re: Louisiana officially canceling Mid-Barataria Diversion, state's biggest coastal project

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At some point somebody needs to just go blow a bunch of holes in the levees just past chalmette or belle chasse and let it rebuild naturally

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Actually happened in 1927 during "The Great Flood".

The threat continued to worsen, however, and state government officials believed the levees would inevitably break. If the break happened below New Orleans, it would relieve pressure and spare the city from massive flooding. An upstream break, on the other hand, would send a disastrous flood into New Orleans. Despite strenuous objections from people living downstream, Governor O. H. Simpson and his advisors acquiesced to a plea from New Orleans civic leaders to blast a breach in the levee. This would give the flood a shortcut to the sea and drop the river level at New Orleans, at the cost of flooding further south. Engineers chose a westward loop in the river at Caernarvon and began blowing the levee apart on April 29. Over the next ten days they used thirty-nine tons of dynamite to open a channel that released 250,000 cubic feet of water per second from the river.

And even back then Louisiana politicians were doing Louisiana politician things.

For two days before the dynamiting began the National Guard and major retailers from New Orleans sent convoys of trucks to evacuate the 10,000 residents whose homes and livelihoods would be washed away when the levee was breached. Most of the refugees went to stay with relatives. Those who had no place to go were brought to a warehouse in New Orleans. White people were housed on the fifth floor, Black people on the sixth. All had been promised full compensation for their losses, but the lucky ones would get an average of only $274 each, and thousands of them would get nothing.

Part of that was because nobody realized how much would be washed away. The financial leaders from New Orleans estimated that claims against a fund set up to compensate the victims would be between $2 million and $6 million. Instead, they amounted to $35 million, and there wasn’t enough money to go around. Additionally, the fund had to bear the expense of feeding the refugees at a cost of $20,000 a week. Refugees had to file a claim to receive compensation under a complicated system that divided payments into various categories, provided that no partial payments could be made, and without legal representation.

The refugees were caught between a system of legalities they did not understand and marshes still filled with water that kept them from going home. Most settled for pennies on the dollar, and practically all of them remembered that it was a man-made catastrophe that put them where they were. Adding to their anger, a natural breach of the levees subsequently eased pressure on the New Orleans levee; the blasting had been unnecessary.

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Little Donald Jr. is just another shitty politician in a long line of shitty politicians.

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But he’s gonna save those unborn babies sha!

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Actually happened in 1927 during "The Great Flood".

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down the road people still bring that up… they don’t seem to understand that St. Bernard is like 1/10 the size of NOLA and back then it was even less.

I have a question about all of these past coastal projects. Could a seawall be built to hold and protect the land from washing away?

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Bad news: It will never be cheaper than it is today to undertake this project.

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Worse news: We spend all that money and a major hurricane in the next 50 years wipes away any progress

Typical dipshit liberal solution. Spend money that changes nothing. Obamacare, common core, welfare, California rail system, failed levee system after Katrina, federal navigation projects stopping natural beach renourishment, New Jersey Beach project resulting in massive bacterial infections and flooding, etc

You get what you voted for.

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I have a question about all of these past coastal projects. Could a seawall be built to hold and protect the land from washing away?

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That is what the current CPRA Chair likes.

He is an advocate for rocks and rocking the coastline. If you can reduce the wave action along the coast and use jetties to manage sand movements there is a chance to manage the barrier islands, in my opinion.

The work still needs to be done inside the coastal marsh zone where over the years the coastal zone has changed from a freshwater ecosystem to a brackish marsh to a salt water marsh. Some of this was due to the introduction of canals that were dug for oil exploration in the decades ago. This allowed salt water to gradually invade those freshwater marshes and coupled with land subsidence allowed the land to sink below sea level. Some of that land is never coming back unless the river is involved or material is dredged into a new land. I think earlier this year the made some terraces in Port Fourchon by the new LA 1 bridge, they also planted mangroves instead of marsh grass to hopefully better hold the land from storms.

The big rub with any freshwater diversion is that now that the habitat has shifted from a freshwater ecosystem to a saltwater ecosystem, to change it back would displace several species and force some seafood fishermen to travel further for their catch. Most of that was factored into the plans for federal approval.

