Saving the Gulf Coast

By Craig Guillot

It has been almost a decade since Hurricane Katrina — one of the nation's largest disasters — washed across the Gulf Coast, leaving destruction in its wake. Louisiana has since battled more than a half-dozen storms and faced one of the world's worst oil spills. While many thought the state had been dealt a death blow in recent years, Louisiana has actually made tremendous strides in improving its coastal resiliency.

Billions of dollars in federal funding, unprecedented political willpower, and a master plan designed to restore and rebuild its wetlands are offering what many say is a path to coastal salvation. For the first time ever, Louisiana may have the chance to reverse its coastal plight. What happens here could possibly serve as a model for other coastal communities facing erosion and sea-level rise.

Disasters' aftermath

Louisiana has been watching its wetlands disappear for at least a century. As a fragile ecosystem of marshes, swamps, and lowland flood areas, wetlands not only harbor wildlife but serve as a buffer between the Gulf of Mexico and inland communities. Estimates from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers show that for roughly every 2.7 miles of wetlands situated between a community and open water, storm surges can be reduced by one foot. But a century of encasing the Mississippi River in levees and digging channels through the wetlands has made erosion worse. As Louisiana's marshes disappear, the change can degrade everything from its urban areas to its economy.

Reality struck when Hurricane Katrina hammered the state in August 2005. More than 80 percent of New Orleans was inundated with water, and coastal communities from Slidell to Empire were devastated. The storm killed at least 1,833 people and caused more than $108 billion in damages, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Less than a month later, Hurricane Rita slammed Louisiana's coast again, this time taking out large swaths of wetlands in Cameron Parish and Calcasieu Parish.

A number of other small hurricanes and tropical storms pummeled the state over the following years, causing more wetlands damage. Satellite imagery from the U.S. Geological Survey revealed that Louisiana lost at least 217 square miles of vegetated marsh during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, six times more than the state loses in a typical year. The Chandeleur Islands, the arc of barrier islands between Breton Sound and the Gulf of Mexico, have been virtually leveled.

There was more. Just as many coastal communities were recovering, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast in April 2010. Eleven workers were killed, and the rig gushed an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf before it was capped 87 days later. By then, black oil had tainted everything from the Louisiana marshes to the beautiful beaches of Florida.

Oil and chemicals killed off acres of marsh and wreaked havoc on just about every Louisiana industry from seafood to tourism. Scientific studies as recent as early 2014 showed that some natural environments and species are still being affected by the oil.

"We've been through a lot in the past decade. There was Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, tropical storms, and the BP oil disaster. Coastal erosion has been with us a long time, but we've had big blows recently," says Jefferson Parish president John Young.

Protecting the coast

Fueled by public and political desire and the influx of federal funds since 2005, Louisiana has made tremendous strides in defending its coast.

The state received roughly $13.4 billion in Community Development Block Grant aid from Congress after Hurricanes Katina and Rita and another $1.1 billion after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. As of February 2014, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had completed roughly $11.8 billion in flood control improvements in south Louisiana since Katrina.

Projects included raising and building levees, environmental improvements, and interior drainage projects. Completed in 2013 at a cost of $1.3 billion, the 1.8-mile Inner Harbor Navigation Canal-Lake Borgne Surge Barrier is one of the largest of its kind in the world. It was built just south of New Orleans to prevent monster hurricane surges from coming up some of the waterways. South Louisiana now has one of the most advanced flood protection systems on the planet.

"Katrina exposed weaknesses in the system and I think they've done a lot to [address some of those issues]. Businesses want that assurance and there is a significant economic incentive to not only build storm protection but restore our coast," says Jerome Zeringue, chair of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana.

While claims against BP were aimed at oil removal and compensation for economic losses, Louisiana has spent some of those funds on general coastal restoration. In 2012, Congress passed the RESTORE Act to direct 80 percent of all administrative and civil fines from the disaster toward protecting natural resources, ecosystems, fisheries, and wetlands. Legal proceedings are ongoing, but Louisiana is projected to receive a large sum from what could be up to $20 billion in Clean Water Act fines levied against the plaintiffs.

