Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico Wetland Destruction Pork Barrell Land Development Scheme Scam

June 17, 2008 - Morganza's $10.7 Billion Cost Estimate Stuns Officials - Officials knew post-Katrina and Rita construction costs and procedures would elevate the project’s cost, said Sen. Reggie Dupre, D-Bourg, but he expected them to rise 30 percent to 50 percent.
May 18, 2008 - Terrebonne Levee Director Accuses SOWL of Flooding New Orleans - New York Times owned Houma Courier on May 18, 2008 slanders SOWL by permitting Windell Curole, recently appointed interim regional levee director for Lafourche and Terrebonne to falsely accuse and slander SOWL as an environmental group that has litigated in lawsuits that caused New Orleans to flood. Paper refuses to print SOWL phone interviews...
May 4, 2008 - A Massive Week for Morganza - What a week. Sorting through what it all means for Terrebonne’s $1.2 billion plan to save itself from extinction at the hands of the next Big One will take time. Until then, some initial thoughts...
Nov. 27, 2007 - Notice of Intent to Sue: SOWL vs. Terrebonne Levee & Conservation District - For failure to obtain a permit for Reach J-1 of the Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Protection Project pursuant to Section 505 of the Clean Water Act...
Apr. 29, 2008 - SOWL vs. Terrebonne Levee & Conservation District (Complaint) - The Levee District is building Reach J1 of the Mississippi River and Tributaries-Morganza, Louisiana to the Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Protection Project without first obtaining a Clean Water Act dredge and fill permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers... (Civil Suit Cover Sheet), (Introduction of Student Practitioner), (Student Practitioner/Deans Certification)
May 01, 2008 - Environmental Group Sues to Stop Levee Construction - (By Mark Schleifstein The Times-Picayune) - The lawsuit argues that the levee district should be required under the Clean Water Act to obtain a permit, which would allow it to fill in wetlands in the least environmentally damaging way and mitigate for any damage...
May 01, 2008 - Environmental Group Sues to Halt Morganza Levee Work - (By Nikki Buskey The Houma Courier) - Save Our Wetlands, a 2000-member group based in Metairie, alleges that work on the three-mile section known as J-1 began without a permit required to dredge soil and fill in areas of sensitive wetlands...
Feb. 23, 2008 - Another Morganza Hurdle Stirs Frustration -Local officials are reacting with frustration to news that the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane-protection system must secure congressional authorization for a third time, and some question what the countless bureaucratic hurdles will mean for other large-scale coastal projects yet to come...
Sept. 13, 2007 - Houma Navigational Channel(HNC) Lock proposal adds to the Morganza Pork - This is SOWL's analysis on how and why the HNC Lock proposal adds to the Morganza Pork, and will destroy Houma to fill the pockets of the oil companies and the "Good Old Boys...
Aug. 7, 2007 - Time Magazine article casts cynical eye on Morganza - In the Morganza debate, some scientists and engineers, such as LSU Hurricane Center Deputy Director Ivor van Heerden, criticize the levee approach, saying the $900 million, 72-mile project will destroy area wetlands and provide residents with a false sense of security...
Aug. 2, 2007 - President Bush threatens to veto Morganza bill - The U.S. House overwhelmingly endorsed an agreement on a water-resources bill late Wednesday evening that positions Morganza-to-the-Gulf for badly needed federal money, but the milestone was overshadowed by President Bush's promise earlier in the day to veto the measure...
July 18, 2006 - SOWL Membership Form; Re: Opposition to the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project and its component Houma Navigation Canal lock - SOWL's goal is simple: TO ACHIEVE THE MOST EFFECTIVE PROTECTION FOR TERREBONNE/LAFOURCHE, protecting our communities, protecting our prosperity and protecting our unique culture.
July 12, 2006 - Letter From SOWL Member Critical of the Proposed Morganza Leaky Levee and Calling for the Closure of the Houma Navigational Canal - I cannot support the Morganza project because it applies failed technology (levees) with untested variations (hydrology gates) which have never been shown to produce any other result than destruction of the estuarial ecology. In this case, especially, the stakes are too high.
November 2006 - Defeat the November 2006 Tax Referendum That Would Have Funded the Houma Navigational Canal Lock - TEN Reasons to vote AGAINST the 1% sales tax referendum: It is an insidious TRICK on the public to JOIN the drainage/tidal levee improvements with the HNC Lock construction... only your locally oiled-up politicians can get a $200M HNC Lock paid for TWICE (once on your dime, another as a feature of Morganza in the WRDA awaiting authorization).
July 10, 2006 - Letter Against the Morganza Leaky Levee / Houma Navigational Canal Sent in During CPRA Public Commentary Period - In Terrebonne the wheels of a broad-based economy are not spinning. After one hundred and fifty years, the economy has de-volved, not e-volved, and the sins of the past are visited upon the current generation in folds. Today, my parents' generation's hard-earned retirement is under the grave threat of ruin due to the location of their home in the near proximity a travesty which was committed against the land in 1961-1963 – the Houma Navigational Canal.
July 6, 2007 - Conclusions: WRDA Component Morganza-To-The-Gulf, and the Houma Navigational Canal (HNC) - Save Our Wetlands Inc.(SOWL's) message to the good people of Houma Terrebonne Lafourche Parishes. Here are SOWL's conclusions on the Morganza to Gulf of Mexico "Leaky Levee" proposal supported by Corps, State of Louisiana, politicians, oil companies and Terrebonne Lafourche Levee Districts.
December 17, 2006 - Comments on Preliminary Draft of the Comprehensive Coastal Protection Master Plan for Louisiana - Overall, the Draft Plan is an advance over previous planning efforts towards an integration of coastal protection and restoration. Looking backwards, that is the good news. Looking forward, as we must, the Plan falls short. It’s primary difficulties are in its assumptions, its science, and its failure to provide for the management of the landscape as a whole.