But the oyster lobby is big in Plaquemines parish and they applied the brakes at the local level to stop it on local permit concerns, that eventually gave the state an out. Also, you probably had some back door shenanigans between Nungesser and Landry to stop it. Lt. Nungesser is the former parish president of Plaquemines.


Don’t get me wrong, I think it would be a wonderful project for the state, I just don’t agree with the price tag for the estimated return on the investment regardless of who is paying for it, state, BP, or the feds.

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even though they followed all rules and rega, that they can be sued for costal erosion 30 yrs from now.....like they did oil and gasses companies.

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Could you try to be more wrong? The O&G lawsuits are because the companies absolutely, unequivocally did not comply with their permits or follow all rules and regulations.

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So Landry is taking kickbacks from the oyster lobby, and the pogie boats. Got it. Talk about voter remorse. Bc I have it big time.

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I think more and more folks are starting to feel like this. The big question is, can we get someone who would be an upgrade to A) run, and B) keep the 4 or 5 other egos maniacs / Landry plants out of the race that would take away votes from someone who can beat Lil’ Jeff

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Also, you probably had some back door shenanigans between Nungesser and Landry to stop it. Lt. Nungesser is the former parish president of Plaquemines.

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Let’s not forget about the scandal that caused Newell to resign as Sheriff. That shell company payoff web involved Newell, Shane Guidry, and Nungesser’s father in law, Craig Taffaro. They’re all connected and Guidry has entirely too much influence with this crowd.

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Federal investigators are probing an arrangement through which a firm owned by Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand and his top lieutenant earns tens of thousands of dollars each year from the sale of food and other items by an offshore supplier to Harvey Gulf International Marine, a large oilfield-transport company run by politically active businessman Shane Guidry, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. On his most recent state financial disclosure form, from 2015, Normand reported earnings of between $25,000 and $100,000 from the firm -- called CTNN Enterprise LLC, apparently an amalgamation of his initials and those of his chief deputy, Craig Taffaro

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Normand has reported similar earnings every year starting in 2008. The sources said authorities appear to be trying to determine what work Normand and Taffaro perform in connection with the arrangement, and whether any of the people paying them has received any official favors in return. Normand was elected sheriff in November 2007; the job now pays him $176,000 per year. He and Taffaro formed CTNN roughly a year later, according to state records. Normand’s disclosure records indicate the company is split 50-50 between the two men. The company’s income actually comes from Pelican Marine Distributors, a Belle Chasse firm that supplies food, bedding, janitorial items and other equipment to companies that work in the Gulf. CTNN gets a commission, paid by Pelican Marine, for all items ordered by Harvey Gulf.

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According to sources with knowledge of the investigation, Harvey Gulf is the only company for which CTNN receives such commissions. The company has no presence on the internet or any other apparent visibility, such as a storefront. The sources said federal subpoenas for records have been served on Normand, Taffaro, Harvey Gulf and Pelican Marine. Normand and Taffaro, as well as at least one official from Pelican Marine, have been interviewed by agents.

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Lazaro and his partner, Jeffrey Badeaux, bought Pelican Marine in 2012, records show. The financial arrangement with CTNN had been put in place by the previous owners, the largest of whom was another prominent Louisiana politician: Billy Nungesser, who last year was elected lieutenant governor. Taffaro is Nungesser’s father-in-law, although Nungesser did not marry Taffaro’s daughter until after the commission deal was in place. Nungesser -- who told The Advocate on Thursday that he has not been interviewed by the FBI or received a subpoena -- said he had no involvement in setting up the arrangement among CTNN, Pelican Marine and Harvey Gulf.

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“I have not” heard from federal authorities, Nungesser said. “I didn’t have any knowledge of this.” Nungesser said his direct involvement with Pelican Marine ended when he became president of Plaquemines Parish in 2006. At that point, he said, he put all of his business interests into a blind trust and relinquished control to a trustee. Taffaro eventually became the trustee, although it’s not clear whether Taffaro was in control of the trust when Pelican Marine’s deal with Taffaro’s firm began. Guidry has long been a close ally of Normand’s, and he also was close to Normand’s mentor, longtime Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee. He has served as a reserve deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since the late 1990s. Guidry also recently became a top aide to state Attorney General Jeff Landry, to whom he reports directly as a special assistant

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