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority was established in 2007 as a single planning entity to guide the state's coastal protection efforts. Zeringue says the 2012 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan identifies more than 100 projects ranging from marsh plantings to sediment diversions.

Today, the state loses a football field of wetlands every hour but with the implementation of the plan, Zeringue says it could reverse that tide in only 20 years. "We'll always have to deal [with erosion]. There isn't one solution to fix it and forget it. But we now have an adaptively managed plan that can at least get us to the point where we have a sustainable coast for generations to come," he says.

The plan's fate, however, may be decided by a coastal erosion lawsuit filed in 2013 by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East against more than 90 oil and gas companies. The lawsuit alleges that because the companies' activities damaged the wetlands, they must share part of the multibillion cost of restoration. Act 544, passed earlier this year, opened the door for such suits, but the oil industry is currently fighting its constitutionality. The fight could be tied up in state courts for months, if not years; a ruling against the oil industry could mean even more funding for coastal restoration.

Go with the flow

It will take more than levees to make the coast sustainable; residents and businesses will have to build higher. Patrick Gordon, director of the Planning and Zoning Department in Terrebonne Parish, says requiring home owners to raise their houses will help lessen the impact of floods when they do happen. Gordon advocates multiple lines of defense, including levees and pump stations along with raising houses to meet the required height of the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

According to that program, Louisiana has used $1 billion in federal CDBG funds and $750 million in state monies to help home owners raise their houses since Katrina. The HMGP-funded elevation program gave home owners up to $100,000 each to raise homes above the floodplain. Most homes flooded by Katrina had to be raised by one to three feet to qualify; on some parts of the coast, homes are raised even higher. More than 8,265 homes have been elevated in the state so far, one of the biggest efforts in history.

"We used to have three contractors elevating homes in Terrebonne Parish. Now we have 35. [Everything] is being raised," says Gordon. "We're being very aggressive in encouraging individuals to reduce their risk of flooding."

Many residents have decided to raise their homes rather than retreat because their livelihood is tied to the water. In Lafourche Parish, senior planner Jeffery Leuenberger, AICP, says many have come to accept sea-level rise and coastal erosion after watching land slowly turn to water over the years. He feels the parish has protection but will always be at some risk. Accepting a fair level of risk is part of the price for the benefits of a coastal economy.

"The levee system and man-made infrastructure is holding out over time but there will always be a level of risk from big storms. You can't eliminate the risk but you can reduce it," he says.

Creating resilient economies

Louisiana's economy is rooted in its coast. According to the industry website louisianaseafood.com, the state harvests more than 30 percent of the seafood produced in the U.S., contributing $2.4 billion and one out of every 70 jobs to the local economy. Louisiana is also the country's third largest producer of petroleum and the third leading state in petroleum refining. A 2011 report, "The Energy Sector: A Giant Economic Engine for the Louisiana Economy," found the oil and gas sector created 287,000 jobs and generated $20.5 billion in household earnings.

"Just about every person living here [in Lafourche Parish] earns a living that is somehow related to the oil industry," says Leuenbueger. "It's critical to not just the parish but much of coastal Louisiana."

Few in the state wanted to pull the plug on the industry. But a six-month federally imposed deepwater drilling moratorium following the BP spill had many people thinking about economic diversification. The Lafourche Parish Comprehensive Resiliency Plan identified weakness in the parish's over-reliance on oil and gas. The plan calls for focusing economic development in other sectors, such as culinary arts, logistics operations, and shipbuilding, and expanding Port Fourchon (99 percent of its port business is oil and gas related) to engage in more cargo-carrying industries.

"The oil industry is critical but we also need to consider diversification for a stronger economy. We want to have something to fall back on and we're building that base right now," says Leuenberger.

