Support for Louisiana, the state we're in is provided by.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together.

Together.

Together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you This program is made possible in part by Frank's Restaurant, a place known for the gathering of friends, family and colleagues where deals are signed over a handshake and a biscuit.

For information on catering menus and locations, go to Frank's restaurant L.A. dot com.

and.

And so in this map, read is everything we've lost in green is everything we gain.

And as you can see, it's a story of loss that is the vulnerable part of our ecosystem that could disappear if we do nothing.

Our coastal communities have a problem.

Can the state fix it?

We used to be a bunch of bayous and small bays is now pretty much an open body of water between here and the Gulf.

Louisiana starts its largest coastal restoration project to date.

We really need a governor who's going to stand up and kind of lead the charge.

Louisiana's youngest voters shared their ideas on moving the state forward.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Care Saints here.

And I'm Karen Law.

Much of Louisiana's river parishes in a panic over drinking water this week.

Dry conditions are forcing saltwater up the Mississippi River toward Plaquemines Parish.

Normally, fresh water from that river keeps salt from the Gulf, from entering into our drinking water.

But Louisiana hasn't seen enough rain to sustain that vital process this summer.

The Army Corps of Engineers is working diligently on this issue.

State Representative Richard Nelson, a Republican from Mandeville, has dropped out of the Louisiana governor's race.

Nelson is endorsing Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican for Louisiana governor.

This brings the total number of leading candidates to six.

Five of which will be appearing on PBS's televised gubernatorial debate on Thursday, September 28, at 7 p.m..

But first, more headlines from across the state.

Three environmental groups, including one from Baton Rouge, are suing the EPA, alleging that the agency missed its legal deadline to review and potentially revise pollution limits for Polyether Polyols units.

The lawsuit claims that the EPA's 2016 findings underscore the need for new standards.

Under President Joe Biden, the EPA has been focusing on reducing pollution near industrial facilities, especially in Cancer Alley along the Mississippi River.

But industry groups have resisted the changes, arguing that the risk findings are based on flawed analysis.

Inmates at Louisiana's Angola Prison are taking legal action with allegations of inhumane conditions, including sweltering heat and inadequate medical care.

The inmates contend that the prison's management has not taken the necessary steps to address these issues, resulting in suffering and even loss of life among the incarcerated population.

Advocates argue that these conditions potentially violate prisoners constitutional rights, sparking concerns about the state's dedication to prison reform.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's recent report, the nation's poverty rate has increased to 12.4%.

With the historic spike in child poverty.

This year.

In Louisiana, about 765,000 residents out of 4.6 million are estimated to be living in poverty.

This marks a 44% increase from the previous year.

Efforts to extend the child tax credit beyond 2021 faced opposition from many Republicans and some Democrats who cited concerns about federal spending fueling inflation for a third year in a row.

Louisiana will parade across the national and international stages and the 2024 tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.

This year's theme is celebrating a world of music, the universal language.

The Rose Parade will roll on January 1st, 2024, and broadcast live all over the world.

Louisiana's participation has reached an estimated 4 billion viewers and generated approximately $39.2 million in media advertising value.

that we can As candidates for Louisiana governor debate the future of the state, Louisiana's youth are calling for major changes to improve their quality of life and future.

I traveled the state to talk with Louisiana's youngest voters about what they believe are the challenges and opportunities to move the state forward.

Here's more.

Every student in this room is a leader.

They've gathered as the counsel of student body presidents in Monroe to discuss issues important to the students and campuses they serve, including issues of mental health and wellness.

You deserve a tell all from the world.

The absolutely best version of yourself.

Many in this room are preparing to graduate and start a career with concerns about the quality of life in Louisiana.

A lot of times, students go to school in Louisiana, but their next goal is to leave Louisiana.

And I feel as though in order to improve, the quality here is important to find employment opportunities that students are looking for in order to stay here and also ensure there there's a living wage that will also keep the students here.

We need things like a prospering economy.

We need a strong future for our state.

And so if we have those, I'd love to stay.

In order for Louisiana to make an economic comeback.

Young voters say the state needs to diversify with more high tech jobs and renewable energy industries.

I really worry about our economic development and how most of our state, it seems, is tailored towards like oil and gas.

And there's really not a ton more opportunity outside of that field.

If Louisiana can capitalize on solar energy, wind energy, hydroelectric energy, specifically in the Gulf, you know, that's going to be massive employment opportunities for everyone in the state.

It's going to it's going to make our energy more efficient.

It's going to fight some of the climate change that we're seeing.

And it's going to make Louisiana a more desirable place to live, in my opinion.

Others worry about the cost of living, especially the state's skyrocketing home and auto insurance rates among the highest in the nation.

Insurance prices right now are just going through the roof, and it's becoming increasingly more intimidating to buy a home or get a new car, or be it just a young professional right out of college in the state of Louisiana.

It's it's scary.

And so we really need a governor who's going to stand up and kind of lead the charge to say, hey, let's actually see what we can do about making it more affordable to live here.

Concerns about personal safety also top the list of important issues among voters.

I am worried about walking outside of my home and someone hurting or hurting my children or hurting my family and I. I want that to be a big topic in our governor debate.

