NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, December 29, 2008 (ENS) – Defense of Greater New Orleans’ most vulnerable area from storm surge has begun with the groundbreaking for the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lake Borgne Surge Barrier Project, the largest design-build civil works project in Corps history.

It is unusual for a civil works project to be designed and constructed simultaneously, but the Corps says the expedited process is necessary given the compressed timeframe to achieve 100-year flood protection in 2011.

When completed, the $700 million surge barrier, similar to a floodwall but much larger, will run for nearly two miles near the confluence of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. The 26 foot high barrier will run north-south from a point just east of Michoud Canal on the north bank of the waterway and just south of the existing Bayou Bienvenue flood control structure.

Navigation gates will be constructed where the barrier crosses the GIWW and Bayou Bienvenue to reduce the risk of storm surge coming from Lake Borgne and/or the Gulf of Mexico. The openings for each gate will be 150 feet wide.

Another navigation gate is planned for the Seabrook vicinity where the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal meets Lake Pontchartrain to block storm surge from entering the canal from the lake.

Confluence of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet,
left, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
(Photo courtesy USACE)

The surge barrier is a new feature, authorized by Congress in 2006, the year after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the area. It is expected to reduce the risk of storm damage to some of the region’s most vulnerable areas – New Orleans East, metropolitan New Orleans, the 9th Ward, St. Bernard Parish and Gentilly – to a one percent chance in any given year.

“This is territory we must defend, and we must defend it with all of our ingenuity, and with all of our strength, and with all of our determination, and with every fiber of our being,” said John Paul Woodley, assistant secretary of the Army for public works, during the floating groundbreaking ceremony December 5. It was attended by more than 100 people aboard an Army Corps of Engineers enclosed barge towed to the construction site.

“To achieve these project goals, the Corps, the state, our local partners and the local communities must all work together. It’s all about teamwork,” said Karen-Durham-Aguilera, the Corps’ Task Force Hope director.

Advance measures will provide some protection for the area in 2009 although the barrier is not expected to be complete until 2011.

The advanced measures include a concrete barrier and a swinging navigation gate on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway that would allow navigation to bypass the construction of the concrete floodwall and at the same time provide protection from surges.

Additionally, temporary retaining structures called coffer dams would be built at both the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway bypass swing gate and the location of the Bayou Bienvenue gate to provide risk reduction until the gates are complete.

A second level of risk reduction in the short term will be achieved by installing concrete caps on top of the concrete barrier, which will raise the level of the barrier to 20 feet.

For a separate project that is also aimed at reducing flood risk in the New Orleans area, the Corps is overseeing the $13.6 million Mississippi River Gulf Outlet closure structure.

The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet is a former federal navigation channel opened in 1968 to provide a short route between the Port of New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the area, causing widespread property and environmental damages. Since the storm, the shipping channel has not been maintained although navigation has continued.

On December 16, the Corps issued a Notice to Proceed to the construction contractor, Pine Bluff Sand and Gravel Company of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The contractor will dump 430,000 tons of rock across 10 acres of water bottom.

Building the structure will end more than 45 years of navigation on the recently de-authorized federal navigation channel.

“The Corps of Engineers and the State of Louisiana are working faster than ever to provide protection to New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish by cooperating in the building of a surge barrier for the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal and closing the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet,” said Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Chairman Garret Graves. “This shows what our partnership is capable of accomplishing and hopefully the kind of pace we will continue to take when building other restoration and protection projects.”

Since Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans when levees gave way, Corps leaders have pledged to provide the region with protection from a 100-year storm surge by the start of the 2011 hurricane season or “break our backs trying.” A banner draped across the Corps headquarters’ entrance in New Orleans announces the pledge.

To do that, the Corps and its consultants are designing hundreds of upgrades along the entire 350-mile levee system, including raising the height of the lakefront levee across Metairie and Kenner.

Future work in the area will include other coastal wetlands restoration projects. As organic material is dredged from waterways in preparation for new construction, it will be deposited in nearby wetlands habitat to enhance environmental conditions.

The Corps is working closely with federal and state partners to produce a supplement to the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet closure plan that will address ecosystem restoration in areas affected by the MRGO channel. Potential plan features may include marsh creation, shoreline protection, barrier island rebuilding, and freshwater diversions from the Mississippi River.

