Restoration Project Priorities for NRDA and the Gulf's Future
A year and a half into the BP disaster, restoration comes too slow. The Coast Guard has declared the Coast "clean," Congress has not yet directed BP's fines to the Gulf, and we rely on the laws written for Alaskans against Exxon to restore the Gulf of Mexico. Because of the lack of action, the only new initiative is the $1 billion early restoration settlement that BP has agreed to, in order to lessen its future fines under the Natural Resources Damage Assessment, or NRDA.
Just as trustees must massage an out-of-date law to bring BP to the table, many states are working with existing projects and programs. But are these projects being prioritized so that the appropriate solutions to BP’s oil are picked? This agreement allows BP a lot of power over NRDA dollars—how do we know the Gulf will not be shorted?
Following the Gulf Future Action Plan, a working group of activists and community leaders from each of the five states has evaluated hundreds of NRDA projects according to the Gulf Future goals: ensuring Public Health, rebuilding the Environment, developing a sustainable Economy, Monitoring the damage, and Participation in the restoration process.
In the last weeks, this working group has released "Sunshine on the Gulf," a report on what projects are slated for early NRDA monies and why. The report uses prioritization criteria that make our needs as a Gulf community transparent, for the sake of project managers and trustees alike.
Barataria’s Long Winter: an Oiled Sliver of Marsh, a Vanishing Rookery Island
With David Peck, GRN went out on a winter recon of Louisiana’s wetlands in exterior Barataria Bay.
Louisiana's Delta is unique on Earth for having a landform created by such a powerful river, the Mississippi, emptying into a gentle sea. (although the biblical Nile, pushing into the Mediterranean can compare.) The Tide is gentle in the Gulf of Mexico, allowing large expanses of low marshes and shallow waterbodies in the Delta.These are the nurseries for many small creatures that grow to range widely over the Sea. For birds, fishes, and other animals, Louisiana’s marshes are a great place to grow up, but also to eat. The Delta feeds so many creatures, including humans--most cities are built upon estuaries.
A View of Okatibbee Reservoir looking northeast towards a portion of the potential mine's footprint. Flight courtesy of Southwings. On Tuesday December 13th, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s Environmental Permit Board will meet in Jackson to decide whether Mississippi Power Co. (MPCO) and North American Coal Corp (NACC) will receive the necessary permits to begin mining dirty lignite coal in Kemper County. If the past is any indication of the future, the permits will be granted – read on to see why.
The permits are for five years during which time a large, experimental coal to gas combined cycle power plant will be built on top of the lignite coal seam. This technology has never proven successful on a commercial level and there are serious doubts about whether the coal gasification technology will work profitably.
Many individuals and organizations, including GRN, have opposed this project for a variety of reasons. Mississippi Power’s ratepayers have the most immediate issue to complain about. They are funding the $2.8 billion project for 40 years into the future after an initial 200 million in taxpayer dollars from the U.S. Dept. of Energy grant money runs out. The utility also gets several hundred million dollars in tax breaks.
This blog contains 3 sets of photos. The first two sets are from two new leaks in Breton Sound. The third set is of the leaking Taylor Energy site.
Yesterday, thanks to the support of the team at Southwings, I was able to board a Cessna 210 piloted by Skipper Tonsmeier and fly out over the Gulf. Natalya Egon, a Harvard Graduate student was also along for the journey as part of her research for her Master’s degree. We left New Orleans Lake front Airport late in the morning and headed south to pay a visit to the ongoing menace known as the Taylor Energy leak. Well, Taylor is still leaking energy, that is for sure but, more on that in a minute.
