The Controversial Plan to Unleash the Mississippi River
July 25, 2022 7:32 AM Subscribe
A great background previously.
Rising tide is a great read, for a history book about a flood in your grandfather's time (jk).
posted by Bee'sWing at 8:14 AM on July 25, 2022 [5 favorites]
Rising tide is a great read, for a history book about a flood in your grandfather's time (jk).
posted by Bee'sWing at 8:14 AM on July 25, 2022 [5 favorites]
I've been listening to some of the Cadillac Desert audiobook and the author really hammers the point that the amount of damming the US government did in the last 150 years is difficult to fathom and impossible to justify. (Though he does argue that we made the Hoover dam mostly just to prove we could, but having access to that much cheap electricity defeated Nazi Germany.)
posted by little onion at 9:12 AM on July 25, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by little onion at 9:12 AM on July 25, 2022 [9 favorites]
seconding TimHare's recommendation: a fine book that's well written and deeply researched
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 9:50 AM on July 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 9:50 AM on July 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
I read Rising Tide soon after moving within spitting distance of the levee in Gretna. I had some anxious nights there for a while as I dreamt about the monumental power of the river that was Right There.
It's a great book, you should definitely read it. Maybe time it better than I did though.
posted by djeo at 10:36 AM on July 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's a great book, you should definitely read it. Maybe time it better than I did though.
posted by djeo at 10:36 AM on July 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Seconding Bee’sWing’s recommendation. One of the best New Yorker articles I’ve ever read.
posted by glaucon at 10:53 AM on July 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by glaucon at 10:53 AM on July 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm from one of the key towns in Rising Tide. I have heard that some local gentry hosted the author John Berry, showed him a nice time and thought they'd had one with him, only to be outraged and hurt when they read the depiction of Greenville and the Percys in Rising Tide. Honestly, it's not near as bad as it could have been.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:18 AM on July 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 11:18 AM on July 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
I like this article, and the New Yorker article, but oil industry liability is ever sidelined.
I wish there could be more coverage of industry liability, and their legal struggles, but the media seems allergic to this context, although the oil industry affects the water, the land, the air, the climate, the ground underneath the land, as well as the built environment in Plaquemines Parish.
Did people realize that the US lost a major refinery in 2021 from Hurricane Ida? That is happening in this area.
Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana has Chevron on their board, so perhaps that is why. Great organization, regardless. (donate link) But there's issues Wired has downplayed in this report.
Propublica has covered oil and gas liability for the loss of land. Chevron / Texaco, Shell, BP and others are liable for about $2B apiece for wetland replacement costs, but have been able to defer enforcement of the US Clean Water Act and US Coastal Zone Management Act, as well as the Louisiana Local Coastal Zone Management Act, for 40 years.
How do companies defer enforcement of the law for 40 years? Oliver Houck [JSTOR link] has written about the long legal struggles to hold Big Oil Accountable for their damages. The current Governor is suing these companies for about $30 Billion, which would go a long way toward fixing environmental damages. The entire Coastal Plan costs from $50 Billion (nominal) to $100 Billion (over 50 years with inflation).
Rosina Phillippe, quoted in the article, is one of the signatories on a UN petition to rule that the US and Louisiana's inaction on climate change constitutes forced displacement. The Tribes have asked the Biden administration to follow up on this report of human rights abuse.
Rights of Indigenous People in Addressing Climate-Forced Displacement
January 15, 2020
The lack of enforcement of the Clean Water Act is one of the Tribal complaints, #4, to the UN about Louisiana.
Louisiana tribes are not federally recognized, and it's not hard to imagine why, if their lands were formerly (1960's-1970's) the areas where much drilling was happening while they filed for recognition. But there's a whole town called Houma, for the love of.
Anyway, I dislike these articles, because they, unintentionally even, give the sense that this degradation is the fault of people like Richie Blink in the article. This is the same kind of article that has been written about Louisianans since Katrina. Or it gives the sense that people like Rosina Phillippe are just victims, and have no political power. All of these folks are battling the influence of decades of work by many different multi-national corporations, and I wish the article would give more of that context--Otherwise, it seems like the subjects of the article are in some hapless battle, fighting over scraps, that the readers cannot help them with. When there is a lot US readers could do--these questions are national.
And I wish that there was more coverage about the new damages by the oil industry to the Louisiana coast---LNG Export, supposedly to help Ukraine, but really to sell methane gas on the international market, is proposed to remove over 3000 acres of wetlands in Calcasieu watershed, as well as from these areas of Plaquemines Parish discussed in the article.