June 29, 2007 - Fontana Leaks on the Levees - "What we're feeling is that the state coastal protection and restoration authority set up by the governor after Katrina is completely weighed in favor of this Morganza 'leaky' levee proposal that the scientists are telling us isn't going to work," said Fontana. "It's going to destroy wetlands that act as a hurricane buffer.
June 16, 2007 - SOWL Responds to "Overzealous wetlands protection cost us dearly" - On June 16, 2007 Deborah Settoon wrote a letter to New Orleans Times Picayune full of half truths and misinformation, blaming SOWL for flooding New Orleans by enjoining the Corps' Chef Menteur Barriers in 1976. She also made a personal threat against SOWL.
June 9, 2007 - Morganza: Salvation or 'Scam'? - Once again, criticism is mounting against the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane-protection system, adding confusion to an already emotional subject. The latest criticism comes from a Metairie-based group, Save Our Wetlands, whose threatened lawsuit, its attorney says, was inspired by a letter 16 scientists sent in March to Gov. Kathleen Blanco. The scientists claim Morganza's so-called 'leaky levees' interspersed with floodgates that will remain open, allowing water to flow naturally, until a hurricane threatens won't provide the protection promised and will destroy thousands of acres of wetlands in the process.
June 7, 2007 - Save Our Wetlands Plans to Sue Over 'Leaky Levee' - Environmental activist Luke Fontana has notified the Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Louisiana that he plans to file a federal lawsuit to demand that construction of the proposed 72-mile Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee follows environmental laws.
June 7, 2007 - Letter to U.S. Senators and Representatives; re: Morganza Billion Dollar “Leaky Levee” Project to Gulf of Mexico, State of Louisiana - Our Louisiana delegation in Washington failed to inform Congress and President Bush that this project is opposed by 16 leading coastal scientists-engineers, and also the Science Board of Louisiana Ecosystem Restoration Program.
June 6, 2007 - NOTICE OF INTENT TO SUE; RE: Billion Dollar Morganza “Leaky Levee” Project to Gulf of Mexico - There are large uncertainties about the effects of leaky levees on enclosed tidal wetlands, including the degree of interference with water-level variations, vertical soil accretion and migration of fishery species; entrapment of saline waters if overtopped or breached and fresh waters from storm water runoff; and other water quality issues.
May 24, 2007 - Bobby Jindal pushes Billion $Dollar$ Morganza "Leaky Levee" Pork Barrell Project - Bobby Jindal wants a Billion $dollar$ federal contract to build a levee wall around Louisiana under the pretenses of "Hurricane Protection", but in actuality will only destroy wetlands that act as barriers for hurricane tidal surges, and will promote land development in low lying areas extremely susceptible to hurricane tidal surges.
April 12, 2007 - Hurricane Protection, Coastal Restoration Plan Sent to Legislature - A broad-based master plan for providing hurricane protection to southern Louisiana and restoring the state's fragile coastal wetlands won unanimous approval of the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
April 10, 2007 - White House opposes Morganza levee project - "The project requires reformulation based on an analysis that reflects recent storm data, substantial cost increases, and the effects of other levees proposed south of Houma, and that assesses how it would affect the limited options available for restoring the ecosystem of the Terrebonne Basin," the document says.
March 25, 2007 - Critics Dispute Wisdom of Local Storm-Levee Plan - The critics suggest, most alarmingly, that the plan’s network of miles of large levees snaking along the coast could cut across wetlands and choke them off, quickening coastal erosion that would doom the parish.
March 13, 2007 - Letter to Louisiana Governor Blanco and Lieutenant General Strock of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from coastal scientists and engineers; Re: Morganza to Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Protection Plan - In sum, we believe that the current federal and state plans contain several positive elements but, at bottom, rely on an engineering approach that carries high economic, structural and environmental risk, and threatens the sustainability of the very ecosystem we are all trying to save.
January 24, 2007 - Can a 'Leaky' Levee Save the Louisiana Coast? - For some 120,000 people along Louisiana's blue-collar coast, the "Morganza-to-the-Gulf" levee – a sort of intertidal Maginot Line – is seen as salvation, especially since the 2005 storms. But critics say that such a "leaky levee" is a false hope, a taxpayer-funded Louisiana hay wagon that is scientifically unproven and even detrimental to both the region's ecology and economy.
January 5, 2007 - Science Board of the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) Ecosystem Restoration Program Report from the Science Board Meeting - December 13-14, 2006, New Orleans, Louisiana Submitted to the Program Management Team, January 5, 2007. The main objectives of the third meeting were to: Discuss the preliminary draft of the State’s Master Plan with representatives from the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities and Department of Natural Resources, review the activities of the LCA Program Science and Technology Program Office, and conduct a general round table discussion of the “leaky levee” concept included in the preliminary Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Program (LaCPR) and State Master Plan.
January 2, 2007 - Leaky Levee Plan is a Risk - As the state searches for pragmatic flood-protection solutions, experts agree the region needs stronger levees and restored wetlands. But that brings up a paradox that has bedeviled engineers and politicians for years: Building more levees would only hasten the destruction of wetlands, by choking off the freshwater sediment that nourishes the swamps.
July 23, 2006 - Editorial: A Line in the Marsh - An enormous levee system west of the Mississippi River that will run down to the Gulf below Houma, and cut off more than half a million acres of wetlands, north from south. The wetlands behind the levee will get developed -- think New Orleans east.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Save Our Wetlands Inc.(SOWL) has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Save Our Wetlands Inc.(SOWL) endorsed or sponsored by the originator. For more information go to:www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.