Question for you civil engineers. Does the levee system make coastal erosion worse?

I'm sure they will consult their chart and get back to you.

There are a number of factors, but yes, the levee system certainly adds to coastal erosion.

It was built after the 1927 flood almost washed away everyone along the Mississippi. It’s done a great job of keeping cities dry. It was never built to save the coast.

Of course it does. It's also basically the only thing that keeps much of the state habitable as we know it and/or ever made it habitable/commercially viable to begin with. It's one of many types of tradeoffs society has always made.

This is nonsense, of course:

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The OT's favorite representative (Mandy Landry) was claiming on twitter last month that the levee system exists to prevent coastal erosion. I try to listen in on what she's talking about as she is my representative in state congress.

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Yes. That’s pretty well known by everyone. That’s why they’re planning on cutting a couple of spots in the levee south of New Orleans to let the river flow into those spots again.

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The OT's favorite representative (Mandy Landry) was claiming on twitter last month that the levee system exists to prevent coastal erosion. I try to listen in on what she's talking about as she is my representative in state congress.

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Well she’s a dumbass. But everyone already knew that.

Mandy Landry

With a name like that, was she ever a stripper?

How the cheniers were built is interesting as hell. Did a paper on it in grad school

Irresponsible state legislators need to stay in their lane. If you examine the geological history of SE Louisiana you will quickly discover that the channel for the Mississippi River moves its position in SE La once every couple thousand years. Terrebonne Parish was once the mouth of the river. At one time Old Metarie Road was the natural levee of the river. St. Bernard parish was once the mouth of the river. Before the levees were built the river would flood in the spring and add sediment to the land next to the river,thus building up the land each year. Now the river is confined by the levees and cannot over top its' banks. Also it cannot change course as it did in the past. These sediments that built up SE La. are unconsolidated alluvial sediments, in other words they are not compacted, have air voids in them and over time they compact and sink. This is why New Orleans is constantly getting lower in elevation each year. The marshes are not eroding in the grand sense, they are really sinking because that soil type is compacting and not being replenished from the Mississippi River.