And that's what I want from my governor, someone who is going to prioritize safety.

Climate change also weighs heavily on the minds of many Louisiana youth who grew up experiencing extreme weather from devastating hurricanes to record breaking heat.

Definitely climate change, lowering CO2 emissions and things of that nature.

I know that our state produces a lot, so I feel like it would help us as well as border erosion and things of that nature, making sure the coastal area is stable and trying to retain as much of the coast as we can.

I also spent time with high school students at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts in Natchitoches, the public boarding school for exceptional students seeking challenging curriculums.

Turns out graduates competitively positioned to attend the university of their choice anywhere.

They say Louisiana's leadership has a role to play in convincing them to stay in the state.

Strengthening connections with those from different walks of life.

Both like the people of color, people from different religions and kind of diverse area.

Making sure you have a strong idea of what they want and what they need.

Can improve everything for everybody.

Many of these high school students left their hometowns to live here and take university level classes seeking academic and extra curricular opportunities not offered where they live.

They are the exceptions to Louisiana's dismal literacy statistics.

Less than one third of students in grades three through high school are proficient in core academic subjects.

It comes down to education and resources, important issues these students believe will move the state forward.

I would love to see a little bit more of number one, focus on education, focus on safety, figuring out how to make school not just schools, but also cities in general safer, whether high school or higher education.

Most students agree that Louisiana needs to invest more in education, including teacher pay raises, workforce training and tuition assistance.

So we really just need to prioritize higher education funding and how we can relieve the burden of cost off of students backs.

In our televised gubernatorial debate next week, hear more from Louisiana's used as they ask the gubernatorial candidates pointed questions about leading the state into a better future.

Melting glaciers and ice sheets are raising the global sea level by a little less than an inch annually.

While it may seem like a small increase.

Coastal states like Louisiana see the effects much faster, putting them at the forefront of climate change and restoration.

On this episode of The Way Forward Election 2023, we explore the issue of sea level rise and the solutions presented to fix the problem.

Something dangerous is happening in our oceans.

Ice sheets and glaciers are melting at an accelerated rate.

Glaciers used to take thousands of years to experience significant changes.

But now we're seeing extreme melting in less than a 30 year time span.

Scientists agree that sea level rise is an impending global disaster.

And at the forefront of it is Louisiana.

Every year around the world, sea level rises about a point C, a 10th of an inch every year.

But here in Louisiana, we have a much higher sea level rise rate.

Dr. Alicia Renfro is a coastal scientists working to restore Louisiana's coast.

Because not only do we have sea levels rising, but the land is actually sinking, mostly due to compaction of our wet sediments as well as kind of the underlying geology.

So as the land is sinking, the sea levels are rising.

So we're experiencing some of the highest relative sea level rise in the world.

The compaction Dr. Renfro is talking about starts with the Mississippi River through a process called subsidence.

The river packs wet sediment and piles.

The pressure of these piles squeezes out moisture in the ground, which causes a sinking effect.

How low are we thinking?

It kind of depends where you are along the coast.

The highest rates of subsidence are actually found in the delta all the way down at the end of the river.

And that is on the order of about an inch every year, some of the lowest or in the Cheniere plane and in southwest Louisiana.

So whenever you hear things like, I mean, you're sinking an inch every single year or globally sea level rises.

You said point one inch.

Yeah, that doesn't sound like a lot, but it seems like scientists and experts are pretty alarmed by it.

Why is that?

Yeah, it doesn't sound like a lot when you hear that.

You just think, Oh, it's an insult to the sound like much, but it's happening continuously over time.

And one thing you'll notice about coastal Louisiana anyway, is that it's very low lying place.

And so inches matter, the rate of sea level rise is about one inch every two years in Louisiana.

We've already seen water rise to four inches since 1950 in areas like Grand Isle.

As you have that sea level rise, you actually have that impact in our coastal ecosystem.

Our wetlands are low lying.

They become water piles on top of them for longer and longer erodes them.

So we're losing the coastal wetlands system that surrounds us.

I'm looking over at this map that's on this side, and I'm just wondering, okay, so that's showing land losses that also where sea level is rising.

Yeah.

So this particular map here is showing predicted sea level rise over a period of time.

And so here in Louisiana, we've already lost 1900 square miles of land since 1932.

And so this is looking into the future, assuming different sea level rise scenario, how much we could lose.

And so in this map, red is everything we've lost in green is everything we gain.

And as you can see, it's a story of loss that is the vulnerable part of our ecosystem that could disappear if we do nothing.

The combination of sea level rise and land loss will cause a variety of issues in our state.

We'll see stronger storm surges, more flooding and possibly inland migration from cities like New Orleans.

Some residents living there say we can approach the problem a little differently.

People have been recording increased frequency of storms and as many of us are also feeling extreme heat.

Many other impacts of climate change as well ongoing around us.

And it's important to to see that and still use the science and data available to look forward.

Caroline Reid is the project manager for Icy Change.

It's an app that regular people can use to document instances of extreme weather in New Orleans, where Caroline is based.

