They say that time is money, but for the Gulf of Mexico, time is also lost land. You see, each second that ticks by on the clock represents another bit of sediment slipping off the coastline, through the Mississippi River and into the open ocean.
As I write this, the clock is also ticking on another Atlantic hurricane season, which scientists are predicting will be the most active in years. And that lost land I just mentioned? It’s meant to be the barrier that protects coastal communities across the Gulf from hurricanes.
Just last week, more than 900 scientists, students, community members, policymakers and advocates joined together at the 2016 State of the Coast conference in New Orleans to discuss this urgent threat. These conversations took place against the backdrop of another serious challenge – the major hurdles that implementing an ambitious, unprecedented restoration program will pose.
Louisiana’s Governor John Bel Edwards acknowledged these dueling priorities in his opening remarks, saying that he “did not become governor to watch Louisiana wash away,” and that the state is “going to rise to the challenge.” Raising the bar even higher in the closing session of the conference, New Orleans’ Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, “There must be urgency because too much is at stake….Without a coast, there is no city.”
Every moment we’re not moving the dial on restoration, we’re risking the ecosystem, the communities and the future of the Gulf Coast. But it’s important we recognize this is about more than just one region of the country. Many of the nation’s valuable resources, and the basis of economic production in states far beyond the Gulf, depend on this too. A healthy ecosystem means a healthy economy, regionally and nationally.
The good news is that help is on the way. Six years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill led to one of the largest environmental disasters in American history, a federal judge approved a settlement that will result in more than $14 billion for restoration of the Gulf of Mexico's ecosystems. Under the terms, much of that money will flow to the five Gulf states to address immediate and long-term impacts of the spill (thanks to the bipartisan RESTORE Act, which created the single largest investment in environmental restoration in our nation's history).
Given the complexities of the process and the unprecedented nature of this opportunity, it is critical that a shared vision for a restored Gulf Coast drive the coordination between the Natural Resource Damage Trustee Council, the RESTORE Council and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. As Mayor Landrieu said, we need to work with our federal partners to “find a way to say yes [to advance large scale restoration] soon.”
Fortunately, representatives from each of these processes – working at both the state and federal levels – will come together during a session at Capitol Hill Ocean Week to discuss exactly how to do that. It is my strong hope that policymakers and local leaders will continue to build on their current momentum to connect the dots, streamline processes and leverage these resources to deliver on the promises of restoration for the Gulf Coast.
It’s a tremendous amount of work to get done. Those working in the trenches understand that we need to do this right and we need to do it quickly. The clock is ticking, and we cannot wait.
