Mississippi Delta Wetland Loss

All five Gulf states face varying levels of coastal erosion, none as large-scale as Louisiana’s coastal wetland loss. The state’s low-lying marshes and coast are vanishing into the Gulf at a rate of about a football field every hour—more than 2,300 square miles have been lost since the 1930s. This is a largely manmade problem, stemming from levee-building along the Mississippi River after the Great Flood of 1927.

The many layers of federal, state, and local authorities—some overlapping and conflicting—make it difficult as a practical matter to devise, implement, and make mid-course corrections to a strategy for restoring the Delta. And secure, sustained sources of funding on the scale required to do the necessary work are not now in place.

Estimates of the cost of Gulf restoration, including but not limited to the Mississippi Delta, vary widely, but according to testimony before the Commission, full restoration of the Gulf will require $15 billion to $20 billion: a minimum of $500 million annually for 30 years. Current funding sources do not approach those figures. Beginning in 2017, Phase II of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, which governs sharing of oil-related revenues, will begin to bring large amounts of money to the Gulf States. Much of this could be directed to restoration.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster provides a significant opportunity to begin funding restoration sooner. It will generate monies that can be directed to jumpstart key Gulf restoration projects. And it can provide the basis for launching a long-needed federal-state entity capable of managing the restoration effort over the longer-term, guided by a clear set of principles.