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Weathering the Storm - Louisiana - Restoration -- WEB
April 27, 2022
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptWeathering the Storm - Louisiana - Restoration
HEADLINE: Retreating Coastline Forces Hard Choices on Louisiana's Gulf Coast
TEASER: Major restoration project would build land but hurt fishing communities
PUBLISHED AT: 04/26/2022 8:57 am
BYLINE: Steve Baragona
CONTRIBUTOR: Arturo Martinez
DATELINE: Hopedale
VIDEOGRAPHER: Steve Baragona, Arturo Martinez
VIDEO EDITOR: Steve Baragona
SCRIPT EDITORS: Holly Franko
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, Other (see courtesy)
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB _x_ TV _x_ RADIO _x_
TRT: 2:59
VID APPROVED BY: BR
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO))
[[Rising seas from climate change are forcing difficult choices for coastal communities around the world. The southern U.S. state of Louisiana plans to spend billions restoring land it has already lost to erosion. But the plan has winners and losers. VOA's Steve Baragona has more.]]
((NARRATOR))
In coastal Louisiana, where the muddy Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico, new land is rising.
((Bren Haase, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority))
"This is some of the newest land in the United States of America. Right here."
((NARRATOR))
Bren Haase heads the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, or CPRA. He says mud from the Mississippi is what built southern Louisiana over thousands of years.
But for the past century, the river and its mud have been locked behind levees.
((GRAPHIC: LAND LOSS MAPS 1932-2016))
((Mandatory CG: USGS))
Without that sediment to sustain it, the land has eroded – half a million hectares since the 1930s.
((Bren Haase, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority))
"Louisiana is really in a land lost crisis. That land forms the basis of our culture, it forms the basis of our communities. It's a huge part of our economy ... and it's our first line of
defense against storm surges that approach our coast during hurricane season each year."
((GRAPHIC – Land Loss))
((Mandatory CG: CPRA))
((NARRATOR))
And Louisiana may lose another million hectares of land in the next half-century if nothing is done as climate change raises sea levels.
((GRAPHIC: DIVERSION))
That's why CPRA is planning a $1.4 billion channel called the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion to bring land-building Mississippi mud back to a patch of the coast.
((Bren Haase, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority))
"And the idea behind the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project is to reconnect the river with these wetlands so they can do more work like you're seeing right here today."
((NARRATOR))
But many who work along the coast oppose it.
((Brad Robin, Oyster Fisherman))
"The diversion that they're designing is going to wipe out this industry."
((NARRATOR))
Oyster fisher Brad Robin says the diversion will upset the balance of salt and fresh water that sustains the shrimp and oysters that he and hundreds of fishers depend on.
((Brad Robin, Oyster Fisherman))
"The problem with the fresh water is that you will not have anything to grow. It'll wipe out everything. It'll wipe out our ecosystem of the Gulf."
((NARRATOR))
Fishers know the coast is disappearing. But they want CPRA to build land by dredging sediment from river bottoms and the Gulf.
The agency already does a lot of dredging and plans to do a lot more. But dredged land washes away again, Haase says. The sediment diversion lets the river build and sustain the land.
He knows it won't be good for everyone.
((Bren Haase, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority))
"Is that going to change things? Is that going to impact people as you've been discussing? Of course it will. And we've been very transparent about that, and we do have a plan and funds available to try to assist."
((NARRATOR))
The state has set aside $300 million to help fishers find new grounds, or new careers. But many fishers are not interested.
((Brad Robin, Oyster Fisherman))
"My family, that's all we do is fishing. That's all we've ever done. ... My father was a fisherman and my grandpa was a fisherman. My great grandfather was a fisherman."
((NARRATOR))
The question is what his children and their children will do.
On a disappearing coast, Haase says, change is coming one way or the other.
((STEVE BARAGONA, VOA NEWS, HOPEDALE, LOUISIANA))
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