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The Impact of Hurricane The Impact of Hurricane Katrina from an Environmental Katrina from an Environmental

Perspective Perspective

Terry Knister

GAMDE Duck Lunch 2006

September 28, 2006

September 28, 2006GAMDE Duck Lunch 2006

Environmental ImpactEnvironmental Impact

• [The] storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm…


• The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain…Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward…


• Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste…more who survived the flood later perished … as they waited to be rescued.

• It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

• Source - National Geographic Magazine“Gone With The Water”

October 2004


• Article contended, in October 2004, that the natural defenses of southern Louisiana and New Orleans’ were “melting away”

• From the Mississippi border to the Texas state line, Louisiana had lost its protective fringe of marshes and barrier islands faster than any place in the U.S.


• Since the 1930s some 1,900 square miles of coastal wetlands—an area nearly the size of Delaware or almost twice that of Luxembourg—had vanished beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

• Despite nearly half a billion dollars spent over the past decade to stem the tide, the state continues to lose about 25 square miles of land each year, roughly one acre every 33 minutes.


Effect of Katrina on wetlandsEffect of Katrina on wetlands• The USGS National Wetlands Research Center has

reported:

• A total of 118 square miles of land has been transformed to new water areas

• 9,742 square mile area from the Chandeleur Islands to the Atchafalaya River.

• The combined land-water changes caused byKatrina and Rita exceeded all such changes in coastal Louisiana from previous recent hurricanes combined such as Hurricanes Andrew (1992), Lili (2002) and Tropical Storm Isidore (2002).


• The change from land to water between the fall of 2004 and 2005 in the Breton Sound Basin was equivalent to 60% of the total land-to-water change in the same area between 1956 and 2004.

• The change from land to water in all of coastal Louisiana east of the Mississippi River from 2004 to 2005 was 72.9 square miles, exceeding the 60-square miles projected to occur from a period of 50 years (2000-2050) by the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study.


Effect of Oil and Gas Operations ?Effect of Oil and Gas Operations ?

• Deep offshore wells now account for nearly a third of all domestic oil production

• Louisiana's Offshore Oil Port - platforms anchored 18 miles offshore - unload up to 15 percent of the nation's foreign oil

• Most of the oil comes ashore via pipelines buried in the Louisiana wetlands


• Initially geologists believed that the petroleum deposits were too deep and the geology of the coast too complex for drilling to have any impact on the surface

• Now, the U.S.G.S. believes “regional depressurization” has affected the La wetlands• the removal of millions of barrels of oil,

trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, and tens of millions of barrels of saline formation water lying with the petroleum deposits caused a drop in subsurface pressure


• Barasich, et al. v. Columbia Gulf Transmission Co., et al – No. 05-4161 –USDC, EDLA – filed September 13, 2005• Class action – proposed plaintiff and defendant

classes• Defendant Pipeline class and E&P class (6

named defendants in each class)• Alleges creation of canals in SE LA marshes

for pipelines and drilling sites caused damage to the “stability and ecological” function of the marshes in providing protection to the inland communities from hurricanes


• “…but for the negligent actions of the defendants…Hurricane Katrina’s winds and storm surge would have been greatly diminished by the marsh property, thus averting all, or almost all, of the loss of life and destruction of property that resulted from Hurricane Katrina”

• No specific damages prayed for, but plaintiffs want judgment against the defendants “with legal interest”


• 12 (b) (6) Motion to Dismiss filed• Claims nonjusticiable

• Plaintiffs forcing Court to become involved in federal policy making

• No legal duty on the part of the defendants to the plaintiffs

• La. Supreme Court in Terrebonne Parish School Bd. v. Castex Energy, Inc., 893 So.2d 789 (La. 2005) – “Although the temptation to thrust a great part of the solution of to the problem of coastal restoration upon the oil and gas companies and other private parties, rather than the state and federal governments currently faced with underwriting the expense of restoration, we decline to do so.”


• Oral argument on motion heard by Judge Vance on June 30, 2006

• No decision by the Court to date

• Two other similar suits filed and consolidated – Villa and Bands


Constructive solutionsConstructive solutions• LDNR supports a major diversion in the

lower part of the Mississippi River

• Diversion would be well downstream of New Orleans, in the bird-foot delta at the river’s mouth, and send the river flooding into the marshes

• Plan not yet designed, but being discussed at meeting in Fall 2006


• Mississippi River Reintroduction into Bayou Lafourche project

• The project would add fresh water to Bayou Lafourche by increasing the flow of the Mississippi River into the bayou with a new pump station and other water-control structures

• The increase in fresh water would benefit about 121,000 acres of downstream marsh and protect against saltwater intrusion into the bayou

• Also add new sediment to marshes


• LDNR and LDEQ involved in Proposed Coast-Wide Debris Management Plan

• Hurricanes Katrina and Rita created over 61 million cubic yards (24.2 million tons) of debris

• Project to use hurricane-generated debris, green (wood and vegetative) waste, composted matter and rock/limestone materials for wetland restoration and protect outlying marsh areas

• No long term effect on water quality• Very little short term effect on water quality


• NOAA begins Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Restoration Project

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Restoration Center and LDNR have awarded a $17.7 million wetlands restoration contract that will protect and create 1,400 acres of wetlands in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana.

