The Cost of Doing Nothing

Work of this magnitude has a cost. According to Col. Thomas Julich, New Orleans District Engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “Construction of projects for all nine basins could take up to 30 years at a cost of $14 billion dollars.” Without a doubt, the price is high, but the cost of doing nothing is even higher. In the next 50 years, another 1,000 square miles of America’s most productive wetlands will be lost, threatening the interests not only of Louisiana, but the nation as well.

Shipping

With 500 million tons of waterborne cargo passing through Louisiana’s system of deep-draft ports and navigation channels, the state ranks first in the nation in total shipping tonnage. By tonnage carried, the ports between New Orleans and Baton Rouge are the largest in the world. If present land-loss rates are allowed to continue, more than 155 miles of waterways and several of the ports will be exposed to open water within 50 years, leaving this key national transport system at risk. According to Ted Falgout, director of Port Fourchon, “Ports are the bridge between water and land. Take away their connection to the land-based roads, rail and support services, make them islands, and they no longer function.”

Oil and Gas

Rising from the wetlands is an economy vital to the nation— evidenced by the oil and natural gas industries that have a value exceeding $16 billion a year. Eighteen percent of U.S. oil production and 24 percent of natural gas production originates, is transported through or is processed in Louisiana’s coastal wetlands. These industries have more than 20,000 miles of pipelines offshore and thousands more inland—all of which contact land on the shorelines of Louisiana’s disappearing barrier islands and wetlands. These pipelines and more than 30,000 wells within the 20- parish coastal area are at risk as the wetlands and barrier islands convert to open water.

Wildlife

In sharp contrast to the gears, pipes and engines of heavy industry, the diverse and wild environments of the coastal wetlands provide habitat for numerous resident species of animals and vegetation, along with crucial breeding, wintering and stop-over habitat for migratory birds. The broad estuaries bordering the gulf nurture the production of shrimp, menhaden, crabs, oysters and many other species of fish, shellfish and crustaceans ––contributing to nearly 20 percent of the volume of U.S. fisheries. This loss of wildlife and fisheries would be an ecological tragedy.

When added together and projected into the future, the dollars at risk for the nation are incalculable. Secretary Caldwell puts the value of infrastructure alone at $150 billion, and other estimates are higher. The future of the critical resources found in Louisiana’s coastal wetlands depends on whether the nation acts now and avoids the much greater cost of doing nothing. As Governor M.J. “Mike” Foster Jr. observes, “We’re either going to pay now and save the coast or pay later in monstrous dislocations that are going to affect the state and the nation.”