Restoring and Protecting Coastal Louisiana

The sustainability of coastal Louisiana is critical to the nation. It is the location of a large part of the nation's oil and gas industry and its largest port complex. It provides vital habitat for economically important fisheries and threatened and endangered species. Yet this region is under siege. The catastrophic effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and recent storms in 2008 brought to the nations attention the fragility of the regions hurricane defenses and the continuing loss of wetlands and ecosystems; a loss that has continued for more than a century with little or no abatement. Slowly, the flood protection system in New Orleans is being restored; even more slowly, attention is j shifting to restoring the coastal deltaic system. But there is a lack of strong support for these two linked efforts, protection and restoration. There is a lack of funding but also me lack of a prioritization system at the federal level for allocating funds for critical water resources infrastructure. The challenges facing the Gulf Coast reflect a national inability to come to grips with the need to deal with neglected infrastructure, both natural and built, and the realization that both provide security to coastal communities. It will not be possible to protect and restore coastal Louisiana without significant changes in the way federal and state governments deal with these issues.