LSU clinches SEC West against Vandy
May 16, 2012
Morganza project dates back 80 years
May 16, 2012
We’ve been warned. Coastal Louisiana is at risk. In the event of the “Big One” – monster storms like 2005’s Katrina or a slow mover like Rita – our homes, businesses and communities are vulnerable.
Years of erosion, saltwater intrusion and subsidence are taking a toll on our coastline. Water continues pushing inland, washing away vital wetlands and, in the process, clearing the path for killer storms.
Morganza to the Gulf is a first-of-its-kind hurricane protection system designed to keep storm surges at bay and, simultaneously, restore our coast. The 100-year level of protection – enough to safeguard the Tri-parishes in the event of a Category 3 disturbance – encompasses Terrebonne Parish and portions of Lafourche. It also ties in to similar efforts in St. Mary, ultimately protecting more than 200,000 residents and well over 1,700 square miles of coastal marsh.
Morganza to the Gulf could more adequately be called “Houma to the Gulf.” The project initially included an area from the Morganza Spillway, located north of Baton Rouge, to the Gulf of Mexico. Subsequent studies concluded the project should begin closer to Houma; however, the name has remained the same.
The Morganza system, a collaborative effort between a team of interagency engineers and scientists, includes 72 miles of earthen levee with elevations ranging from 9 to 15 feet, 12 sector-gate structures for flood control, 12 environmental structures and a lock complex on the Houma Navigational Canal.
Besides serving as a line of defense against storms, the system provides environmental benefits.
The system’s path follows natural rides, roadbeds and existing drainage levees, as well as hydrologic barriers, thus reducing negative impacts on the environment, according to Terrebonne Levee & Conservation Director Reggie Dupre. And the environmental control structures – a combination of lift and screw gates – will allow water flow between the interior and exterior levee marshes throughout the year.
One of the most hailed components currently under construction, the Houma Navigational Canal lock, will close as storms approach, reducing saltwater intrusion and redirecting much-needed freshwater from the Atchafalaya River to area marshes.
Computing the cost of the project depends a bit on whom you ask. Dupre estimates the total cost at $888 million; the U.S. Corps of Engineers initially agreed, but three months later surprised everyone by elevating the price to $1.6 billion to reflect post-Katrina standards.
Creative financing – a local tax, parish and state funding, Community Block Development grants and Federal Emergency Management Agency monies – has allowed at least some work to begin. Lacking from the equation, however, is any federal funding, a sore point for the many people who have argued since the 1980s for the need for protection.
Without Morganza to the Gulf, proponents of the project argue the Tri-parishes will disappear at the hand of Mother Nature – either via erosion or storm surges.
The stakes for leaving south Louisiana at risk are tremendous. The region is a hub for the nation’s oil and gas production, providing more than 20 percent of America’s energy supply. Port Fourchon is the largest port system in the U.S. In addition, area fishermen supply 40 percent of the seafood produced in the lower 48 states. The Tri-parishes’ economy and the nation’s gas tanks and dinner tables depend on Morganza to the Gulf, whether or not they realize it.
Forty percent of all coastal wetland loss in the U.S. occurs in the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project area.