• The project is located in an area that protects approximately 3,000 acres of interior marshes between the Little Lake shoreline and Bayou L'Ours Ridge.


• The project is designed to prevent erosion along roughly five miles of Little Lake shoreline; create 490 acres of inter-tidal wetlands along the Little Lake shoreline; and nourish 530 acres of intermediate marsh.

• The project is scheduled for completion as early as winter 2006.

• The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act funds habitat restoration programs on an 85 percent - 15 percent cost sharing with the state of Louisiana.


Other Katrina related litigationOther Katrina related litigation• Gov. Blanco submitted a 24-page letter to the U.S.

Minerals Management Service (MMS), objecting to a federal lease sale for oil and gas exploration off Louisiana’s coast.

• Gov. Blanco wants the state to receive a larger share of the money the federal government makes from oil and gas exploration off of Louisiana’s coast, but she has stated she would settle for federal investment in protection and restoration of wetlands.

• Gov. Blanco filed a lawsuit against MMS in an attempt to stop the August sale of leases off the Louisiana and Texas coast


• U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt rejected Gov. Blanco’s request to block the planned sale of federal oil and gas leases

• While the State’s request was denied, Engelhardt said that in light of the damage to Louisiana's coast from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the state has a good chance of proving the federal government did not do enough to assess the environmental effects of offshore drilling

• "Given the substantial evidence before this court that material changes have occurred since the fall of 2002 with respect to the affected baseline environment ... the plaintiffs' likelihood of success on the merits is strong."


• Murphy Oil Spill – Meraux, LA• A 250,000 barrel above ground storage tank

was dislodged, lifted and damaged in flooding associated with Hurricane Katrina

• The tank contained 65,000 barrels of mixed crude oil, and released approximately 25,110 barrels (1,050,000 gallons), including benzene, other PAHs, diesel range organic chemicals and arsenic

• The EPA estimated the released oil impacted approximately 1700 homes in an adjacent residential neighborhood, an area of about one square mile, and at least five major canals.


• Class action litigation in USDC, EDLA• Consolidation of 27 suits, involving approx. 6,200

homes (EPA estimate only 1,700 homes)• Reportedly settled this week for $330 million• Murphy would pay for comprehensive cleanup of

property ($90 million) and make a good-faith effort to purchase homes and property in the neighborhood closest to the refinery ($160 million)

• Class members would receive compensation for property damage, diminished property value, inconvenience and mental anguish

• The proposed settlement includes $80 million paid so far to settle roughly 2,700 household claims


Oil & Gas E&P related debrisOil & Gas E&P related debris

• More than 70 platforms and drilling rigs completely destroyed and more than 40 were damaged

• More than 1,400 barrels of toxic liquids and gases are sinking into the coastal wetlands of the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge

• Report submitted to US Fish and Wildlife estimates 115,000 to 350,000 gallons of everything from oil and bleach to propane are contained within those barrels


• Four containers of chlorine gas were found and two entire 18 wheelers, contents unknown, were identified during the debris survey

• Thousands of non-toxic debris items such as pieces of vinyl or aluminum siding, insulation, plywood, corrugated metal, lumber and white goods, such as refrigerators and water heaters, which may contain small amounts of toxins

• Much of the debris believed to have originated from nearby oil and gas facilities


Environmental Katrina related Environmental Katrina related legislationlegislation

• Act 234 –

• Added “roofing nails” to the definition of litter under LA R.S. 30:2522(4)

• Added “roofing nails” to the list of items for which gross littering is prohibited under LA R.S. 30:2531.1


• Act 662 –• Required the LDEQ to develop and implement

a comprehensive debris management plan for certain debris generated by natural disasters

• As of August 2006, LDEQ estimated –• 22 million tons / 55 million cubic yards as a result of

Katrina• 2.4 million tons / 6 million cubic yards as a result of

Rita• Katrina debris alone included 1000s of orphan

drums, 350,000 vehicles, 60,000 vessels, 1.5 million units of white goods, 500,000 electronic goods and 140,000 to 160,000 flooded/damaged homes


• LDEQ submitted the Debris Management Plan to the Legislature as of August 26, 2006

• Plan attempts to reuse and recycle material in an economically beneficial manner

• Plan also attempts to divert debris from disposal in landfills to the maximum extent practical and still be protective to human health and the environment

• Proposed Coast-Wide Debris Management Plan an example of use of debris

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