One of the LNG projects, Venture Global LNG Delta LNG, is proposed right next to the Grand Bayou village in this article. The Pipeline, Delta Express, is proposed to rip up hundreds of acres of marsh --to be cut right through the area that would otherwise be restored with the Mid Barataria Sediment Diversion.
This is a Virginia company selling Texas Gas to Chinese and French interests, but people on the lands in this article never really get any say in whether the pipeline and LNG export facility will be built--even if it undermines the positive impact of the restoration project.
And then, of course, Louisianans have recently been re-deprived of their right to vote. Pro-Oil representatives like Garrett Graves and Steve Scalise --one of these two US Representatives should not be in office, depending on how you think the gerrymandering of Louisiana districts should be resolved.
What kind of ecological restoration program could Louisiana have, if Louisianans were allowed to vote? If Louisiana Tribes were recognized? What kind of article could be written then?
posted by eustatic at 12:01 PM on July 25, 2022 [27 favorites]
I wish there could be more coverage of industry liability, and their legal struggles, but the media seems allergic to this context, although the oil industry affects the water, the land, the air, the climate, the ground underneath the land, as well as the built environment in Plaquemines Parish.
Did people realize that the US lost a major refinery in 2021 from Hurricane Ida? That is happening in this area.
Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana has Chevron on their board, so perhaps that is why. Great organization, regardless. (donate link) But there's issues Wired has downplayed in this report.
Propublica has covered oil and gas liability for the loss of land. Chevron / Texaco, Shell, BP and others are liable for about $2B apiece for wetland replacement costs, but have been able to defer enforcement of the US Clean Water Act and US Coastal Zone Management Act, as well as the Louisiana Local Coastal Zone Management Act, for 40 years.
How do companies defer enforcement of the law for 40 years? Oliver Houck [JSTOR link] has written about the long legal struggles to hold Big Oil Accountable for their damages. The current Governor is suing these companies for about $30 Billion, which would go a long way toward fixing environmental damages. The entire Coastal Plan costs from $50 Billion (nominal) to $100 Billion (over 50 years with inflation).
Rosina Phillippe, quoted in the article, is one of the signatories on a UN petition to rule that the US and Louisiana's inaction on climate change constitutes forced displacement. The Tribes have asked the Biden administration to follow up on this report of human rights abuse.
Rights of Indigenous People in Addressing Climate-Forced Displacement
January 15, 2020
The lack of enforcement of the Clean Water Act is one of the Tribal complaints, #4, to the UN about Louisiana.
Louisiana tribes are not federally recognized, and it's not hard to imagine why, if their lands were formerly (1960's-1970's) the areas where much drilling was happening while they filed for recognition. But there's a whole town called Houma, for the love of.
Anyway, I dislike these articles, because they, unintentionally even, give the sense that this degradation is the fault of people like Richie Blink in the article. This is the same kind of article that has been written about Louisianans since Katrina. Or it gives the sense that people like Rosina Phillippe are just victims, and have no political power. All of these folks are battling the influence of decades of work by many different multi-national corporations, and I wish the article would give more of that context--Otherwise, it seems like the subjects of the article are in some hapless battle, fighting over scraps, that the readers cannot help them with. When there is a lot US readers could do--these questions are national.
And I wish that there was more coverage about the new damages by the oil industry to the Louisiana coast---LNG Export, supposedly to help Ukraine, but really to sell methane gas on the international market, is proposed to remove over 3000 acres of wetlands in Calcasieu watershed, as well as from these areas of Plaquemines Parish discussed in the article.
One of the LNG projects, Venture Global LNG Delta LNG, is proposed right next to the Grand Bayou village in this article. The Pipeline, Delta Express, is proposed to rip up hundreds of acres of marsh --to be cut right through the area that would otherwise be restored with the Mid Barataria Sediment Diversion.
This is a Virginia company selling Texas Gas to Chinese and French interests, but people on the lands in this article never really get any say in whether the pipeline and LNG export facility will be built--even if it undermines the positive impact of the restoration project.
And then, of course, Louisianans have recently been re-deprived of their right to vote. Pro-Oil representatives like Garrett Graves and Steve Scalise --one of these two US Representatives should not be in office, depending on how you think the gerrymandering of Louisiana districts should be resolved.
