A combination of rising seas, subsiding land around the Mississippi Delta and reduced deposits of river sediment has put Louisiana at the forefront of the battle over underwater real estate, Bloomberg reports.
Versions of that debate are taking place in courtrooms, legislatures and government offices across the country, where questions are being raised about whether and when climate change justifies seizing private property
“The stakes are enormous, affecting not just ownership of offshore mineral and fishing rights but also potentially trillions of dollars of coastal real estate,” Bloomberg reports.
Louisiana is losing land faster than anywhere else in the country, but the state’s bounty of oil, gas and fisheries has made coastal landowners especially reluctant to relinquish their rights to property that goes underwater.
“The state has, in turn, been reluctant to claim newly created waterways, critics charge, depriving the public of access for fishing and other activity, as well as revenue from any future oil and gas discoveries,” Bloomberg reports.
Louisiana Division of Administration spokesman Jacques Berry tells Bloomberg Louisiana asserts its claim to submerged lands whenever it believes, “after scientific and historical analyses, that it has a valid legal claim.”
That’s easier said than done: Louisiana employs a single person who’s qualified to survey water bottoms.
Others say the real explanation for Louisiana’s reluctance to claim ownership of submerged land is that officials are loath to antagonize coastal landowners, many of which are the same oil and gas companies that are the core of the state’s economy.
In March, Kevin Pearson, a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, introduced a bill making clear that the state’s navigable water bodies are public property. To his surprise, the bill made it out of committee in April—and then died on the floor.
“The landowners are so freaking powerful,” he says.
