Inside Report for October 15, 2009

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 15, 2009 - Page: 9B

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

The pace of coastal restoration and protection should and can move faster to meet the urgent need of Louisiana’s eroding coast, speakers told the Oct. 6 meeting of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation.

Commission member Jim Tripp, who is with the Environmental Defense Fund, said the federal attitude toward coastal restoration seems to be changing for the better.

In 2004, the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received word from Washington, D.C., that their $14 billion, 30-year plan for restoring Louisiana’s eroding coastline would be too expensive and take too many years.

Instead, Washington allowed for a $2 billion program of projects that could be done in 10 years, said Brent Haase of the state Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration.

The 15 projects covered by that approval are moving forward, Tripp said, but there’s an opportunity to move things even faster.

Trip explained there seems to be growing interest in the state’s plight, citing as examples President Barack Obama’s decision to form a working group to discuss Louisiana coastal issues, Obama’s visit to New Orleans and an upcoming Ocean Policy Task Force meeting in New Orleans.

Louisiana coastal restoration is more than just a Corps of Engineers matter, Tripp said.

The impact stretches to many other federal agencies involved in water resources, economy and national security, Tripp said.

The whole purpose of Washington’s coastal working group — led by the Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Management and Budget — is to bring the federal agencies together, Tripp said.

Tripp asked the commission to assume the working group in Washington wants to know what can be done to accelerate coastal restoration work.

Then the commission needs to decide on a reply to the working group.

Garret Graves, director of the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities, said one idea is to tap into the $400 million to $1 billion worth of  mitigation projects the corps will need to build.

That work will be in the form of mitigation for damage to the wetlands environment caused by reconstructing and improving flood protection in the greater New Orleans area since Hurricane Katrina struck in