Order Code RS22276
Updated May 4, 2006
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Coastal Louisiana Ecosystem Restoration
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
Jeffrey A. Zinn
Specialist in Natural Resources Policy
Resources, Science, and Industry Division
Summary
Prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been
seeking congressional approval for a $1.1 billion program both to construct five projects
that would help restore specified sites in the coastal wetland ecosystem in Louisiana, and
to continue planning several other related projects. The state of Louisiana and several
federal agencies participated in the development of this program. This report introduces
the program and more extensive restoration options that are being discussed in the wake
of the hurricanes. It also discusses whether this program, if completed, might have
muted the impacts of the hurricanes. Congressional consideration will be informed by
new information about the location and extent of coastal wetland change that resulted
from the hurricanes. This report will be updated.
Introduction
The widespread destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has altered
Congress’s perspective on coastal Louisiana restoration as it considers provisions in
legislation (e.g., S. 728 and H.R. 2864) that would authorize the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (Corps) to implement numerous activities to slow the rate of coastal wetlands
loss. Both bills, developed before the hurricanes struck, would authorize funding to
implement a program that the Corps had recommended in a November 2004 feasibility
report. The Corps recommended $1.1 billion for activities to be initiated immediately and
completed over the next decade, and estimated an additional cost of $0.9 billion for future
work. As a result of the hurricanes, more expansive options, costing up to $14 billion and
requiring three decades before they are fully implemented, are also being considered.
Of the initial $1.1 billion in the proposal Congress was considering when the
hurricanes struck, $828 million is to complete planning and construct five projects, called
“near-term features.” The remainder of this initial authorization would be spent on
monitoring program performance; building small demonstration projects (a maximum
cost of $25 million per project); exploring options to use dredged materials to create
wetlands; and continued planning of 10 additional projects that would have to be
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

---

CRS-2
authorized at a future date. Finally, additional funding would be provided to study six
less defined possible program elements for the future, termed “large-scale, long-term
coastal restoration concepts.” H.R. 2864 was approved by the House on July 25, 2005,
while S. 728 was reported by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on
April 26, 2005. After the hurricanes struck, Congress provided $96 million in FY2006
Defense appropriations (P.L. 106-148) for activities that would reduce threats to New
Orleans by improving coastal wetlands, leaving open the potential for a wide range of
legislative actions in the future. (For more information on the proposed Corps program,
see CRS Report RS22110, Coastal Louisiana Ecosystem Restoration: The Recommended
Corps Plan, by Jeffrey Zinn; to track the legislative process, see CRS Issue Brief
IB10133, Water Resources Development Act (WRDA): Army Corps of Engineers
Authorization Issues in the 109th Congress, coordinated by Nicole T. Carter.)
The National Research Council was asked to review the Corps’ recommended plan.
It recognized that these hurricanes, which struck after the report was largely completed,
will likely lead to reconsideration of some plan components. It concluded that while most
of the individual projects are sound, they are not a comprehensive response to wetlands
loss. It calls for the development of a detailed map showing the desired landscape of
coastal Louisiana that would serve as the basis for selecting future actions. The lack of
synergy among projects in this plan contrasts with another Corps large-scale ecosystem
construction and restoration program in the south Florida Everglades, where success
depends on completing all the interrelated program components.1
Background
The Corps recommendations for projects to restore some wetlands and slow wetland
losses in November 2004 is the most recent of many such proposals offered over the past
four decades, shortly after the rapid rate of coastal wetlands loss was first documented.
It is now estimated that more than 1.2 million acres of wetlands, an area approximately
the size of Delaware, has been converted to open water since the 1930s. The remaining
wetlands cover about 3.5 million acres, an area slightly larger than Connecticut. The U.S.
Geological Survey estimated that an additional 448,000 acres could be lost by 2050 if no
additional restoration projects are initiated. If the Corps’ program is implemented, it
estimated that net wetland losses would be reduced to 170,000 acres by 2050. These
estimates do not appear to account for major but unpredictable hurricane events.
These losses have been caused by a combination of human activities and natural
factors that have been documented in many reports by the Corps and others. Proposals
to respond to these losses have centered on rebuilding the region’s coastal wetlands in
ways that could reduce the ecological, economic, and social costs. One cost receiving far
more attention today is the role that wetlands can play in absorbing storm surges and
thereby decreasing flood elevations and muting the force of wave energy.
The Corps’ current recommended program includes projects centered in the wetlands
south and southwest of New Orleans. No projects are in the western portion of state
where Rita struck, and few are east of New Orleans, where Katrina’s damage to coastal
1 The full report, titled Drawing Louisiana’s New Map: Addressing Land Loss in Coastal
Louisiana, can be downloaded at [http://www.fermat.nap.edu/catalog/11476.html].

