TP: Give us back our damn mud
Source: Times-Picayune
Each year, the Army Corps of Engineers and private companies dredge about 63 million tons of dirt from Louisiana's coastal areas, primarily to service the needs of shipping and petroleum interests.
The corps constantly dredges the river to ensure ships can pass, and oil and gas companies cut and maintain canals to service their facilities and lay pipelines through Louisiana's fragile wetlands.
All of the extracted mud, if strategically dumped back into areas of threatened coastline, could do wonders to revive the state's dying marshes -- once its primary defense against hurricanes.
But the corps rebuilds marsh with only 12 percent of the 60 million tons of sediment it removes from the river each year. The agency has long claimed that it is forced by federal law to dispose of it in cheaper ways that don't help the state's environment. And the state has only been requiring industry to reuse 22 percent of its much smaller, but still substantial amount of mud from dredging operations, about 3 million tons a year.
Now, the state is demanding that the corps use more of its dredged mud to rebuild wetlands. And it's told industry to reuse 100 percent of its mud for restoration, or to pay the dollar equivalent into the state's coastal restoration fund.
This has to be the stupidest thing ever. The federal government won't let us do the right thing because it's too expensive? How about cheaper in the long run? Oh but wait - there's more:
In February, the corps turned down most of the state's demands. Corps New Orleans District commander Col. Alvin Lee said the additional money from Congress won't be available until the fiscal year 2010 budget is approved.
And he ruled out using South Pass as a disposal area, since it also is a federally authorized navigation channel that also must remain open to shipping.
Since then, the corps received $10 million in federal stimulus money for additional dredging of Southwest Pass. But the corps has said none of that money can be used to move dredged mud to build wetlands.
Last week, Buatt sent a second letter to the corps reminding it of its legal responsibility to act in keeping with the state's environmental concerns. The letter said the corps has avoided reusing untold tons of dredged material by hiding behind outdated legal opinions.
The corps counters that federal law requires it to use the cheapest alternative for disposing dredged material. And that requirement will not accommodate the steep cost of moving the dredged material miles away from the river's navigation channel to areas desperately in need of fresh mud.
At some point does anybody ever bring up the fact that we are all Americans and if the coast isn't saved then Louisiana's problems become America's problems and a helluva lot more expensive? I sometimes think the COE is from another planet - the inability to see the big picture is staggering.
Talk about smart people acting stupid.
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