What kind of ecological restoration program could Louisiana have, if Louisianans were allowed to vote? If Louisiana Tribes were recognized? What kind of article could be written then?
posted by eustatic at 12:01 PM on July 25, 2022 [27 favorites]
John McPhee's Control of Nature has a section about the Atchafalaya Control Structure and how close it has come to failure on several times in its history. It is likely there has been at least one close call since the book's 1989 publication. On a geologic scale, the Mississippi's avulsion to the Atchafalaya drainage is inevitable. It is a matter of how prepared we are for it.
posted by Badgermann at 12:08 PM on July 25, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by Badgermann at 12:08 PM on July 25, 2022 [12 favorites]
The oil & gas industry owns Louisiana government. They exempt themselves from taxes, but still run everything.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:08 PM on July 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:08 PM on July 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
But as for the river, it's already moving itself, is the thing.
Sea Level Rise has caused the river to create two large crevasses in the Lower River in the last decade. Big changes are coming, the restoration program is just trying to balance out the effects and damages, i think.
posted by eustatic at 12:09 PM on July 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
Sea Level Rise has caused the river to create two large crevasses in the Lower River in the last decade. Big changes are coming, the restoration program is just trying to balance out the effects and damages, i think.
posted by eustatic at 12:09 PM on July 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
The oil & gas industry owns the US government.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:08 PM on July 25 [+] [!]
is what i'm saying. Maybe more people are becoming aware of this, with the drama around Manchin? What's the difference between "Big Mike" Fesi, oil and gas construction CEO and State Senator, and Joe Manchin?
posted by eustatic at 12:13 PM on July 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:08 PM on July 25 [+] [!]
is what i'm saying. Maybe more people are becoming aware of this, with the drama around Manchin? What's the difference between "Big Mike" Fesi, oil and gas construction CEO and State Senator, and Joe Manchin?
posted by eustatic at 12:13 PM on July 25, 2022 [4 favorites]
Thank you, eustatic, for your perspective and for all the additional context!
posted by theory at 2:33 PM on July 25, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by theory at 2:33 PM on July 25, 2022 [3 favorites]
Utah is talking about grabbing some Mississippi water to fill up Lake Powell.
posted by Oyéah at 2:50 PM on July 25, 2022
posted by Oyéah at 2:50 PM on July 25, 2022
I grew up in the Mississippi Delta. My family are Cajuns from Vermillion Parish and Lafayette. One of my earliest memories is from a daycare in Houma. I used to go on vacation on the barrier islands. I have traced the course of the River along the map at Mud Island in Memphis.
The River is going to remind us one day that it was here before us, and that it will be here after us. I just hope it doesn't kill too many when it does. I hate the oil industry. I hate what it has done to the places I used to live. What it does to the families who live in the rythmn of oil.
posted by gwydapllew at 4:13 PM on July 25, 2022 [11 favorites]
The River is going to remind us one day that it was here before us, and that it will be here after us. I just hope it doesn't kill too many when it does. I hate the oil industry. I hate what it has done to the places I used to live. What it does to the families who live in the rythmn of oil.
posted by gwydapllew at 4:13 PM on July 25, 2022 [11 favorites]
I've met Richie Blink through my work a couple times, and I'm actually going down for his tour (this same tour, I guess?) in a couple weeks. I hope we don't have to reschedule due to weather...
posted by CheeseLouise at 5:12 PM on July 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by CheeseLouise at 5:12 PM on July 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Following up on Badgermann's comment, the section of McPhee's book dealing with the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya was published in the New Yorker as John McPhee - Atchafalaya.
posted by yclipse at 4:28 AM on July 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by yclipse at 4:28 AM on July 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Obligatory Fisk’s meander maps of the Mississippi.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:10 AM on July 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 5:10 AM on July 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Just a few years ago, I think all three sections on Control of Nature were in the news at the same time: flooding on the Mississippi, eruptions in Iceland, and mudslides in CA.
posted by MtDewd at 7:38 AM on July 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by MtDewd at 7:38 AM on July 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
When the Union captured Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, taking control of the entire Mississippi River and splitting the Confederacy in two, President Lincoln said, "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea." (Very good article on the Vicksburg campaign.)
Then in the 20th century the Corps of Engineers vexed the crap out of the river.
The river is going to go where it's going to go. Maybe having cities in the way isn't sustainable.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:59 AM on July 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
Then in the 20th century the Corps of Engineers vexed the crap out of the river.
The river is going to go where it's going to go. Maybe having cities in the way isn't sustainable.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:59 AM on July 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
The river is going to go where it's going to go. Maybe having cities in the way isn't sustainable.
This is the opinion I am coming around to, yeah.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:07 AM on July 26, 2022
This is the opinion I am coming around to, yeah.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:07 AM on July 26, 2022
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Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
(Library of Congress link, I'm trying not to automatically send book recommendations to any particular vendor)
posted by TimHare at 7:48 AM on July 25, 2022 [7 favorites]