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The TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, US of A took place a few weeks before “Architecture School” hit the airwaves. It was a classic LA industry event; chock full of agents, industry execs and talent… very organized and very cool. We unveiled “Architecture School”, our Sundance Channel series, to a roomful of critics/journalists. Come to think of it, the room might have been full because of the other new Sundance series, “Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…” onstage right after us, an hour of music/interviews hosted by Elvis Costello. We met Elvis in the green room before our presentation (thanks Lynne K.). He was nice and seemed to know his way ’round an architectural discussion; even referenced the Italian renaissance architect Brunelleschi once. The dude is smart… and cool.

Anyway I stray… The show looks great. Michael, Rob and the whole crew did a great job. It’s been at least 5 years since Michael and I began talking about somehow connecting our architect side with our filmmaker side… and it’s finally happened. Michael’s already mentioned how our big epiphany came while I was teaching at Auburn University and he came down to sit on a panel discussion with me (titled: The Architect in Hollywood). Thank you Sam Mockbee and your progeny. We pitched several architecture programs and ultimately choose Tulane. Not enough room in a brief blog to get into the personalities, politics and bureaucratic nuances of the American University system… Suffice to say the show ended up where it was supposed to be – New Orleans, Louisiana. (Aided in no small part by the patience and vision of the folks at Sundance.)

Being from New Orleans and having taught at Tulane it warms my heart to see Byron Mouton (an ex-student of mine) and his studio full of charismatic students design and build in 9 months (insert pregnancy analogy here) a NOLA inspired modern home in a still recovering uptown neighborhood. It’s a story of the fearless idealism we find in architecture schools meeting the cold, hard, sometimes scary reality of post Katrina New Orleans.

I love watching the scenes from the studio. Students second guessing themselves and Byron. The late night soul searching of the students wondering whether to act on their own embryonic design instinct or to “do what Byron wants”. The constructive (occasionally brutal) comments made by design professionals during “pin-ups”. Reed Kroloff, former-Dean of Tulane Architecture, one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, being the “bad cop” to Byron’s “good cop”. (Byron became both the good cop and bad cop once building started.) It’s all there. All the stuff that made us the good intentioned, underpaid lot we are… architects.

A half hour before Michael, Byron, Reed and I were scheduled to go onstage in front of the TCA, Byron and I were sitting in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton shooting the breeze. Spike Lee walked by with an entourage of scribbling/taping critics following in lock step. Beautiful people on cell phones wandering conspicuously through the hotel that Merv built… and there’s me and Byron. When out of the blue, a young man walks up to Byron, calls him by his full name, then extends his hand to shake. Byron always the ready professional stood up and shook Aaron Barnhart’s hand, the television critic for the Kansas City Star. Aaron proceeded to sit down and tell us in 5 minutes exactly what our show was about. It made my day… Well, actually meeting Elvis Costello made my day but Aaron’s concise and precise observations about “Architecture School” were a close second…

And my point? …I’ve lived in Los Angeles and the So-Cal area for over twenty years and not one time have I ever been recognized “on the street” for any work I’ve done in the industry. My good friend, Byron Mouton is here for two days and he’s picked out of a lobby full of television heavy hitters… by name. Hey, what about my needs? …Move over Howard Roark and Mike Brady. Apparently, there’s a new kid in town.

Stan Bertheaud
Co-Creator/Consulting Producer

When it comes to film locations, you can’t ask for a livelier, more multi-colored urban backdrop than New Orleans, Louisiana. And we tried to include this vibrant city in our series whenever possible. The obvious place to start is Mardi Gras; the Tuesday preceding Lent, the day before Ash Wednesday. Many cities around the world boast grand Mardi Gras celebrations, but New Orleans’ festivities are perhaps the most infamous and adored; and we were lucky that our shoot coincided with this celebration.

The forth episode, simply titled, “Mardi Gras,” is punctuated with imagery of parades and merriment throughout. Before experiencing it for myself, I (probably like most) had imagined Mardi Gras as a weekend of debauchery filled with drinking and girls-gone-wild behavior. I was wrong.

