pollution effect on plants and coastal erosion

Some of the worst erosion in the world in the last decade has been in the area impacted by the Caernarvon Diversion, including the marshes near Delacroix, and Fitzpatrick told the crowd there's a reason for that.

"The Mississippi River has fertilizers and pollutants in it, and organic-based soil, which is what Delacroix has, is very sensitive to fertilizers," he said.

The issue is that when plants have easy access to fertilizers, they don't grow deep roots, Fitzpatrick said. Then when strong storm surges move through, they easily rip the plants from the soil base.

Todd Masson, The Times - Picayune
    The Times-Picayune   
Louisiana's Coastal Master Plan will destroy fishing, harm coast, opponents say at Monday meeting

http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2013/04/louisianas_coastal_master_plan.html

slurry pipelines not diversions

The sludge report by Bob Marshall The Lens


A study suggests diverting river water to salt marshes is killing them

A review of research on Louisiana's freshwater diversions by a panel of experts from outside the state concluded they could find no solid evidence the diversion projects improved adjacent wetlands, but found evidence they might hurt them. The study suggested that the state's Coastal Master Plan, built around large sediment diversions, may be forging ahead while blind to the potential dangers in the river water.

lessons learned from Caernarvon and MRGO

Re: Louisiana coastal scientists say criticism of plans to build large sediment diversions is unfounded

The article does a good job explaining the pro-diversion point of view. However, it should be noted the "deck was stacked." The reality is that there are quite a few other scientists with serious concerns about the sediment diversions, and none were included in this article. The biggest problem is that, even if the sediment diversions work (right now they only exist in computer simulations), the land-building will take decades to just build small slivers of land. This is a fact. They will not counter the rate of erosion. Other concerns include the magnitudes of freshwater fluxes. The simulations show salinities of 5 ppt almost to Grand Isle with Myrtle Grove at 250,000 cfs.

In general, everyone supports using the river resources. There are differing opinions on how to do it, what flow rates should occur, and how marsh creation through sediment pipes should be done. The one thing we can state with certainty is that these huge sediment diversion will not build enough land in time, and all Louisiana will be pounded by freshwater. We cannot take "on faith" that they will use the diversion correctly. This faith was broken with the way they run the Caernarvon which has violated salinity agreements, the erosion resulting from Caernarvon, and the lack of acknowledgment of this situation.

Its a shame all NOLA readers can't take a boat ride and see the damage Caernarvon has caused. The viewpoints would be swayed immediately.....the erosion is that bad and that obvious. The erosion in this case was caused by the diversion, because freshwater vegetation (which replaced the saltwater marsh) either floats or has weak roots and cannot handle hurricane storm surge like saltwater marsh can. And this is just one problem with diversions. There are several.....all as usual set aside by pro-diversion proponents with rose-colored glasses.  

drtrout