The Mississippi Delta Must Be Restored
THE Mississippi Delta loses the equivalent of a football field of marshland every hour as it melts into the Gulf of Mexico. Over the last 75 years, we’ve lost the equivalent of the state of Delaware to erosion.
We have a chance to stop this disaster and protect the delta, where much of the nation’s seafood is spawned. But for this to happen, Congress must turn over billions in penalties, expected from the BP oil spill, to the Gulf of Mexico states for the restoration of the delta’s wetlands.
Since the 19th century, the Army Corps of Engineers has channelized the Mississippi River to improve navigation while avoiding the expense of dredging. But the levees built for that goal deprived the marsh of the alluvial silt that nurtured it over millenniums. After the epic 1927 flood, the corps raised the levees higher still. Starved of silt, the marshes are now subsiding into the gulf.
On top of that, sulfur, natural gas and oil production companies have, since the 1930s, dug close to 10,000 miles of canals into the delta, gaining direct routes to their mineral wealth. These canals brought saltwater deep into the wetlands, killing marsh grasses and encouraging tidal and wave action that eroded banks. Like the pelican, our state bird that, legend has it, feeds its young with its own blood, the Mississippi Delta has sacrificed itself for the good of the nation. But the nation has not repaid in kind.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/opinion/the-mississippi-delta-must-be-restored.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212