John Barry, who was dumped as a member of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – East after that organization filed a lawsuit against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies for destruction of the state coast, wrote an interesting column calling on the industries to change its tune in assisting in coastal restoration.
He cites St. Charles Parish where citizens just recently voted in a tax to help build the much needed $300 million west bank levee to protect the parish from washing away caused mainly by damage from those industries.
The said tax will provide only $4.8 million a year which is far less than needed to provide protection for the St. Charles Parish coast. He points out that the industries which helped damage our coast argue that they want to help rebuild the coast but wouldn’t because the lawsuit put a gun to their head.
So now, says Barry, the companies have an opportunity to remove the gun from their head with a contribution to the restoration of St. Charles since it was not one of the parishes filing the lawsuit.
“If industry truly wants to cooperate, it should contribute – on a scale commensurate with the damage it did – to building the St. Charles levee and restoring the land outside it.
Then it should help Terrebonne Parish, whose citizens are now taxing themselves to build a levee that does not even meet the 100-year standard for flood protection, thus leaving them vulnerable to flood insurance increases that may be nearly as devastating as a hurricane.”
Barry points out that if the companies want to be cooperative, they should engage in negotiations to create a fund to help rebuild the entire coast. Since they are not responsible for all of the damage, they should help restore what destruction they caused.
So let’s take the gun away from their heads. Instead, let’s ask for their cooperation in making the Louisiana coast secure once again. In other words, let’s try to get palsy with them. Let’s try to get them to contribute most of what we can’t afford in taxes to complete the job.
And if they fail to contribute, we could still join the other parishes in their lawsuits against the industries. In addition to the east of the river parishes, Plaquemine and Jefferson Parishes have already filed their own lawsuits.
After all, there were requirements included in granting right-of-ways for industrial activities that provided restoration of any disturbed land to its original condition after the industrial work was completed.
Such requirements have not been followed by many companies in allowing destruction of wetlands for drilling and other purposes.
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