First of all, it’s more like a season than a weekend. Parades begin over a month before actual Mardi Gras and they grow ever more relentless in numbers, size and scope. The parades have names (and themes) — Krewe du Vieux, Krewe of Bilge, Perseus, Cleopatra, Excalibur, Babylon, Bacchus, Barkus, Zulu… the list goes on and on (I counted 77 on a recent parade calendar). These parades are steeped in tradition and intention. Krewe du Vieux, for instance (named for the Vieux Carre, the “Old” Quarter) is known for depicting adult themes mixed with biting political commentary. Bacchus (the first krewe to have celebrities appear as Kings of the parade) has spawned the growingly popular “pun” parade, Barkus — you guessed it — dressed-up dogs are the Kings of this parade. After all, who can resist a canine in costume?

Besides Mardi Gras, another big thing that comes to mind when thinking of New Orleans is music. And the locals take their music seriously. It’s hard to walk through the French Quarter without hearing the sounds of multiple live bands penetrating the streets from all directions. We were anxious to highlight a slice from the abundance of local musicians in our series. And the students were more than happy to invite our camera crew along, while taking in a live band.

In the third episode, we feature a performance by the legendary, Little Freddie King. He sings his hit “Dig A Hole.” This smooth blues ballad provides just the right accompaniment to our weary students as they dig trenches for the house’s foundation, (although I suspect the lyrics are actually about digging a grave). Episode five features a live performance by the local band, Rotary Downs, as they serenade three of our female students unwinding and dishing about the boys.

Happy coincidences often link the students back to New Orleans. One of our characters, Amarit, eagerly informed us one morning that he was going to volunteer for “crowd control” at a rally on campus. Senator Barack Obama was coming to Tulane University to give a speech during his race for the democratic presidential nomination. Amarit was thrilled because he was a supporter of Obama and wanted to hear him speak.

As filmmakers, we were excited by the timeliness of this event. Amarit’s participation clearly (and organically) locks our documentary in time, and connects the series to the greater context of the country as a whole and the political climate in which these actions take place. In addition, Obama’s speech focuses on the rebuilding of the city of New Orleans, which seamlessly blends with images of students constructing the house.

As a documentarian, it is stimulating and certainly challenging to find ways to incorporate the city and its events into the story as they unfold around our subjects and their lives; our ears and eyes always wide open.

Michael Selditch
Executive Producer/Director

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, September 1, 2008 (ENS) – Weaker than feared, the center of Hurricane Gustav made landfall as a Category 2 storm near the small town of Cocodrie in Terrebonne parish on the Louisiana coast 72 miles southwest of New Orleans. The storm hit about 10 this morning local time. Forecasters had warned that the Gustav might blow in as a disastrous Category 4 on the hurricane scale of 1 to 5.

Packing winds of 110 mph, Gustav pushed water over the top of the Industrial Canal floodwall in New Orleans, but appears to have spared the low-lying city’s vulnerable levee system that was breached in several places during Hurricane Katrina three years ago, flooding the city.

“We’ve been working full time since Katrina and the New Orleans area has the best hurricane and storm damage reduction in its history,” said Lt. Gen Robert Van Antwerp, commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and chief of engineers. Since Katrina, the Corps has completed the repair and restoration of 220 miles of floodwalls and levees in New Orleans.

The Corps is half-way through a six-year project to provide New Orleans with 100-year level hurricane and storm damage reduction by 2011.

Hurricane Gustav churns the Louisiana coastal
waters as it makes landfall. September
1, 2008 (Photo by Mike C.)

Van Antwerp says there are still areas more vulnerable than others and there is still a threat of widespread flooding.

Nearly two million people fled the Gulf coast, after New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued a mandatory evacuation order for Sunday morning, the first such evacuation since Katrina.

Terrebonne Parish Manager Al Levron was warning people to evacuate as late as Sunday afternoon. “My personal recommendation is get on the road, head north,” Levron said. “Riding this storm out in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Shreveport or Arkansas is better than sitting in your home in Terrebonne Parish.”

At this hour, the river levees and the private ‘back’ levees are holding up throughout Plaquemines Parish, to the south and east of Gustav’s center, and there are no reports of flooding at this time. But power is out across the parish as the storm has toppled power lines and trees.

