IT AIN'T JUST LOUISIANA'S WETLANDS AT RISK, MISSISSIPPI NEEDS CORPS CONSISTENCY TOO

The Corps of Engineers has released its report to Congress regarding Mississippi’s Coastal Improvement Plan (MsCIP). The plan is the result of an extensive public process in a region devastated by Hurricane Katrina and is intended to provide strategies that will increase coastal Mississippi’s ability to withstand category five storms in the future. Taken at face value, the MsCIP elicits a ray of hope for GRN’s mission. Having participated in the public meetings, I can truthfully say that clearly the majority of involved citizens and organizations support the restoration of natural ecosystems as our nation’s first defense to storms and are concerned about new wetland impacts.

However, if one looks around at the rebuilding process in Mississippi, there are a number of developments under construction that represent significant permitted wetland impacts or, even worse, new developments that failed to even enter the wetland permitting process! (Examples are easy to find in Gulfport near Turkey Creek community or in the newly annexed north Biloxi or …) The post-Katrina rebuilding process is beginning to look more like a flagrant insult to our country’s wetland laws than a testament to their protected status. We must question if the Corps or any of the other regulatory agencies are serious about the future of Mississippi’s diminishing wetland systems. In yesterday’s blog, Aaron Viles of GRN wrote: “But is the Corps comfortable enough … to avoid their inherent tendency to build big structures, dredge big channels, and permit wetlands development? That's the $30 billion question.” Indeed, that is the question – and in Mississippi it appears to represent a $7 billion question.

While we applaud Congress, the Corps and the public for quickly assessing and building consensus for the ecosystem restoration projects listed in the Corps’ Executive Summary of the MsCIP, we can not rest assured that the regulatory process is working to protect those same ecosystem services for which we are spending billions of dollars to restore! We take issue with the lack of consistency we are seeing between coastal restoration initiatives representing millions, even billions, of taxpayer dollars and the failure of the Corps’ regulatory process to protect fragile coastal wetlands that serve as our first line of defense against storms. For example, the permit for the Silver Slipper casino development granted earlier this year, though a relatively small wetland impact by itself, appears to be the first of many causing unprecedented destruction of coastal wetlands in the Bayou Caddy marshes of Hancock County, an area recommended for ecosystem restoration. Either the head has become disconnected from the body, or someone is asleep at the wheel!

The American public should be particularly concerned about the proposed Paradise Bay development in Hancock County. In its rush to create a revenue stream for its devastated community, it looks as if the Hancock County Board of Supervisors is willing to rezone areas for commercial development that are adjacent to pristine tidal marsh areas. There are all other sorts of foolishness, including entertaining the incorporation of a new town owned by the Paradise Bay developers. And these are not just any developers! According to MSNBC, the developers (two brothers) were key figures in an Internet stock scam that federal authorities say bilked investors out of more than $12 million. (Mike Stuckey, MSNBC, June 29, 2006)

The Paradise Bay proposal is an affront to our country’s wetland protection laws and to the support shown by Congress for restoring and protecting wetlands in coastal Mississippi post Katrina. Though no wetland permits have yet been requested or issued for this project, drawings of the development submitted to Hancock County for re-zoning consideration clearly show extensive impacts to the pristine, productive tidal marsh at the site. Destruction of this tidal marsh runs contrary to the congressionally acknowledged need to protect and restore natural storm barriers.

So, once the local county government has endorsed and encouraged the Paradise Bay development through rezoning actions, will the Mobile Corps and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources have the integrity to make decisions that are consistent with our nation’s wetland protection laws? Will they have enough humph to actually deny requests to destroy our wetlands? If the past or present are any indication, the answer is “no”.

Cynthia Ramseur is GRN's Mississippi Field Consultant