---

CRS-3
development and the environment was most concentrated. In the Corps analysis of the
selected set of options and the alternative proposals included in the November 2004 final
report, there is almost no mention of hurricanes, nor an analysis comparing how these
proposals might mitigate the effects of a major hurricane; and the District Engineer for
New Orleans did not mention hurricanes when he made recommendations in the final
report. He stated: “I am convinced that the LCA [Louisiana Coastal Area] Plan would
begin to reverse the current trend of degradation of Louisiana’s coastal ecosystem, support
Nationally significant living resources, provide a sustainable and diverse array of fish and
wildlife habitats, reduce nitrogen delivery to offshore gulf waters, provide infrastructure
protection, and make progress towards a more sustainable ecosystem.”2
While Congress has not yet authorized any restoration program, two prototype
restoration projects — Davis Pond and Caernarvon Diversions (opened in 2005 and 1991,
respectively) — had been initiated under existing authorities. The primary purpose of
both diversions is to introduce fresh water (bearing sediment) into the wetland areas, and
thereby reduce the salinity. Both restorations are located in the greater New Orleans area
along the main channel of the Mississippi River. River water is periodically introduced
into these sites, which are large receptacle areas bounded by low levees. As the water
sinks into the ground or evaporates, it leaves sediments and raises land elevation, which,
in turn, provides an environment in which wetland habitat can be reestablished. These two
diversions are planned to add about 50,000 acres of wetlands over 50 years.
Effects of Recent Hurricanes on Restoration Planning
In the wake of the 2005 hurricane season, some supporters of restoration, especially
from within the state, are calling for a more substantial program than in the current
legislation. Supporters emphasize that the hurricanes caused nationally significant
disruptions, especially to energy supplies and bulk transportation, and therefore the
restoration would have significant national benefits. They are seeking consideration of
a $14 billion restoration effort that had been laid out in the Coast 2050 Plan, released in
1998. This Corps-led planning effort resulted in recommendations for 77 “restoration
strategies” to be completed over 50 years. The strategies would be distributed along the
entire length of the Louisiana’s coastal area, but concentrated in the central coast south
and southwest of New Orleans. The anticipated result from fully implementing these
strategies was to protect or restore almost 450,000 acres of wetlands.
Congress has not considered legislation authorizing the Coast 2050 Plan. Instead,
in 2000, the Corps and the state began to develop a more modest set of proposals for
projects that could be initiated over a 10-year time period. A draft was completed in
October 2003 but never officially released. It included several options for implementation
with estimated costs that reportedly ranged between $4.3 billion and $14.7 billion.
However, the Administration, represented by the Office of Management and Budget,
reviewed these options, then reportedly directed the Corps to come up with a less costly
package of proposals in late 2003; that package is what Congress was considering when
the hurricanes struck.
2 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) Ecosystem Restoration Study,
Final Report, New Orleans, November 2004, p. MR 6-1.

