Grand threat to the low-lying coast could
one day be under water for half of every year...
and similar low-lying locations along Louisiana's central coastline
could be inundated with floodwaters for half of each year by the end
of the century, thanks to the effects of rapidly sinking soils and
rising water levels in the Gulf of Mexico, according to new estimates
from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The effects of relative sea level rise, the combination of subsidence
and rising water, will be significant by 2050, according to the study,
with as many as 79 flooding events lasting a total of 20 days.
The new study is based on five years of measurements at a benchmark on
a bulkhead at the U.S. Coast Guard station on the inland side of the
island's eastern end. But the results of that benchmark are similar to
recent readings at other sea-level benchmarks in that part of the
coast — and could spell major problems for Port Fourchon, the major
jumping-off point for deepwater oil and gas production.
The predictions — as dramatic as they seem — may actually
underestimate the extent of future flooding because the study does not
include even larger rates of sea level rise that are expected to be
caused by global warming, said Stephen Gill, chief scientist for the
National Ocean Service's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products
and Services.
The study found that relative sea level rise, the combination of
rising water levels and sinking land beneath the island, equaled 9.24
millimeters a year -- about a third of an inch -- between 2005 and
2009.
While there were four high-water events lasting 53 hours that
inundated the benchmark between 2005 and 2009, the study found that
between 2046 and 2050, sea level would have risen by 1.2 feet at the
marker, resulting in 79 flood events lasting 478 hours, or 20 days.
Between 2096 and 2100, sea level is expected to rise by 2.7 feet,
which would cause the number of events to skyrocket to 1,241 and to
last as long as 22,229 hours, or over half of the five-year period.
Port plans for changes
The results assume that the speed in which land is sinking today —
about 6 millimeters a year — beneath that part of the coast will
continue unabated throughout the 21st century. Subsidence in the area
is occurring as sediment deposited along older courses of the
Mississippi River and its tributaries sinks, releasing oxygen and
water from between grains of silt and sand deep beneath the surface.
But they also assume that the sea level rise portion of the equation,
which makes up about 3 millimeters a year, remains steady. Various
estimates of the effects of global warming could add as much as
another 2 millimeters of rise a year to those totals, especially in
the later years of the century.
"I don't think anybody's really surprised by this," said Wayne Keller,
executive director of the Grand Isle Port Commission and a member of
the island's levee board.
He said the port is already factoring in expected sea level rise into
its development plans. For instance, a new state Department of
Wildlife and Fisheries laboratory building was elevated with sea level
rise in mind, he said.
And the island already is attempting to alleviate problems caused by
subsidence, including the repeated inundation of Louisiana 1 from high
tides.
"One of our biggest concerns when a storm is coming in is that there's
a low spot between Grand Isle and Port Fourchon," Keller said. "Once
water gets above a certain point, you're stuck on the island. That's
going to be more and more of a concern."
Staying high and dry
The state and federal government already have built an elevated
highway between Port Fourchon and Golden Meadow, and Grand Isle and
Jefferson Parish officials continue to lobby to get an additional
stretch of elevated highway to the island, said Marnie Winter,
environmental director for the parish.
"We also need to get sediment put into the system, which we've been
pushing for 20-some years," Winter said. The Army Corps of Engineers
has just announced plans to designate the western half of Grand Terre
Island, just east of Grand Isle, as a disposal area for sediment
dredged from the Barataria Waterway. Once placed there, the sediment
could wash west to help keep Grand Isle's beaches above the rising sea
level, she said.
The statewide building code, adopted in 2006, following Hurricane
Katrina, also should assist in requiring new construction to be built
with sea level in mind, Winter said.
The island's levee district also is working on plans to expand the
levee system around more of the island's populated areas, and the town
also is developing plans for pump stations that would help remove
water from inside the new levee system, she said.
Farther inland, Winter said, the town of Lafitte is working with
zoning experts to develop structural recommendations for residents,
including standards for raising houses to avoid inundation.
Global warming kicks in
Louisiana is not alone in facing the effects of sea level rise,
especially as global warming kicks in, said Denise Reed, a coastal
research scientist at the University of New Orleans.
"This is what's going to happen to the built environment all around
the coast of the U.S.," she said. "It's going to flood more and more
often."
The natural environment can keep up with sea level rise by depositing
sediment along shorelines and the growth of vegetation in wetlands,
she said. But in areas where sediment has been cut off, such as in
Louisiana, where levees and navigation channels block the introduction
of silt and sand into wetlands, survival will be more difficult, she
said.
"That has real implications for the facilities at Port Fourchon and
Grand Isle," she said. "This tells us that the future has to be
different. What we do for Grand Isle depends on what future Grand Isle
believes it will have. They can build levees and hide behind them from
the rising water, but the issues are really going to be access, roads
and water supply.
"I think there are engineering solutions for many of these issues,"
she said. "But whether or not they're the common-sense thing to do is
something we need to consider. Whether the level of investment they
require is something we can afford is something we need to consider."
Visit the Gulf State Insurance Information Center at
www.GulfStateInsuranceCenter.org.
Written by Mark Schleifstein, Times Picayune — New Orleans, La.
November 29, 2010