Island left out of plan

Residents see gaps in coastal plan draft

“It’s like telling people living there, ‘You’re not worth saving. It’s just not cost-effective to save you.’ ” Chris Chaisson, 28,  of Pointe-Aux-Chenes, regarding the state’s plan for coastal protection  and restoration

When Chris Chaisson, 28 of Pointe-Aux-Chenes, stood up to comment on the state’s plan for coastal protection and restoration, he became very emotional.

From the outside looking in, he said he was calm as he told members of the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority why the new draft plan for progress leaves him and others like him out of consideration.

“It’s like telling people living there, ‘You’re not worth saving. It’s just not cost-effective to save you,’ ” he said.

The Jan. 24 meeting in Houma was one of several the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority held around the state to get public input about a proposed plan on how the state should move forward to combat coastal erosion and provide better flood protection for communities.

The plan has been several years in the making, using a science-based approach, rather than the politically influenced plans of the past, Garret Graves, chairman of the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said at a recent meeting.

Many coastal nonprofit groups say that although the plan isn’t perfect, it shows a path toward stopping the continuing coastal land loss and even provides opportunity for land gain in a few decades. In addition, the plan will become a tool in obtaining the needed federal funding to build coastal restoration and protection projects, according to the nonprofit groups.

“We’re prepared to advocate for that kind of national commitment,” said David Muth, Louisiana state director for the National Wildlife Federation. “We’re pretty confident what they have is scientifically defensible.”

Paul Kemp, National Audubon Society’s Louisiana Coastal Initiative director, said he’s been involved in several previous coastal planning processes and this one is different.

“This one, the more you dig into it, the more science you find,” Kemp said.

Although it’s a scientific approach that will have public input with the greater coastal good in mind, it’s also highly personal, especially for people who don’t stand to benefit much from the work.

Chaisson said when he looks at the plan and the map of projects, he sees a plan that doesn’t protect the small communities like Dulac, Dularge and Pointe-Aux-Chenes. These are areas where he’s lived all of his life, where his great great-grandparents are buried, where generations of people were born, lived, made a living and died, he said.

“It was like a slap in our face. We’re not good enough to be protected,” Chaisson said. “This plan accommodates the assets but not communities, people or culture.”

In Terrebonne Parish, the concern expressed at the public meeting was primarily the lack of marsh creation between a planned for, but not yet constructed, levee system known as Morganza to the Gulf and barrier islands far to the south.

“I’ve seen with my own eyes the devastation of coastal erosion,” Chaisson said. “To see this plan and no marsh protection in the community I come from, it’s heart wrenching.”

“This is where we’re from. I don’t get what they don’t see about that,” he said.

Since it was released in January, people living along the coast are delving deeper into the draft master plan, getting a chance to look at what the state has planned for their area and realizing not everything they want is there.

The 145 projects in the $50 billion, 50-year plan doesn’t include everything. It can’t, explained Jerome Zeringue, director of the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority implementation office.

“We can’t protect everyone from everything,” Zeringue said.

The draft plan is based on computer modeling, evaluation of projects and the results are what the best science available says will allow for a reversal of land loss and even land gain by 2040.

The second part of that process is to get public input on what trade-offs the public wants to make or is willing to make to change that plan. Some of those changes will be possible, but some of them will not be possible, said Kirk Rhinehart, chief of planning for the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

Terrebonne Parish Manager Al Levron said, “Overall we think there are some good components (in the plan), but there’s still work to be done.”

State coastal planners and managers agree, saying there are things that can be done to address concerns in the western and central parts of the state.

However, Rhinehart said, the state is reminding people that if local residents want something added, they also need to identify what they’re willing to give up. The entire plan needs to stay within the $50 billion amount, he said.

But if a region wants marsh creation in an area that may not last for long and residents are willing to say what they’re willing to give up in the exchange, that’s a possibility, he said. There is room for some changes based on local priorities, he said.

What won’t happen, Rhinehart said, is what some are advocating in the southeastern side of the state, including Plaquemines Parish officials: They want to get rid of all the large diversions from the Mississippi River.

“Plaquemines Parish does not believe that the implementation of large scale diversions is the appropriate crisis level response to effectively combat the massive land loss that is occurring,” wrote P.J. Hahn, director of Plaquemines Parish Coastal Zone Management.

The parish developed its own plan several years ago with help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Miss.

That plan involves building marsh through dredging sediment from the Mississippi River and sustaining the new marsh with smaller diversions of water and sediment from the river, Hahn said.

“To do nothing is not an option. But we are against the construction of large scale diversions whose operation will adversely impact our remaining natural flood protection, drastically alter our fisheries environment and those whose livelihoods depend on it, and provide inadequate land building in the near term, which is essential to augmenting our current hurricane protection system,” Hahn wrote in a statement.

The draft plan if approved, even with potential changes, will mean communities, fisheries and other industries will be impacted. However, coastal nonprofits and state officials point out that change is already occurring with the continuing land loss, and the plan shows a future where there is a chance to stop that loss.

During the meeting in Houma, charter Capt. Gerald Ellender told the state that he’s seen first hand what the Wax Lake Outlet of the Atchafalaya River has done in building land. He added that it’s likely that he’ll have to travel farther to fish when freshwater diversions come online, but the diversions will serve a greater good, he said.

“The benefits so outweigh the disadvantages,” Ellender said.