When is a flood a good thing? How about when it’s part of the natural ecosystem. For residents of the Mississippi River Delta flooding is just a part of life. In some of the areas in this region near New Orleans elevations are measured in inches as opposed to feet. Most of the region was built on a flood plain and any substantial storm will bring rising waters and cause damages to the residents in the area. It’s just a part of life. So the question is, when do we step in and attempt to “fix” the natural state of things so that residents won’t have to worry about their houses flooding?
In the New York Times yesterday there was an interesting article about the Army Corps of Engineers’ decade long attempt to build pumps in the lower Mississippi Delta near the Steel Bayou gates. It is unsure what building these pumps will accomplish but there are two very different lines of thought here. On one side supporters of the pumps believe that flooding will end and thousands of acres of rich farmland will be available to help the struggling economy in the area. Opponents believe that a delicate ecosystem will be destroyed and a number of endangered species could be lost forever.
It really comes down to how much you feel the environment should be protected or how much you believe humans have a right to use land as they see fit. A marshland is a very delicate ecosystem that many times is impossible to recover if it has been destroyed. The land in the lower Mississippi Delta is very low-lying and is prone to flooding. Settlers in New Orleans have found this out many times throughout the years. Perhaps some areas of our planet are simply uninhabitable.
Yet, we are constantly working on ways to control and ultimately defeat the forces of nature. We design structures that won’t crumble under the strain of earthquakes. Dams, locks, levees and pump stations so that we can control the power of rivers and end flooding. We’ve built lakes and we’ve drained lakes. We built air conditioners so that we could live in the desert. We build aqueducts so that we can bring water to areas that have none. The examples are endless. As can be expected not every interaction we’ve had with our environment has been a good one.
Whether you are a believer of climate change or you continue to ignore scientific data, I’m sure at some point in your life you’ve enjoyed the bounty that nature has given us. Let’s say you enjoy taking a drive along the coast and marveling at the sunset, or going hunting and enjoying the forest and the animals you are catching, or you like to fish, or maybe you like to walk your dog in the park, whichever way you choose some part of your day is spent enjoying nature. The fact is that there are times where we have to protect our environment so that we can continue to get the enjoyment from it that we always have.
Two articles were read in the process of writing this post:
The NY Times <<ARTICLE HERE>>
Engineering News Record <<ARTICLE HERE>>
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1 response so far ↓
New Orleans News Ladder // April 11, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Excellant post, Noble Mon.
I grew up in the MS delta just north of where the Corps of Engineers began laying the gound for that Pump even before my 83 year old father was born. The word is decade(s) …administration(s) …big agri-business(es)…bio’gold, delta tea.
http://friends-of-the-sunflower-river.blogspot.com/2008/01/issaquena-county-121107wildlife.html
And I was living in New Orleans for hurricane Katrina + 6 days and dark dark horrible nights of the subsequent Federal Flood of the city –when the Corps’ wrongly built levees failed en mass. http://levees.org/
We survived Katrina but not the US Army Corps of Engineers. In other words, we will always have to dance with Mother Nature, in all ways, but will we always have to suffer the Corps of Engineers?
My father (mentioned above) is a Ramblin’Wreck from Georgia Tech–tuned cotton farmer–who fought the Corps tooth and nail over that stupid Pump.
As an engineer he was ashamed and rightly angered at malfeseance he discovered inherent in the Corps’ incompetency regarding their MS Delta “flood control” prodects.
As a retired Lt. Colonel in the US Air Force, he opined that their officers should be drawn out and shot for derilection of duty in the building of those failed levees in New Orleans.
And now the ASCE is being sued for trying to cover and misdirect culpability in this crime.
Sooo, I have no problems living at the behest of Nature. I do have a problem dying at the whim of the Exquixotic Corps of Engineers.
Thank you,
Bruce Biles
editor-New Orleans News Ladder
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