As we made our way south into Breton Sound, it didn’t take long for me to catch a glimpse of a glimmering rainbow sheen peering back at me through my binoculars. I asked our pilot to veer right and circle around so I could get a closer look. While the conditions yesterday were less than ideal for aerial photography, I was able to capture these images:
After documenting that first scene, we got back on course and started south once again. I went back to gazing at the water below, the well-heads, pipeline canals, etc. Then, once again, something caught my eye. So, we went to take a closer look. This time, an oily sheen was marked with thick brownish streaks of crude. Where is it coming from? My guess is that it was coming from a pipeline below the surface. Nearby pipeline canals, warning signs, and the absence of a fixed structure like a well-head near the oil, all support this hypothesis. However, it is not for me to guess and I do not portend to be qualified to make that call, especially from 1000 ft. in the air. I have included a few photos of this second leak here:
Eventually, we made it to the Taylor energy leak and much to my expectations there was, well, oil leaking. You may recall from previous blogs and photos that this location has been leaking since the platform was knocked down by hurricane Ivan in 2004. At its peak in the Gulf of Mexico, Ivan was the size of the state of Texas. Our friends at the Waterkeeper Alliance filed a 60 day notice of intent to sue for Clean water Act violations, so stay tuned for more information as that litigation moves forward. You can view new photos of the Taylor leak here:
Upon returning to the office after yesterday’s flight, I filed three reports with the National Response Center. The report numbers are 997606, 997607, and 997609. As of the posting of this blog, the incident summaries do not appear on the NRC website. Hopefully, that means they are currently being investigated. The NRC contacted the Coast Guard who then contacted me and I gave the officer the details along with photos and GPS coordinates. The officer requested that in the future, before I head out on monitoring flights that I discuss with them what my flight plans are so that we can work together. I’m not sure how I feel about that considering the way the Coast Guard has, to date, handled the BP disaster. What the Gulf needs is a Regional Citizens’ Advisory council that has the assets to independently monitor the activity of the Oil and Gas industry. It was good enough for Alaska after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Prince William Sound, and it is definitely warranted here in the Gulf region. I and others reporting incidents in the Gulf have had discussions with the Coast Guard where they tell us that they simply do not have the budget, manpower or assets to respond to the reports effectively. This is a disgrace and Congress really needs to recognize the severity of the situation and step up. You can help us keep the pressure on Congress to establish an RCAC by taking action at bpdrillingdisaster.org. Please take it a step further and share with your friends and social networks. A healthy gulf will continue to be far out of reach if people like us do not demand action from our leaders.
Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer for GRN.
Gulf Coast communities are frustrated by their exclusion in the discussion over how to spend the $1 billion early restoration funds that BP committed toward the Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA). This assessment of injuries and determination of liability usually takes years and because of the size of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil release; this one could take a decade or more. Having some dollars now to spend to restore our damaged ecosystems is critical, but the public has had little opportunity to weigh in on which of the hundreds of proposals currently being submitted, will receive funding.
Get your Kleen Kanteen water bottle when you sign up as a GRN Gulf Sustainer action.healthygulf.org/donateHelp save the Gulf with your online holiday shopping! Buy a stocking stuffer GRN gift membership and also get an "enGULFed" Kleen Kanteen water bottle. And get into Cyber Monday by shopping with these merchants that give a portion of proceeds to Gulf Restoration Network. See our full list of merchant partners to find great holiday gifts and specials for everyone on your list.
Pass on the pride of supporting a healthy Gulf this holiday season!
Apparel CrOp by David Peck Fall 2011 Line 10% of profits to GRN cropbydavidpeck.com
This is too outrageous to ignore! Last year, in the wake of the BP drilling disaster, President Obama made a promise to the people of the Gulf that his administration would hold BP accountable for the massive amounts of damage the company caused. Well, that promise has been broken.
Our frequent field monitoring trips, and the daily experiences of many residents along the Gulf coast, continue to show BP’s oil is still here. We find tarballs, tar mats, and gooey oil in our marshes, on our beaches, in our bays and estuaries, and we know it’s on the ocean floor. The Coast Guard must continue to make BP clean it up.
While we honor the heroism of the Coast Guard during the devastating aftermath of Katrina, we cannot ignore that they are letting BP off the hook.
Even worse, we fear that BP will hold early restoration dollars hostage until states agree the oil is gone, even if it is not. After putting up $1 billion for early restoration, BP has been showing its true colors in many instances since then, working to limit their liability and hide their true impacts.
