Louisiana’s sinking coast is a $100 Billion nightmare for big oil

louisiana-oiled-shoreline
Oiled vegetation, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Once the grass is covered in oil, it dies. Photo source: ©© Kris krug

Excerpts;

From 5,000 feet up, it’s difficult to make out where Louisiana’s coastline used to be. But follow the skeletal remains of decades-old oil canals, and you get an idea. Once, these lanes sliced through thick marshland, clearing a path for pipelines or ships. Now they’re surrounded by open water, green borders still visible as the sea swallows up the shore…

Read Full Article, Bloomberg (08-17-2016)

Climate change will redraw Louisiana’s flood risk maps, Newsweek (08-18-2016)

Louisiana Coastal Erosion Lawsuit Against Oil Companies Dismissed By U.S. District Judge; AP / Huffington Green, (02-15-2015)
A lawsuit filed in 2013 by a Louisiana flood board that sought damages — potentially in the billions of dollars — from scores of oil, gas and pipeline companies over erosion of the state’s fragile coast was thrown out by a federal judge…

New study shows impact of human-made structures on Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, Science Daily (06-29-2016)

Coastal Louisiana added to NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer, NOAA (12-21-2015)
Scientists, regional managers, coastal planners, businesses and residents of Louisiana can now use NOAA’s popular Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts Viewer to assess their risks for coastal flooding under a variety of different scenarios…

Gulf Eats Away at Coast Outside Levee-Protected New Orleans, AP (09-14-2015)
In the past century, more than 1,880 square miles of Louisiana land has turned into open water — an area nearly the size of Delaware. And the loss continues unabated, with an estimated 17 square miles disappearing on average each year…

Piling sand to stop erosion ultimately made the land sink, study says; NOLA (12-26-2015)

Louisiana Rethinks Its Sand Berms, The New York Times (11-09-2010)
A new study underscores the unique difficulties Louisiana faces in maintaining its fragile delta and keeping the sea at bay: Researchers found work to replenish an eroding shoreline by pumping onto it massive amounts of sand itself caused the land to sink…

Lost Louisiana: The Race to Reclaim Vanished Land Back From The Sea, Guardian UK (10-15-2014)

Louisiana’s Moon Shot, Propublica (12-09-2014)

Oral Histories Capture Impact of Eroding Louisiana Coast, AP / KSL (11-08-2014)

New Land on the Louisiana Coast, NASA (02-17-2015)
While most of the delta plain of the Mississippi River Delta is losing ground, new land is forming in Atchafalaya Bay at the mouths of the Wax Lake Outlet and the Atchafalaya River…

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