Important Lessons Which the Morganza "Leaky Levee" Project Ignores
The Morganza-to-the-Gulf project was conceived pre-Katrina and Rita, it obviously doesn't contemplate important findings, data, and other analysis from university, state and federal agency, other NGO's and independent sources which expose deep, inherent flaws in the hydrological and economic characterizations upon which the project is based.
The most important lessons which Morganza ignores:
- LEVEES DON'T WORK - THEY TURN WETLANDS INTO OPEN WATER OUTSIDE AND KILL THE ECOLOGY INSIDE THE LEVEE - see South Lafourche Levee District and every other levee ever built
- NAVIGATION CANALS KILL PEOPLE - see St. Bernard and Orleans - Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO)
- PROJECTS HAVE BEEN DRIVEN BY PATRONAGE AND POLITICS, NOT SCIENCE AND COMMUNITY WILL - everyone, in their own experience, in this area can personally relate
- THE MOST IMPORTANT ECONOMY IN THE COMMUNITY IS THE WORKING FAMILY, NOT the OIL & GAS and MARINE TRANSPORTATION - we were here a long time before oil & gas was discovered, we adapted before and we can again
- FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TO HAPPEN, PEOPLE NEED A PLACE TO LIVE - NOT JUST FAB YARDS - inappropriate over-industrialization of the wetlands must stop
- THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "LEAKY LEVEE" - like the unicorn, it simply doesn't exist
- THE BASIN NEEDS WATER, MORGANZA IS LIKE ADDING GASOLINE TO THE FIRE - our land is above sea-level, why sink it like New Orleans did?
- MORGANZA IS A REPETITION OF PUMP-and-PAVE POLICIES THAT BEGAT ST. BERNARD AND NEW ORLEANS EAST - a project to spur more development in the wetlands. The main feature of Morganza, the Houma Navigational Canal Lock (HNC), is the perhaps most offensive aspect of the project out of many. It is simply an indefensible boon to the very narrow interests of a few companies which refuse to contemplate **cheaper** and **better** solutions which would affect HNC traffic minimally.
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