congress has to fix the structure and institutional culture of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the organization to remain relevant in the fight against coastal land loss, says Garret Graves, chairman of the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. He spoke to the Press Club of Baton Rouge today.
The federal government created the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force after last year’s BP oil spill, and Graves hopes fixing the Corps’ procedures might be a result of the recent focus on coastal issues. He says it often takes the Corps decades to begin a project. Congress has three times given the Corps clearance to begin the massive Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee project, yet the Corps “hasn’t turned the first piece of dirt,” Graves says. About 92% of oiled coastline was in Louisiana, and Graves says about 265 miles of state shoreline remains oiled. All of the shoreline that is still heavily oiled is in Louisiana, he says.
Restoring Louisiana’s coast should be a national priority, Graves says. For example, five of 15 top tonnage ports in the nation are in south Louisiana, he says, and 20% of waterborne commerce passes through here. But south Louisiana’s very existence is threatened unless the nation fundamentally rethinks how it manages the Mississippi River, he says. —David Jacobs
