{"id":396181,"date":"2025-08-19T10:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T09:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=396181"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:55:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:55:36","slug":"power-of-the-mighty-mississippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=396181","title":{"rendered":"Power of the mighty Mississippi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
Sunset landscape of the Mississippi River bridge between Mississippi and Louisiana, in Vicksburg, MS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A multi-billion-dollar plan to create new wetlands along Louisiana\u2019s steadily vanishing Gulf coastline was abandoned in late July by state officials who cited the project\u2019s rising costs and threats to the state\u2019s vibrant seafood industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In announcing its decision to cancel the Pelican State\u2019s largest-ever effort to replenish southeastern Louisiana\u2019s sediment-starved wetlands, the state\u2019s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said<\/a> it had determined that the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project was \u201cno longer viable due to multiple factors,\u201d including litigation and rising costs. Funded by the 2010 Deep Water Horizon oil spill settlement, the project \u2013 after years of controversy \u2013 finally broke ground in 2023 in Plaquemines Parish southeast of New Orleans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large-scale environmental engineering entailed in the project foresaw recreating southeastern Louisiana\u2019s ecosystem as it existed before levees were constructed to protect New Orleans from the Mississippi\u2019s not-infrequent floods. Those flood-protection measures, however, by diverting flood waters away from natural coastal wetlands, also deprived them of the sediments normally deposited during flooding. Wetlands rely on sediments to counteract subsidence, the compaction of sediments under their own weight. Take away the sediments, and wetlands are in trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe coastal marshes of Louisiana provide a natural barrier against the erosion caused by fierce storms which often come from the Gulf,\u201d wrote<\/a> Katherine Kemp for Tulane University in 2000. \u201cBecause of the loss of these wetlands, the Louisiana coast has receded several thousands of feet over the past few decades, and coastal fishermen have also been deprived of a ready source of income.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, in a nutshell, is the challenge Louisiana faces. The levees built to save lives are destroying coastal marshes. The influx of water from the Gulf has prompted talk about \u201crising sea levels\u201d caused by manmade climate change. The Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for example, sounded the alarm<\/a> over rising sea levels in Louisiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur changing climate is likely to increase damages from floods, reduce crop yields and harm fisheries, increase the number of unpleasantly hot days, and increase the risk of heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses,\u201d the agency warned in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such fearmongering notwithstanding, as Kemp noted 25 years ago, it is not the sea in Louisiana that is rising, it is the land that is disappearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No less than Mark Twain (1835-1910) in his Life on the Mississippi<\/em> (1883) observed the unintended consequences of levees along the river and noted<\/a> that \u201cten thousand River Commissions \u2026 cannot tame the lawless stream, cannot curb it or confine it, cannot say to it GO here or GO there; and make it obey; cannot save a shore that it has sentenced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These insights from the 19th century help explain why Louisiana ultimate rejected the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project. To reverse the land loss and depletion of coastal wetlands, the project aimed to \u201creintroduce fresh water and sediment from the Mississippi River to the [Barataria] Basin to reestablish deltaic processes in order to build, sustain, and maintain land,\u201d the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority explained<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion would be expected to build and nourish ten to thirty thousand acres of critical coastal wetlands over a 50-year period \u2026 by reestablishing the connection between the Mississippi River and the basin,\u201d the state agency said of the project intended to mimic the historical sediment deposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As serious as the wetlands depletion in southeastern Louisiana is, the nearly $3 billion project aimed at its mitigation carried its own risks. Of particular concern was the influx of fresh water from the Mississippi and the effect it would have on coastal commercial fishermen. In welcoming the project\u2019s demise, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said it was \u201cno longer financially or practically viable,\u201d the Washington Post<\/em> reported<\/a>. He added that the diversion \u201cthreatens Louisiana\u2019s seafood industry, our coastal culture, and the livelihood of our fishermen \u2013 who have sustained our state for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the loss of wetlands in coastal Louisiana is real, so, too, is the skepticism of a grandiose plan to alleviate it that may ultimately do more harm than good. Mark Twain knew what he was talking about when he cautioned against trying to rein in the \u201clawless stream\u201d that is the 2,340-mile-long Mississippi River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t mean that the people of Louisiana should stand back and watch their coastal marshes disappear. Action to restore the wetlands is imperative. But fiddling with nature is risky business. Because missteps are inevitable, a prudent path forward should entail a series of small steps, each one building on the successes and learning from the failures of its predecessor, until the goal of restoration is achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared at Issues and Insights<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A multi-billion-dollar plan to create new wetlands along Louisiana\u2019s steadily vanishing Gulf coastline was abandoned in late July by state officials who cited the project\u2019s rising costs and threats to the state\u2019s vibrant seafood industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":396182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691837385,691837386,691837388,691837384,691837387,691827163],"class_list":["post-396181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change","tag-coastal-protection-and-restoration-authority","tag-louisianas-ecosystem","tag-mississippi-river","tag-new-wetlands","tag-obama-era","tag-rising-sea-levels","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0Mississippi-River.jpg?fit=2508%2C1672&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1F41","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":262531,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262531","url_meta":{"origin":396181,"position":0},"title":"New Study: Land loss due to human-altered sediment budget in the Mississippi River Delta","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/17\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Research from scientists at Louisiana State University and Indiana University reveals new information about the role humans have played in large-scale land loss in the Mississippi River Delta\u2014crucial information in determining solutions to the crisis.","rel":"","context":"In \"Land loss\"","block_context":{"text":"Land loss","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=land-loss"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0293A0745.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0293A0745.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0293A0745.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0293A0745.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0293A0745.webp?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":425357,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=425357","url_meta":{"origin":396181,"position":1},"title":"Supreme Court showdown could unleash litigation war on U.S. energy companies","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/09\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Politicians and trial lawyers in Louisiana are hoping to use the home-field advantage of state courts to shake down oil and gas companies. 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