---

CRS-4
Effects of Recent Hurricanes on Coastal Louisiana
Documenting the full effect of the 2005 hurricane season on coastal Louisiana will
be a long process. Coastal Louisiana is an extremely flat and dynamic physical
environment where major storm events can greatly alter the surface features, especially
wetlands, beaches, and barrier islands. Some portion of the losses caused by both storms
may only be temporary, as wetland vegetation was flattened by storm surge and strong
wind, and coastal beach sand and sediment was redistributed by these same forces. In
addition, in some locations where the storm deposited sediment, wetlands and beaches
may emerge or expand. A U.S. Geological Survey summary of wetland changes, released
in February 2006, estimates that about 76,000 acres of wetlands were converted to open
water in eastern and central coastal areas. Far greater loss resulted from Katrina then from
Rita, and it was concentrated south and east of New Orleans, with almost half the total
loss from Plaquemines Parish.
The wetlands were partially protected from ocean storms in central and eastern
portions of coastal Louisiana by a thin ribbon of coastal sand barriers and beaches along
the shoreline. These barrier systems, heavily damaged by the hurricanes, help to dampen
the full force of the storm surge. They also prevent saline ocean waters in the Gulf from
reaching freshwater wetland plants and disrupting the ecology of this wetlands-based
ecosystem. These barrier systems have been deteriorating for many of the same reasons,
human and natural, as the wetlands. Stabilization and restoration of them is critical to
successfully restoring the wetlands that they protect. It may be particularly challenging
to reestablish wetlands landward of where barriers were overtopped, flattened, or bisected
by new inlets that allow an influx of salt water. Over time, some of these barriers may
stabilize or rebuild in new locations, but it is only slowly becoming clearer which changes
will be permanent, and which islands will recover in calmer conditions.
What If the Restoration Program Had Been Completed
Before the Hurricanes Made Landfall?
If the entire first phase of the restoration program had been completed, that is, if
Congress had authorized and the Corps had completed the five initial projects
recommended in the November 2004 Corps report, it may be that these investments would
have had little effect on the pattern or extent of flooding or other storm damage around
the city of New Orleans, with the possible exception of modifications to the Mississippi
River Gulf Outlet (MRGO). These projects likely would have had some mitigating
effects on flood elevations and water flow velocities in the immediate areas around the
projects, but the magnitude of the effect would decline quickly as one moved away. The
stability of the levees and floodwalls around the city would not have been directly
enhanced by any component of the restoration program, so none of these projects would
have reduced the flooding in the city. Where the most severe damage occurred to the east
of the city from Hurricane Katrina and in the western portion of the state from Hurricane
Rita, the restoration program would have had little activity. Relationships between the
hurricane impacts on New Orleans and coastal communities and the proposed restoration
may help decision makers identify future restoration priorities, if they choose to follow
the recommendations in the 2005 NRC report.

---

CRS-5
The potential damage from any storm event, and the role the restoration would play
in muting those damages, depends on specific characteristics of the storm event (e.g., the
storm’s intensity, its precise track, and the speed at which it is moving), the components
of the restoration effort, and the status of each component. Damage generally is most
extensive along the east side of a hurricane storm track in the Gulf of Mexico, where the
wind blows from south to north and the storm surge is most pronounced. In the case of
Katrina, the storm track was just east of New Orleans, and the highest storm surge and
greatest damage was documented to the east of that track. By contrast, within 100 miles
of New Orleans west and northwest — for example, in the nearby Baton Rouge area —
the damage was far less extensive.
Some scientists have offered generic support for the restoration effort by pointing out
that coastal wetlands cause friction to dampen storm surge, and estimate that for every 2.7
miles of marsh this surge passes over, its elevation is reduced by a foot. They also
estimate that storm surge is reduced by a foot in adjacent inland areas for every square
mile (640 acres) of wetlands that are restored. Other scientists caution that these general
relationships mask a wide variability, based on site-specific and storm characteristics. A
possible conclusion is that some restoration projects could have a great beneficial effect
in mitigating the damage to coastal Louisiana from storm events with certain
characteristics, and these benefits would be greatest near the projects. However, for
hurricanes with many combinations of characteristics, this specific set of projects may
have done little to reduce the storm’s impacts in much of the greater New Orleans area.
Possible Effect of the Hurricanes on Restoration Efforts
Katrina had greater adverse effects on the wetlands being created at the diversion at
Caernarvon than at Davis Pond. The Caernarvon area is estimated to have lost about
25,000 wetland acres. As the diversion is currently operated, it would take many decades
to offset the lost acres. If the diversion was enlarged or its operation modified to increase
the inflow of sediments, the restoration period could be shortened. Some are talking
about a goal of restoring 1,000 to 2,000 acres a year, but no agreements on the scale of
this effort or changes that will need to be made to reach the selected goal have been
announced.
The impacts from the hurricanes may greatly expand the range of thinking about
restoration options. One aspect of that expansion is that while all past restoration planning
has been in response to wetland losses and coastal degradation within Louisiana, neither
hurricane respected political boundaries. Katrina caused extensive damage in coastal
Mississippi and Alabama, and Rita caused less extensive damage in eastern Texas. These
distributions of impact may create interest in considering a restoration program that would
provide benefits across the central Gulf Coast. A second aspect is renewed discussion of
projects that would result in larger changes across coastal Louisiana. The National
Research Council report, for example, discusses both the third delta and the abandonment
of the current delta in the context of providing more sediment for restoration. A third
aspect is a renewed interest in determining which projects would be most effective. A
January 2006 report by a group of recognized experts, primarily from academia, states that
project priorities should be based on storm damage reduction and ecosystem restoration

