Over the past week or so, GRN has been maligned by advocates of the Morganza to the Gulf hurricane risk reduction system, as opposing the project and therefore, not supporting the future of the Houma/Thibodaux area. In order to set the record straight, our Executive Director, Cyn Sarthou submitted this opinion piece to the Houma Courier. Quoting from it:
For the record, GRN has never opposed the Morganza system nor were we responsible for any U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or congressional delay in moving forward with the project. As a matter of fact, we advocated the passage of the Water Resources Development Act, which included the Morganza authorization.
Generally, GRN believes it makes a lot of sense to put levees between your community and all the natural systems which help slow down storm surge (barrier islands, natural ridges, coastal marshes, cypress swamps). This means your levees are a lot more likely to withstand the killer storms, and the wetlands are a lot more likely to continue to provide wildlife habitat and other benefits. NOLA's experiences with Katrina bear this out. Admittedly, it's hard to do, especially in an area like South Louisiana, where we've got wetlands all over the place, and communities all over the place. But unless we want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg, we've got to work hard to get it right.
As the Category 5 plan (LACPR) progresses, it's more and more critical we get this right, as some levee alignments in the Corps draft report would put as much as 1/3 of Louisiana's remaining Mississippi River Delta estuary wetlands on the wrong side of big walls.
Aaron Viles is GRN's campaign director
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