On January 18, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority had a meeting to discuss repairing the 1,800 square miles of land lost between 1932 and 2010. Unfortunately, complete restoration is impossible. “As much as we would like to have the coast that we had in 1932, there’s no question we can’t get there,” Haase said. “We’re never going to be able to restore it to that level.” The draft includes scenarios for flood damage and land loss based on high, medium and low estimates using different levels for environmental drivers. However, even under the 2017 medium scenario, Louisiana could lose 2,254 square miles of land over the next 50 years without action.

The plans recommend building 802 square miles of land under the medium scenario. But this plan needs $50 billion. Bren Haase, chief of planning and research, said $150 billion is preferred “but is likely unrealistic in the state’s precarious fiscal situation”. Under the plan, half the money would go towards restoration, the rest towards risk reduction.  Though numbers show that investing now would lower future losses by $8.3 billion over the next 50 years under the medium scenario. As we’ve talked about in class, Louisiana’s ports are vital to the economy. But future planning using today’s dollars is never a strong trait of government, so we’ll see.

 

-Maddi Nicholson
http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/01/louisiana_will_never_be_able_t.html#incart_river_index

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