MORE OPINIONS ON WRDA

While my post of yesterday points out some of the positive steps taken by the Senate in their passage of the Water Resources Development Act - many remain skeptical and generally opposed to the direction that the Corps of Engineers is headed. Given that the GRN has long been critical of the Corps, urging reform and greater consistency on protecting wetlands, I thought it made sense to spotlight some of the broader views around.

In today's Times-Picayune, enviro law guru Oliver Houck makes some important points in an op-ed.

Here's one:
"Adding to the folly, the Corps Reform bill has two other remarkable provisions that allow Louisiana projects to be approved in the future -- not by the full Congress, but instead by the small club of members who serve on the public works committees. Pass the pork."

Additionally, in the Louisiana Speaks planning process of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which held invitation-only planning sessions in NOLA, BR, Lafayette and Lake Charles last week, we were terribly disappointed to find that the only levee options that were available to the small-groups that were putting together coastal restoration and community redevelopment visions, were bad or really bad, with both options including the majority of the Morganza to the Gulf project (which Prof. Houck maligns for good reason in the op-ed above).

If we're serious about addressing the reality of our climate crisis as well as moving forward with the wholesale reengineering of the plumbing of the Mississippi River in order to restore and safeguard our coast, we simply can't expect to expand the developmental footprint in coastal Louisiana. We must pull back behind hurricane protection barriers that we can sustain, while we protect and enhance the natural systems that will afford existing population centers some certainty of existence.

Now is our opportunity.

The population displacement forced on coastal Louisiana by Katrina and Rita gives us that chance, if only leadership would step up to call the question.

Aaron Viles is the GRN's Campaign Director