Help us make the Coast Guard hold BP accountable. Take action today.
Two weeks ago GRN led a group of twelve Tulane service learners out to a beach restoration project put together by the folks at Bayou Lands, LSU Agricultural Center, City Park, and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Shovels in hand, we took off to the beaches of Elmer’s Island, one of Louisiana’s barrier islands that was greatly impacted by the BP disaster. As we drove by bare dunes and rows upon rows of potted marsh hay we knew that this would not be just another day at the beach.
In our six hours together we were able to sow 2026 individual native plants including bitter panicum, marsh hay, and gulf bluestem. We covered three different areas of the beach that were in desperate need. These new plants will help protect the island from erosion and ensure that it can remain a habitable place for many Gulf species for the future. Check out our photos from the project below!
Just as the Mississippi River contains the potential to restore the wetlands of the delta, the email list of the Gulf Restoration Network contains the potential to pass the RESTORE Act and invest as much as $16 billion in the restoration of our Gulf of Mexico coast and wetlands. If you are one of our more than 40,000 e-members (who receive our free e-alerts and e-newsletters), you make up an impressive voice representing every state and nearly every congressional district in the United States.
So here are two simple ways that your voice can join with thousands of others to make a difference:
Reverse the trend of the past 80 years during which we have lost over 2,000 square miles of important wetlands
If you sign up before the end of the year to convert your e-membership to a Gulf Sustainer membership, we will send you a Kleen Kanteen water bottle as a special holiday membership gift with any Gulf Sustainer membership of $15 per month or more. Be sure to use this link to receive the Kleen Kanteen offer. These water bottles are made of stainless steel, hold 27 oz., and have a special “enGULFed” logo.
You will be giving the gift of a healthy Gulf to future generations!
P.S. If you are already a Gulf Sustainer member, we encourage you to pass on the pride of supporting a healthy Gulf this holiday season. We will extend this special offer to in-honor Gulf Sustainer gifts and send a gift notice card and a Kleen Kanteen to your honoree.
Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of joining a group from the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans on a trip to Manchac, Louisiana, more specifically, the Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station. GRN has been partnering with the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development on a campaign to empower residents to effect policy decisions that will make their communities more resilient against man-made and natural disasters. We have been talking to residents in the Lower 9 about the Multiple Lines of Defense Strategy , a methodology to design flood control and wetland restoration in coastal Louisiana. The strategy works on the well-founded premise that coastal Louisiana and its communities must be protected from hurricane surge by both man-made features, such as levees, and by the natural coastal wetland buffer along the Louisiana coast. Levees alone will not work. Together, a healthy coastal estuary and appropriately designed levees system can sustain Louisiana’s ecology and economy of the coast.
Many residents in cities across the Gulf, especially New Orleans, have not had the chance to experience the surrounding natural environment such as wetlands, lakes, and rivers. Often times, flood walls obstruct residents’ connectivity with nature and close off the surrounding environment which can be both enriching and damaging if not managed properly by the powers that be. The CSED and GRN are working to change that for the Lower 9. In our second boat trip in as many months, we have had the privilege of taking residents outside the floodwalls and levees on tours of the surrounding environment so that they can be awed with the splendor and educated about the real threats that past and future policy decisions have and will have on their homes and communities. With important decisions pertaining to coastal protection and restoration coming down the pike, it is critical that all residents in south Louisiana become and stay engaged in the process. The first set of photos below is from our trip to Manchac and Turtle Cove. The second set is from a previous tour to view the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and recent Army Corps of Engineers flood control projects.
Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer for GRN.
Yesterday, thanks to the support of the team at Southwings, I was able to board a Cessna 210 piloted by Skipper Tonsmeier and fly out over the Gulf. Natalya Egon, a Harvard Graduate student was also along for the journey as part of her research for her Master’s degree. We left New Orleans Lake front Airport late in the morning and headed south to pay a visit to the ongoing menace known as the Taylor Energy leak. Well, Taylor is still leaking energy, that is for sure but, more on that in a minute.