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser toured the parish as far south as the Buras Bridge, but was stopped by high winds. Nungesser said that water is being pushed up near the top of the private levees, but so far there is no over-topping. He said, “It will depend on how long the wind continues to push up the water as to whether these levees will hold.”

Nearly half a million customers have lost power in Louisiana due to the storm, and many more are expected, according to Entergy, the utility that serves the central Gulf Coast.

Entergy’s Waterford 3 Nuclear Plant near New Orleans completed a controlled shutdown on Sunday night. The River Bend Nuclear Plant in St. Francisville, Louisiana, is powering down to 75 percent due to reduced demand.

Entergy is assembling a team of 9,000 restoration workers, plus additional support, to respond to Hurricane Gustav as soon as it is safe to do so, utility officials said.

While Gustav has now weakened still more to a Category 1 hurricane, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami warn that an “extremely dangerous” storm surge of 10 to 14 feet above normal tidal levels is expected near and to the east of where Gustav crossed the coast.

Gustav toppled trees at Broadway and Jeanette
in New Orleans. (Photo credit unknown)

In addition, Gustav is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of six to 12 inches over parts of Louisiana, southern and western Mississippi, Arkansas and northeastern Texas with isolated maximum amounts of up to 20 inches possible through Thursday.

A few tornadoes are possible over the central Gulf coast this afternoon, forecasters said.

President George W. Bush called Hurricane Gustav “a serious event.”

Participating in a briefing on at the Texas Emergency Operations Center in Austin, he warned the people of East Texas to be prepared for a possible flooding event.

“All in all, what I look for is to determine whether or not assets are in place to help, whether or not there’s coordination, and whether or not there’s preparation for recovery. And to that end, I feel good about this event,” the president said.

Government agencies are better prepared for this storm than they were for Katrina with water, meals, generators, tarps and other emergency supplies, and private relief agencies also are helping evacuees.

Audrey Black, general manager of a storehouse in Picayune, Mississippi that supplies the Christian relief and development agency World Vision, was forced to evacuate from Picayune to Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday.

“People are still living in temporary trailer parks in this area, and there isn’t a sense of normalcy yet. Now families are going through the experience again,” said Black.

World Vision is working with local church and community partners who are housing evacuees from Louisiana and the Gulf Coast to supply families with diapers; clothing for babies, children and adults; shampoo, soap and deodorant; toilet paper, napkins, paper plates and toys.

Mayor Nagin has mentioned allowing New Orleans residents to return to their homes as early as Wednesday, if roads are cleared of downed tree branches and electrical wires.

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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, August 13, 2008 (ENS) – Today, Governor Bobby Jindal announced plans for more than $1 billion in coastal protection and restoration projects in Louisiana – the largest investment in coastal protection in Louisiana history

These projects, along with nearly $15 billion in ongoing coastal restoration and hurricane protection projects in New Orleans and other areas of the state, represent “one of the largest public works efforts in the world,” said Governor Jindal, a Republican.

The $1 billion in funding was released following the annoucement last week that President George W. Bush agreed to give Louisiana 30 years to pay its $1.8 billion share of the cost of raising hurricane protection levees in the Greater New Orleans area.

Virtually all of the spending announced today is designed to advance federally authorized projects, including funds to expedite hurricane protection in New Orleans, devastated by the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the subsequent levee failure that flooded much of the city.

“The projects include coastal restoration efforts that will provide the coastal buffer we need to improve our hurricane protection levees already under construction and funds to advance hurricane protection efforts in every coastal parish in our state,” Governor Jindal said.

Environmentalists praised the spending plan. “We have always said that, in order to keep Louisiana safe, we need both to strengthen the levees we have now and restore the wetlands and coastal areas that serve as our natural hurricane barriers,” said Paul Harrison, coastal Louisiana project manager for Environmental Defense Fund. “This new plan fulfills both of those priorities.”

The funding includes $130 million for the Greater New Orleans hurricane protection cost share

While the agreement reached with the White House would not require Louisiana to provide matching funds until 2011, this $130 million investment will help expedite ongoing construction, which will help the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers meet the 2011 deadline, the governor said.

