If you live in PostK New Orleans you have made a choice. You've probably made many choices and compromises to be here. As we approach the 4th Anniversary of Katrina we have an opportunity to look back, to review our choices and to make new choices.
For far too long many people have ignored or been allowed to ignore the importance of a healthy coastal wetland to a healthy Louisiana. The Corps of Engineers are Engineers. Their job was to ensure that shipping traffic had access to the city and its surrounding ports. To that end they:
- built MRGO, which we all know to have been a bad idea and which is thankfully now closed. With the closing of MRGO comes an opportunity and requirement to repair what was damaged by its creation.
- leveed the Mississippi and in the process eliminated the sediment source with keeps our wetlands healthy. With the lessons and harsh reality that Katrina brought us we now know that we can NOT continue to do things the way they have been done. We must restore the sediment the Corps of Engineers are causing to dump off the deep outer continental shelf.
But don't believe me. Listen to John Barry, Secretary of the Levee Board.
Educate yourself. Lobby for the life and place you've worked to recreate these last 4 years. Talk to everyone you know about how important working with what we have - sediment from the Mississippi - can help protect what we've worked so hard to restore.
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