[Dog Gone]

I think the wetlands are vanishing because silt from the Mississippi River isn't being deposited in them anymore. Without that, natural erosion and wave action is eating them away.

[cpdiii]

The problem is simple and the solution is simple but not politically acceptable. The River has levees built all the way to Venice (about 80 miles south of New Orleans) and thus none of the silt that was at one time deposited during floods to the south east of New Orleans make it to the bays and esturaries of the river. This area is being continually eroded by wave and tide action and as as result the protective marshes recede a few hundred feet every year. In effect New Orleans is getting closer and closer to the Gulf of Mexico each year.

The solution is to let the river flood into the Marshes to the Southeast of the city as it did in the past. This will entail large tracts of development being destroyed (sorry about that Chalmette, Lousisiana). The compensation required for these areas is quite small as compared to the compensation that would be required to rebuild New Orleans.

The problem of development in areas unsuitable is also a result of idiotic policy of the Federal Government. Private insures will not issue flood insurance at a resonable rate for these areas in danger. The federal government has and as a result areas that are totally unsuitable for development have houses built on them.

The solution that nobody will accept is to let the river flood as it did in the past. You can delay the river, you can put the river in levees, that river will eventully go where it wants.