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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2008
Contact: Christina Stephens, christina.stephens@la.gov
Marine Debris Removal Program Moves Forward
Louisiana seeks to combine Gustav and Ike clean-up with Katrina and Rita
BATON ROUGE, La. (December 16, 2008) - The enormous effort to remove thousands of tons of hurricane-related marine debris remaining from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has begun throughout Louisiana’s waterways and coastline. FEMA and the United States Coast Guard (USCG), with the help of local residents, have completed surveying more than 350 waterways in 23 parishes across south Louisiana. The clean-up effort, coordinated by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), numerous state agencies and Louisiana State University SeaGrant, started in late August.
The initiative that was supposed to be for Katrina and Rita recovery had just begun when this past season’s storms, Gustav and Ike, halted progress and compounded the problem. While the 2008 storms affected a few new areas, they mostly deposited debris in waterways affected by the 2005 hurricanes. In an effort to improve efficiency, reduce costs and quicken the process, Louisiana urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency to combine the removal of marine debris resulting from all four storms.
FEMA currently differentiates between marine debris resulting from the 2005 and 2008 storms, which creates unnecessary taxpayer costs according to the state. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike dumped an estimated additional 15 percent of many types of debris on already clogged waterways. Additionally, FEMA has only agreed to reimburse 90 percent of debris removal from Gustav and 75 percent of Ike, making the identifying and distinguishing problem grossly more complex.
“It is virtually impossible to accomplish the task of removing Katrina and Rita material or distinguishing between to two without first dealing with Gustav and Ike,” said Kris Van Orsdel, director of infrastructure planning for the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA). “Merging the efforts purely makes sense.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in November, LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater officially requested for the USCG to “discontinue discriminating between marine debris” because “… two programs removing the same kind of debris, in the same locations, at the same time is clearly inefficient and will generate additional burdens on the state and parish administrators working alongside the Coast Guard.”
The sunken objects range anywhere from trees, silt and vegetative materials to remnants of buildings and their contents, boats, barges and industrial equipment; all of it potentially dangerous to health and safety as well as obstructive to recovery. Each project can be extremely cumbersome and costly, requiring heavy machinery and intricate processes to safely extract the targets. The most difficult debris is the steel barges according to Leo Richardson of GOHSEP due to the massive weight and threat of dangerous chemicals. One target can take weeks to remove and can cost upwards of $1 million.
Removal of marine debris is considered pivotal in restoring a variety of Louisiana industries, including its ailing commercial fisheries. Along with generating revenue, cleaning the state’s waterways make them safer for the general public and reduces risks of damaging equipment or loss of life from boat or barge accidents.
“Louisiana waterways are integral to the economic and social fabric of our state,” said Leo Richardson of GOHSEP. “Commercial and recreational fisheries, recreational boating, local waterway transportation, drainage, as well as ecological tourism are all dependent on the recovery of access and public safety.”
Louisiana is the second-largest seafood producer in the nation, and Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike have devastated the business. Many small commercial fishermen were forced to close up shop, and the state has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
In addition, marine debris has caused major disruptions to the state’s oil and gas industry. Many of the support functions of inshore ports and docks simply cannot service the offshore operations due to shallower waterways. Places like Intracoastal City, the ports of Iberia, Terrebonne and West Cameron, all providing crucial support city for offshore rigs, have reported silt debris reducing access to their facilities for loading, unloading and repair.
According to GOHSEP, FEMA allocated $20 million to fund field assessments, project planning and initial debris removal, including a USCG Incident Command Post in Mandeville with a staff of twenty. The entire project is expected to cost well in excess of the $200 million spent to complete Mississippi’s debris cleanup because Louisiana’s coastline and multiple drainage basins are considerably larger. In addition, Louisiana faces unique challenges due to its marshlands and muddy shorelines. The storm surges harvested vast acres of marsh grass and dredged up enormous amounts of silt, which were deposited in bayous, canals and bays coast-wide. Although silt is a serious problem in hundreds of Louisiana waterways, FEMA does not consider it eligible.
After the debris has been identified, USCG, not the state, contracts the actual removal projects, with state oversight.
The state is responsible for informing FEMA and the USCG specific locations for debris, and citizens, businesses like Wal-Mart and other local organizations have helped. “Citizen participation has been superlative,” Richardson said. “Before we stopped counting individual items, more than 5,000 individual targets had been reported.”
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- Click here to view the marine debris photo gallery
- Click here to view the story on marine debris removal