“This is financially prudent in that future surpluses are uncertain and will allow the state to help keep the Corps on schedule and continuing coastal development projects,” Jindal said.

Each year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spends nearly $200 million to dredge navigation channels in Louisiana. Nearly all of this sediment, that actually built Louisiana, is usually dumped into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The investment announced today will jumpstart the beneficial use of dredge material, which the governor said is one of the fastest and most effective investments the state can make to restore coastal areas.

In the last eight months, the state has nearly doubled the available sites to place this dredge material and create wetlands.
A coastal town built on Louisiana wetlands on

Atchafalaya Bay (Photo by Maitri)

Louisiana’s 4,600 square miles of coastal wetlands are lost at the rate about 35 square miles annually, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

To help reverse the rate of erosion, a sediment pipeline for restoration of Plaquemines, Jefferson and Lafourche parishes will be built with $37 million of the funding announced today.

This dedicated pipeline will deliver land building materials to the three coastal parishes.

Once this project in completed, the state will move forward on similar projects on the Calcasieu River, Atchafalaya River into Terrebonne Parish and other areas in Plaquemines Parish on the Mississippi River.

The governor said $70 million for shoreline restoration of Caminada Headlands and Barataria Basin to provide a buffer against storm surges in Jefferson and Lafourche parishes.

“This plan shows a substantial commitment to projects that will allow us to restore wetlands by using sediment that would otherwise have gone to waste,” said Maura Wood, senior program manager of the Coastal Louisiana Restoration for the National Wildlife Federation. “These projects will restore the Mississippi River’s capacity to build land and allow us to take advantage of storm protection provided by our natural resources.”

Environmentalists also praised plans to restore barrier islands.

“The barrier islands act as a speed bump for storm surge and wave energy,” said Paul Kemp, vice president of the Gulf Coast Initiative for the National Audubon Society. “Louisiana loses the equivalent of 32 football fields’ worth of wetlands every day, and that includes many of our barrier islands. This leaves coastal communities vulnerable to the full wrath of hurricanes. The new funding will help us rebuild those speed bumps and bring back our first line of defense against storms.”

The time for studies and research has long passed, Jindal said. “It is time to start breaking ground and digging dirt on these projects.”

Yet, the governor said the state will “make a robust investment in science and technology to provide solutions to our coastal restoration and protection challenges.”

He said Louisiana is on the forefront of integrated coastal management innovations and is home to some of the best coastal scientists in the nation.

The $1 billion in funding includes $300 million the governor called for in his second special session of the legislature earlier this year, $200 million in surplus funding from the 2007 legislative session, $510 million from the Coastal Impact Assistance Program, $83 million from the state trust fund/capital outlay and $68 million from the Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act.

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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, July 24, 2008 (ENS) – Crews are struggling to contain and clean more than 419,000 gallons of fuel oil from an 80 mile closed stretch of the Mississippi River that extends from New Orleans downstream to the Gulf of Mexico.

The oil spilled early Wednesday near downtown New Orleans when the 600-foot Liberian-flagged oil tanker Tintomara collided with an American Commercial Lines barge that was being pushed by a tug, the Mel Oliver.

The collision split the 61-foot barge in half and the oil spilled from the barge into the river at mile marker 98, near Harahan, just north of the Huey P. Long Bridge. The tanker was not damaged.

The U.S. Coast Guard closed the Lower Mississippi to all vessel traffic following the spill. The barge is partially submerged and is being kept in place by tugboats. No injuries have been reported.

A U.S. Coast Guard crewman observes
the sunken barge surrounded by
tugs in the Mississippi River. (Photo
courtesy U.S. Coast Guard)

The Coast Guard has confirmed that none of the tug’s crew had the licenses that are required to operate on the river.

Representatives from the tug Mel Oliver report that “there were no properly licensed individuals on the vessel during the time that the incident occurred,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The tug operator’s name and the name of the river pilot aboard the tanker have not been released.

Laurin Maritime of Houston owns the Tintomara, which was carrying styrene and biodiesel fuel in separate compartments.

The Coast Guard is working with Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordination Office, oil spill response organizations, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to address the spill.

