OP-ED: The Mississippi River is our strongest asset to hold onto our Coast, but we must use it neworleanscitybusiness.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from neworleanscitybusiness.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A recent study on one of those projects says it would decimate the dolphin population in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay, but the projects could affect fisheries in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well.
Louisiana wetlands: A restoration plan raises fishing industry worries csmonitor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from csmonitor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A cargo vessel lies docked on the banks of Alden s 1:65 scale model of a section of the Mississippi River. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Mark Twain called it the magnificent Mississippi. He said the river will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise.
Garret Dunn is doing his best, anyways.
He s in the river on his hands and knees, rebuilding a wall. It s part of a structure called a sediment diversion, designed to pull water and a whole lot of sand out of the river and into Louisiana s Barataria Basin. It s part of Louisiana s big (and controversial) plan to rebuild and maintain an area of drowning wetlands nearly the size of Delaware.
Louisiana Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and the St. Bernard Parish Council have come out against the proposed $2 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, calling it a threat to commercial and recreational fishing, bottlenose dolphins and the economies and cultures of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes.
Councilwoman Kerri Callais said the estimated 21 square miles of new land created by the diversion over 50 years is not enough to offset the potential loss of revenue from fisheries or the effects on the area s heritage. We all know the consequences this diversion will have on both of our parishes, the economic consequences, the consequences to our culture, to our tourism that’s so important to St. Bernard,” Callais said. “It’s part of our identity. It’s who we are.