---

CRS-6
to develop a “sustainable coastal landscape.”3 This report endorses the development of
a detailed project map that had been recommended in the NRC report.
Notwithstanding whether the 109th Congress authorizes either the pending legislative
proposal or a different amount for restoration, many of the physical changes on the ground
will not be in place for decades. Construction of the five projects for which authorization
is currently pending is not anticipated to be completed for about a decade, if fully funded.
For diversion projects, actual reestablishment of wetlands requires many additional years
after the diversion starts to operate. Beyond the initial five projects, most of the others
are much earlier in the planning process, and therefore completion will be even further
into the future. Under the best of circumstances, the array of projects in a complex
program like Coast 2050 could not be completed for decades. If it is decided to follow
the recommendation of the NRC, the timeline for this effort could be further extended.

In the aftermath of the 2005 hurricanes, ecosystem restoration goals may be in
competition with other demands for federal resources generally, and Corps resources
specifically, in coastal Louisiana. These demands include flood protection, economic
development associated with navigation, and housing. It may be too expensive to fully
support all these goals at the same time. For example, how will policy and program
responses to the flooding in New Orleans be viewed in relation to the restoration effort?
As stated earlier, it appears that little that is proposed in the water resources legislation
would have had much effect on alleviating the causes behind the levee failures or
moderating the rate or pattern at which the city was subsequently flooded, nor would the
many additional projects that were in the Coast 2050 Plan be likely to have had a
significant mitigating effect on the flooding associated with Hurricane Katrina.
If Congress makes the protection or “fortification” of New Orleans its highest
priority, then some financial and agency resources may be drawn away from other
projects, such as those in the restoration efforts, that would contribute only indirectly to
protecting the city. Such a decision could reduce restoration efforts that could have a
more significant moderating effect on hurricane-related threats to communities and
resources south of the city and closer to the Gulf. If Congress wishes to address both
goals at the same time, then it may also want to consider setting priorities among the
protection activities it authorizes and funds. At a minimum, Congress might consider
asking the Corps to examine how each of the restoration projects might mute future storm
damage, and whether there are some modifications that could be made to pending projects
that would further protect the city or other south Louisiana communities.
Congress directed the Corps to develop options for a post-hurricane rebuilding plan
called the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Plan. In this plan, announced in
the March 3, 2006, Federal Register, the Corps identifies four combinations of structural
and nonstructural measures that would protect coastal Louisiana against a category 5
storm. Central issues include (1) what role(s) restoration projects would play in such a
plan, (2) how restoration projects would be integrated with structural measures, and (3)
how projects to protect the New Orleans urban area and to restore coastal Louisiana could
be most effectively integrated to minimize damage from future storm events.
3 Working Group for Post-Hurricane Planning for the Louisiana Coast, A New Framework for
Planning the Future of Coastal Louisiana after the Hurricanes of 2005 (Final Draft).

---