Myrtle Grove, La-- State officials recently showed off a first-of-its-kind project. In the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, a giant dredge mines another type of black gold.
"It's taking sediment directly out of the Mississippi River and using it to build land," said Chris Macaluso of the Governor's Office of Coastal Activities.
That river mud is then piped five miles inland to the Plaquemines-Jefferson Parish line, where it is building the 500 newest acres of Louisiana.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of spending $15 billion on new flood walls, levees and pumps, each a piece of the 100-year storm protection promised the city by the 2011 hurricane season.
"Am I satisfied with the progress so far? Not really," said Tim Doody, Chairman of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-- East.
Doody argues the focus must be on a much higher level of protection.
"It's a huge undertaking and it's going to take so long to complete and people become complacent."
Levee Board members, coastal advocates and many scientists agree that the work being conducted now will leave New Orleans with an inadequate system of storm protection.
With 100-year protection, a baby born today, living an average lifespan, would have a roughly 60% chance of experiencing a catastrophic flood in his or her lifetime, a Betsy or Katrina type event.
In coming weeks, the Corps will release its long-awaited report on Category Five protection, the two early versions having been widely panned as being short on specifics.
Critics insist the Corps has failed to lay out a road map for building a system that could stand up to major hurricanes.
The Corps counters that its mission is to provide alternatives and allow the state and local authorities to take the lead in proposing specific projects. The new report, it seems, once again will suggest various options, but the Corps clearly will focus less on flood walls and structures and more on building back natural barriers.
"What it's looking at is multiple lines of protection," said Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh.
That will almost certainly involve the possibility of giant river diversions to feed fresh water from the river into cypress swamps and marshland now starved by the levee system.
Many coastal advocates also suggest dredging on a much larger scale than the current project in Plaquemines Parish, a series of pipes pumping river mud 30 or 40 miles from the Atchafalaya River in one direction and the Mississippi River in the other.
However, the state must overcome the huge obtacle of cost.
"Some of the problems you have is the extraordinary amount of energy it takes to pump the sediment these long distances," said Garrett Graves, Chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
Graves said the state is looking for ways to shave costs, such as moving mud over shorter distances where possible.
