[StBernard] Landrieu Comments on MRGO Closure Report

[Westley Annis]

Please let me give you a little history regarding Mary Landrieu's statement
that she has  
 "long advocated for its (the MRGO's) closure".

"Long" in Mary's history of MRGO closure advocacy is only since Katrina
struck in August 2005.

Sometime in 2003 or 2004, then St. Bernard Parish president Junior Rodriguez
organized a boat tour of the MRGO for our congressional delegation. The
purpose of the tour was to show everyone the devastating loss of St.Bernard
parish wetlands that the MRGO had caused. Mary Landrieu was on the tour,
along with other federal, state, Orleans and St. Bernard parish elected
officials, representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers, the ports of
New Orleans and St. Bernard, and The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation,
environmental groups and community activists who had long campaigned for the
closure of the MRGO. 

After the boat tour, the group was given a power point presentation at the
Marina Wharf in Chalmette. The purpose of the presentation was to show
Landrieu and the other attendees how the MRGO could be closed, and the tens
of millions of taxpayer dollars which the federal government (Corps of
Engineers) was spending annually to dredge the MRGO in order to keep it open
for deep draft navigation, could instead be spent to relocate the businesses
on the inner harbor (served by the MRGO) to the Mississippi River. The
parish had hired an economic consultant to put on the presentation and show
that it was economically feasible to relocate the inner harbor businesses
and preserve the jobs, and economic benefits they provided to the state. The
MRGO could then be closed off, to "protect our communities and environment"
as Landrieu says in her statemen t below. 

After the presentation, Mary Landrieu told many of the attendees that the
MRGO could not be closed until construction of the new Industrial Canal Lock
was completed. It has been well documented that the new lock project will
not be completed for another 15 or 20 years. Certainly Mary knew that. 

During the 2004 presidential election campaign Mary Landrieu brought future
Democrat nominee John Kerry to Shell Beach to show him the devastation
brought to St. Bernard's wetlands by the MRGO and coastal erosion. It was a
photo-op for Mary and John. But Mary took no action to initiate any sort of
MRGO closure. 

This history has all been well documented in the print and television media.


In my opinion, Mary Landrieu along with the rest of our congressional
delegation, did a great job "advocating"
for the Port of New Orleans and the deep draft shipping industry over the
years. Even when she knew full well that the MRGO and the resultant loss of
our wetlands threatened St. Bernard AND Orleans parishes, and made us ever
more vulnerable to flooding from hurricane storm surge, she did not advocate
for our safety and environment by seeing to it that the MRGO was closed.

After Katina killed 1500 people, and destroyed every home and business in
St. Bernard and most in Orleans parish, Mary Landrieu began her "advocacy"
for closure of the MRGO. Coincidently, after Katrina silted up the MRGO, the
Army Corps of Engineers determined that it was no longer economically
justified to continue dredging the MRGO and keeping it open to deep draft
navigation. Prior to Katrina it was always economically justified to dredge
and reopen the channel after a hurricane silted it up. I guess God finally
sent enough silt to save us from the Port of New Orleans, the shipping
interests, and ourselves, as we continue to elect politicians who look after
business interests at the expense of our environment and our safety. 
 
John P. Laguens