A presentation on Coastal Land Loss in Louisiana. Shared at the Together Louisiana Statewide Issues Conference on February 15th, 2014.

1. Coastal Land Loss in Louisiana
The Challenge Of Our Lifetime

2. Over approximately the past 5,000 years the
Mississippi River built the land of south-east
Louisiana by carrying rich soils that were
washed off the land all over North America
and depositing them in the Gulf of Mexico.

4. This land supports wetlands that provide our best
protection from hurricanes as well as one of the
richest fisheries in the world.
(Not to mention the City of New Orleans, world
class hunting, fishing and birdwatching, rich
farmland, much of the states tourism and a huge
industrial corridor.)

6. This land is washing away

8. There are a number of causes of coastal land loss
in Louisiana. Disconnecting the river from the land
with levees, logging for cypress trees and
subsidence are some but one of the most
significant is the exploration for and production of
crude oil and natural gas.

9. 1956 - 2008

10. 1963
2014
10

11. 2004
2013
11

13. Scientific studies have determined that as much as
80% of land loss in some areas can be directly
attributed to oil and gas activity.

14. Shell’s Former Chief
Offshore Engineer Agrees
• Robert Glenn Bea
• Former chief offshore engineer for Shell Oil Co.
• Head of the National Science Foundation study team on Hurricane Katrina
• 2006 Affidavit
14

15. Studies Conclude that Oil &
Gas Activities Contributed to Coastal Loss
L. St. Amant, 1971
US Bureau of Land Management, 1972
US Army Corps of Engineers (S.M. Gagliano),
1973
US Army Corps of Engineers, 1973
US Environmental Protection Agency, 1976
D.W. Davis, 1976
N.J. Craig et al., 1979
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, 1980
Fruge, 1981
Johnson & Gosselink, 1982
US Fish and Wildlife Service, 1983
US Geological Survey, 1983
R.E. Turner et al., 1984
Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas
Association, 1985
Minerals Management Service, 1985
LSU Center for Wetland Resources, 1985
Louisiana Geological Survey, 1987
Mineral Management Service, 1987
US Fish and Wildlife Service, 1987
American Petroleum Institute, 1988
LA Dept of Natural Resources/US Fish and
Wildlife Service, 1988
Minerals Management Service, 1989
Penland et al., 1990
Louisiana Geological Survey, 1991
US Environmental Protection Agency, 1992
US Department of the Interior, 1994
Penland et al., 1996
US Environmental Protection Agency, 1997
US Geological Survey, 2001
US Geological Survey, 2004
US Army Corps of Engineers, 2004
Louisiana Sea Grant, 2008
LACPR, USACE, 2009
Minerals Management Service, 2009
Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task
Force, 2011

17. In order to drill wells for oil and gas in wet coastal
Louisiana, canals are dug so that equipment can be
brought in on boats and barges. It is believed that
as much as 10,000 miles of canals now cut across
coastal Louisiana.

19. Cutting canals allows salt water from the Gulf to
move inland and kill marsh grasses and other
plants that hold the soil together and also allows
wave action and storm surge to more effectively
wash the soil away.

20. The dominant mechanism for land loss in the identified
restoration areas was altered hydrology associated with oil
and gas exploration and drilling (64 percent). The second
largest process contributing to land loss was the direct
removal of wetlands during the dredging of exploratory canals
and wellhead access canals (12 percent).

22. Louisiana has already lost 1,900 square miles of
land (that’s larger than the state of Rhode Island) and
continues to lose 25 - 35 square miles every year;
that works out to a football field sized area of land lost
every 30 minutes.

24. The oil and gas industry has done little to fix the
damage it has caused even though Louisiana law
requires them to repair that damage.

25. Coastal Zone Regulations
“Mineral exploration and production
sites shall be cleared, re-vegetated,
detoxified, and otherwise restored
as near as practicable to
their original condition
upon termination of operations to the
maximum extent practicable.”
Louisiana Administrative
Code 43:I.719(M)
“Areas ... shall be backfilled
or
otherwise restored to the preexisting conditions upon cessation
of use for navigation purposes to the
maximum extent practicable.”
Louisiana Administrative Code 43:I.705(N)
“Mineral exploration and production facilities shall be to the maximum extent practicable
designed, constructed, and maintained in such a manner to maintain natural water flow
regimes, avoid blocking surface drainage, avoid
Louisiana Administrative Code 43:I.723(D)
erosion.”

26. Sample Permits
Permit No. 19850425
“[T]he canal will be restored to as near preproject condition as
practicable by backfilling with available spoil...”
Permit No. 19810436
“Slip shall be filled to marsh level with available spoil and the
remaining spoil shall be used to fill the canal.”

28. Billions of dollars will soon be spent in an effort to
save Louisiana’s coast. The vast majority of
Louisianians feel that the oil and gas industry should
pay for the damage it caused, not taxpayers.

30. Sea level rise is making it even worse but that’s a
story for another day…

31. In 86 years, if nothing is done

32. In 86 years, if nothing is done
Louisiana will look something like this.

34. What you can do:
•
Contact your legislators and tell them to make Oil
and Gas fix what they broke.
•
Talk to your family and friends about coastal land
loss and coastal restoration.
•
Follow groups working on this issue and look for
opportunities to TAKE ACTION!
•
Restore Louisiana Now: RESTORELOUISIANANOW.ORG
Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN): LEANWEB.ORG
Gulf Restoration Network (GRN): HEALTHYGULF.ORG
•
GreenARMY: GOGREENARMY.COM
•
•

35. Acknowledgements
•
Images in slide 39 & 40 courtesy of Michael Blum for “Drowning of the
Mississippi Delta due to insufficient sediment supply and global sea-level rise,”
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v2/n7/abs/ngeo553.html
•
Image in slide 2 courtesy of Devon Boutte for Wikimedia Commons,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River_Delta
•
Images in slides 1, 24 & 25 courtesy of Google
•
Slides 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 21, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, and 41
courtesy of Restore Louisiana Now, http://restorelouisiananow.org
•
All other photographs courtesy of Dubinsky Photography for Louisiana
Environmental Action Network and Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper,
http://leanweb.org