Nearly nine miles of containment boom has been deployed by the Oil Spill Response Organization, which is awaiting the deployment of an additional 29,000 feet of boom.

Booms also were deployed to protect sensitive wildlife habitats and to protect drinking water intake pipes.

Contracted oil spill response organizations are using vaccum trucks and oil skimmers to pick up the spilled oil.

The #6 fuel oil that was spilled is a commercial fuel oil that is lighter than regular fuel oil and dissipates more quickly, the Coast Guard says.

“The Coast Guard continues to work very closely with state and local agencies, the maritime industry, oil spill response organizations and salvage companies in an effort to mitigate the pollution impact and to reopen the Lower Mississippi River to commercial traffic as soon as practical,” said Lt. Cmdr. Michael Mckean, chief of the Sector New Orleans Command Center.

No damage to the marshlands has been reported at this time, he said.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker and a six-person team of safety investigators arrived in New Orleans late Wednesday to investigate the incident.

Emergency responders from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality have notified all parishes affected by the oil spill so that they could take action to protect their water intakes. Parishes shut down their intakes and booms have been deployed around the intakes.

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospital officials are urging residents in the Algiers, St. Bernard, Dalcour and Belle Chase water systems to conserve water, as the intakes have been shut down.

These systems have water reserves, but if the reserves run out, and sampling of the finished water shows elevated contaminants, contracts with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to deliver water to the affected areas could be activated at the request of the individual parishes.

Air monitoring, in high traffic areas, such at Riverwalk and the French Quarter, is ongoing. The DEQ has emergency responders with a portable air monitor moving around New Orleans where the river is impacted. The air monitor shows low readings of hydrocarbons below any action levels.

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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, June 18, 2008 (ENS) – As a record-breaking volume of floodwater laden with sewage and fertilizers rolls down the waterways of the Mississippi Basin towards the Gulf of Mexico, a joint federal-state task force released an updated action plan to reduce low oxygen levels that cause a dead zone each summer in the Gulf of Mexico.

Researchers say this year’s dead zone may be the largest ever recorded due to increased fertilizer use in the Midwest and flooding along the Mississippi River dumping even more water than usual into the Gulf of Mexico.

The revised action plan was signed at a meeting of the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force Monday in New Orleans.

The plan calls for all states to continue and expand activities to reduce the amount of nitrates and phosphorus emptying into the Mississippi River Basin from farm fertilizers and urban runoff.

These nutrients fuel the enormous algae blooms that cause the annual dead zones. The algae deplete the oxygen in the water when they die, sink to the bottom and decompose.

Satellite image shows sediment loads from
the Mississippi and Atchafalaya
Rivers entering the Gulf of Mexico.
(Image courtesy NASA)

“Our improved plan unites governments and citizens across the country to take action upstream and along the coast to reduce river nutrient pollution and increase Gulf of Mexico health,” said Benjamin Grumbles, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s assistant administrator for water.

“Sound science, cooperative conservation, and innovation will accelerate environmental progress throughout the 31-state watershed and this plan puts us on a course to do just that,” he said.

Improvements include more accountability through an Annual Operating Plan, better tracking of progress, state as well as federal nutrient reduction strategies, and a plan to increase awareness of the problem and implementation of solutions.

Eleven key actions in the 2008 Action Plan outline critical needs to complete and implement nitrogen and phosphorus reduction strategies, promote effective conservation practices and management practices, track progress, reduce existing scientific uncertainties, and promote effective communications to increase awareness of Gulf hypoxia.

Garret Graves, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, reminded members of the Task Force of the urgent need to clean the water in the Mississippi River since that water and sediment are the most important resources needed to restore and sustain Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastal marshes.

“The Mississippi River built almost all of South Louisiana. We will rely upon it to help us rebuild what has washed away over the last century. The river must be healthy in order for us to succeed, said Graves.

Graves said Louisiana is the source of very little of the contamination yet his state must deal with the consequences of pollution from other states. He said Louisiana is not only concerned with rebuilding and restoring coastal marshes but also is trying to preserve fisheries stocks that are vitally important to the nation.

“The Gulf’s world class recreational and commercial fishing is at stake,” he said. “This industry is not only a major contributor to the region’s economy, but is a huge part of the heritage of the people of our state and region. The culture of fishing has shaped South Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf and we must do all we can to preserve that culture.”

Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Army Corps of Engineers formed the task force in 1998.

Ohio joined in 2002 because the Ohio River supplies a large portion of the water in the lower Mississippi River.

The action plan is a voluntary effort that supports state and federal initiatives to reduce nutrient runoff into the river while encouraging private projects to do the same.

“The action plan signed today will provide a solid foundation for an aggressive program to reduce and eliminate the nutrients that cause the Gulf dead zone,” Graves said.

He said Louisiana has budgeted to cover the expense of its actions to comply with the plan. “The $300 million that Governor [Bobby] Jindal and the legislature provided earlier this year for coastal restoration and hurricane protection will allow us to move forward on river diversions that will help to filter nutrients and restore our coastal area, a win-win for Louisiana.”

The action plan is online at: epa.gov

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GENEVA, Switzerland, January 21, 2008 (ENS) – An international strategy for deployment of dozens of new satellites to help scientists better understand global warming got a boost Wednesday as the world’s space and meteorological agencies gave their support to the World Meteorological Organization proposal at a high-level space conference.

Approval came at the end of the two day meeting last week in New Orleans, Louisiana attended by top officials of space agencies from across the world.

Participants in the annual WMO Consultative Meetings on High-level Policy on Satellite Matters expressed readiness to help foster international cooperation towards an enhanced global satellite system for the coming decades.

“There is a major societal need to further develop the capacity of satellites to monitor even more accurately climate and weather,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

At least 16 geostationary and low-Earth orbit satellites currently provide operational data on the planet’s climate and weather as part of the Global Observing System.

They are complemented by numerous experimental satellites designed for scientific missions or instrument technology demonstration. A record number of 17 satellites are planned for launch in 2008 to further strengthen the Global Observing System.

CBERS-2, the Sino-Brazilian
satellite monitoring the
environment (Photo courtesy
CBERS/INPE)

Satellite data shows that in 2006, globally averaged concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, CO2, in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded.

After water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the three most prevalent greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Greenhouse gases are major drivers of global warming and climate change.

Satellites have been used for decades to monitor climatic and weather conditions. But better integration of satellites and the constant refinement of their capabilities are crucial to keep check on the effects of climate change, such as atmospheric changes, sea-level rise and desertification.

This can only be achieved through increased cooperation and data exchange among nations, which is at the heart of the WMO plan.

The meeting also received the first contribution by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais), which operates a joint satellite program with China monitoring the environment.

Brazil provided data and products from its space observations over South America, Africa and China, which will be freely available to WMO’s 188 member nations.

Gilberto Camara, director of the National Institute for Space Research, has said that Brazil and China will also supply the software needed to allow Earth stations to read the data supplied by the satellites.

The first station, based in South Africa, began receiving data in December Camara said, and this will be followed by a station in Kenya at the beginning of 2008, and the Canary Island and Matera, Italy, in June.

He said supplying the satellite images would be “invaluable” for African governments and organizations in particular so they could respond more effectively to natural disasters, deforestation and drought, as well as threats to agricultural production and food security.

The WMO said there has been “major progress” on the International Geostationary Laboratory to use satellites for highly elliptical orbits. The WMO runs this lab, which allows the satellites to provide almost permanent coverage of high-latitude areas for weather, ice and snow monitoring, as well as for telecommunications and data collection.

The meeting received a draft set of guidelines developed for the transition of successful research and development satellites into more permanent, operational missions. Guidelines will be submitted to the WMO Executive Council for approval.

The meeting was briefed on the start of the Regional Specialized Satellite Centre in Climate Monitoring, which the WMO says is necessary for the continuous and sustained provision of high quality essential climate variables satellite products on a global scale.

A remarkable development in 2007 was the launch by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of CarbonTracker, a global carbon cycle modeling tool that converts surface-based global greenhouse gas observations into best estimates of global distribution in the atmosphere and the net air-surface exchange of carbon dioxide.

The goal of the space-based component of the Global Observing System is to meet the observation needs of all WMO programs dealing with weather, climate, water, the atmosphere, and disaster prevention and mitigation.

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