New Orleans has also made tremendous strides in economic diversification since Hurricane Katrina, says Michael Hecht, president and CEO of the regional economic development alliance Greater New Orleans, Inc. The city has thriving shipbuilding, transportation, and advanced manufacturing industries, but the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau reports that 78,000 people work in the tourism industry — a segment of the economy that took a massive hit after Hurricane Katrina and the oil disaster.

"It's encouraging that we're diversifying beyond our foundational industries and growing stronger than ever," says Hecht. "That diversification can help us better weather [disasters] economically."

Two industries experiencing rapid growth in the city since Katrina are the tech and medical fields. A new $3.3 billion downtown medical district is expected to bring 34,000 new jobs to the area. Digital media tax incentives enacted in 2007 and the low cost of living have also attracted dozens of tech startups. Hecht says the city's worst disaster unexpectedly sparked the biggest economic rebirth in its history.

"In an ironic way, Katrina was the equivalent of a heart attack for someone that had a very unhealthy lifestyle. It didn't kill them but scared the individual into a much better way of living," says Hecht.

The upside of challenges

While New Orleans sits not far from the Gulf's doorstep, it was often hard for residents and lawmakers there and in Baton Rouge — the state capital — to appreciate the importance of things like marsh restoration. That perception changed dramatically after Hurricane Katrina as everyone from inner-city residents to senators adopted "Save Our Coast" as a state mantra.

GNO, Inc. recently launched the Coalition for Coastal Resilience and Economy. The coalition board includes executives from businesses in real estate, shipping, banking, manufacturing, and law. GNO, Inc. executive vice president Robin Barnes says a unified, powerful voice in the business community can help solidify the relationship between the wetlands and the economy.

"The missing link here has been the business community. You're now seeing high-profile people get involved in [coastal restoration issues] because they understand the seriousness of it," says Barnes.

A decade of disasters and new government policies has also changed the state's business climate. Louisiana has historically been known for graft and corruption, but Forbes magazine called it "America's new frontier for business opportunity" last year, noting a dramatic transformation since 2008. Some of the transformative factors include strong workforce training programs, reforms in ethics laws, and competitive business incentives.

Louisiana's coastal communities are also finding ways to protect their strengths. Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser says the benefits of living on the coast, and the risks that come with it, are just a part of life there. As a peninsula that hugs the Mississippi River and juts out into the Gulf of Mexico, Plaquemines is literally surrounded by water. "Our economy is tied to the coast," says Nungesser.

Plaquemines suffered terribly in Hurricane Katrina, and its surrounding marshes were heavily oiled during the Gulf oil disaster. As of July 2014, there were still reports of isolated patches of oil in the marshes. Nungesser was one of the most outspoken critics of BP during the disaster. Looking past the challenges of the last decade, he feels fairly confident in the parish's flood protection and says $2 billion of levee projects are in the works there.

Nungesser says multiple lines of defense are needed, including extensive coastal restoration and the creation of new land. He advocates the construction of ridges outside the levees to help protect and strengthen marshes. The parish also has interior levees around energy companies' critical infrastructure, and it is working to build new facilities smarter and stronger.

While there were major problems in the handling of the oil disaster, he adds, the industry overall has been a "solid partner" in Louisiana. Nungesser says Plaquemines has "virtually no unemployment, a $10 million annual surplus, some of the best schools in the state, and no crime." He credits the parish's position on the water and its ability to capitalize on the oil and fishing industries.

"We're going to get enough money, and we have a plan to fix the coast. We just need to do it right and not throw the money away. We can't keep holding our breath every time a storm comes," says Nungesser.

Craig Guillot is a freelance writer based in New Orleans.

Resources

Images: After sustaining damages in Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008, this home in Houma, Lousiana (Terrebonne Parish), was elevated as part of the Traditional Elevation Program with Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds from FEMA. Photos by Solutient Corp., courtesy the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government (TPCG).

Louisiana's 2012 Coastal Master Plan: www.coastalmasterplan.louisiana.gov

Terrebonne Parish Comprehensive Master Plan Vision 2030: www.tpcg.org/vision2030

Lafourche Parish Comprehensive Resiliency Plan: www.lafourchegov.org/?navid=291