Debris from Hurricanes
May Be Used To Fight Coastal Erosion in Louisiana
October 24, 2005 — By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — The mountains of debris
created by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could be the very stuff to
protect Louisiana's ravaged coastline and keep hurricanes at bay.
Louisiana environmental authorities are thinking of grinding up the
approximately 50,000 fiberglass boats destroyed in the storms and mixing
them with cement to build artificial reefs, and using tree limbs and
timber from homes as sediment traps in the marshes.
"We're exploring all sorts of options for waste," said Chuck Brown, an
assistant secretary at Department of Environmental Quality. "There's so
much of it."
There is a lot to fix along the Louisiana coast. The state has lost
about 1,900 square miles of marsh since the 1930s. The loss of wetlands
has had lethal consequences: Towns and cities are that much closer to
the Gulf of Mexico and its devastating hurricanes.
The chief worry is that using the debris might just poison the
coastline.
"We have to make sure we're not putting toxins into the gulf," said
Darryl Malek-Wiley of the Sierra Club's Delta Chapter.
Many of the boats littering the region presumably could be turned into a
lot of artificial reefs, which would become refuges for fish and other
marine life. Reefs also can act as storm-surge barriers and keep sea
bottoms from eroding.
Before the hurricanes, Louisiana was trying to rebuild its reefs to
expand the oyster industry and create more habitat for fish.
The wood from trees and homes could be bundled to create fences along
the shore and across abandoned oil field canals. The fences would slow
down the wave action that gnaws at the coast. They also could trap
sediment.
Recycling wood is not a new idea in coastal restoration. Since 1990, it
has been a wintertime ritual for New Orleanians to see their old
Christmas trees strapped together into brush fences and laid out in the
marshes.
By 2003, 1.2 million Christmas trees had been put into the marshes to
form about eight miles of brush fence. That may sound impressive, but
scientists say the trees have not accomplished much because of the sheer
vastness of Louisiana's land loss.
Source: Associated Press |