App users post about flooding in extreme heat the most.

If sea levels continue to rise.

Flooding will be more of an issue and we may even experience new types of flooding such as sunny day flooding, which is what a lot of our friends down in Miami have been dealing with for years now, where heightened levels of ocean water actually push up through drainage systems and can cause flooding in cities when there's no storm present.

I see change as solution is to document the public's experience with these problems so that city planners and engineers can address some of those needs as they're happening.

And a lot of these issues are manmade in some ways.

And there are a lot of people who are shifting their focus to start seeing how can we better learn to live with water.

We've have a lot to learn and how we can do better to correct some of the places where we've overbuilt or tried to control water rather than live beside it on a larger state level.

Dr. Renfroe says investment is the best route to save our coasts.

What does Louisiana have to do to take care of Louisiana?

So, you know, there are efforts in Louisiana to to limit our carbon emissions looking to the next 20 years to get us to carbon neutral.

But the big thing that we can do right now in Louisiana is actually invest in restoration to help hold on to as much land as we can.

The state has invested in solutions.

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana created a Coastal Master plan which focuses on two strategies risk reduction and coastal restoration.

In total, it cost about $50 billion.

So far, only 150 projects or $15 billion worth of work has been completed since 2007.

It was mainly funded by court settlement money and temporary federal and state funds, according to the reset initiative authored by the Council for a Better Louisiana and the Public Affairs Council.

That money will likely run out in the next decade, leaving these projects in limbo.

And that's something to consider when you go to vote for our next governor.

We need to be able to hold on to as much of the system as we can in order to protect the coastal communities from some of those bigger impacts from sea level rise.

While the Coastal Master Plan has several projects in need of attention, some are already underway, including the Mid Barataria project, which is the biggest coastal project to date.

Yes, and the coastal Master Plan is proactive.

It is ambitious, we can all agree, but it's complicated and controversial because of its impact on people and places.

And of course, Mother Nature.

Right?

The Mid Barataria Sediment Diversion Project aims to rebuild lost coastal land in Plaquemines, Jefferson and Saint Bernard Parishes by diverting the Mississippi River flow.

The project comes with vocal advocates and adversaries.

Now, this is a complicated, complex, but important developing story, and we can't tell it in its entirety in a single report.

So we begin our continuing coverage with a broad based look at all sides of the issue.

This was the old style technique.

My grandparents started with this kind of technique.

It's called the oyster Tone.

Mitch George is a third generation oyster fisherman.

His family has harvested the Barataria Basin since 1904.

His grandparents original camp, their oyster fishing outpost, is now underwater due to rising sea levels and coastal land loss.

We're considered inside that Barataria estuary.

So, you know, we have now we used to be a bunch of bayous and small bays is now pretty much an open body of water between here in the Gulf, out on the water and above it.

A bird's eye view reveals the coastal land laws in Plaquemines, Jefferson and Saint Bernard Parishes.

The Louisiana coastal master Plan is calling for a major intervention, a $2.9 billion sediment diversion project in the Barataria Basin.

The groundbreaking, attended by advocates and stakeholders of the project, signified the start of construction, the largest ever ecosystem restoration project in our state's history.

And quite frankly, I'm not aware of one on this scale anywhere in the country, and there are few in the world that can match the size of this project.

And with this mid Barataria sediment diversion when it is operating.

We're going to change the physical footprint of our state.

We will be adding wetlands instead of losing them.

The Mid Barataria Sediment Diversion project will cut a two mile channel on the West Bank of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, allowing controlled river flow into the Barataria Basin to deposit sediment.

The project is projected to build 20 square miles of land over a 50 year period.

It's not the same river it was 1000 years ago.

It is the second most polluted river in the country.

Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, former Plaquemines Parish president, is a staunch critic of the project.

We're going to dump that polluted water into the most rich estuary in the country.

And we don't think it's going to kill everything.

It will wipe out the seafood industry as we know it today.

What's happening in the Barataria estuary could be a cautionary tale for all of coastal Louisiana.

You see, it's not just Mother Nature creating the land loss.

It's humankind as well.

The levee system, oil and gas exploration and all of it is creating the coastal land loss.

Now, the solution?

Well, it's polarizing for all of the stakeholders involved.

Look, everyone agrees that Louisiana's coast needs to be restored.

The question is, at what cost and who pays the price.

So since 2007, we've restored over 50 56,000 acres of wetlands in Louisiana.

Greg Gandy is the executive director of the Coastal Restoration Authority of Louisiana, the agency in charge of the state's coastal restoration efforts outlined in the Coastal Master Plan, which is updated every six years.

2023 marks the plans for iteration with 77 projects, 65 of which are restoration projects.

We significantly picked up the pace in the last few years over 71 miles of barrier islands have been restored in 369 miles of hurricane protection projects have been built.

If all of the $50,000,000,000.50 year master plan is complete, we anticipate annual damages to reduce between ten and $14 billion and the amount of land to be created between 240 and about 314 square miles of land.

If all of the projects are completed, sediment diversion from the Mississippi River is a new approach to coastal land building.

And critics argue it's untested and that dredging is a better solution.

Mitch points to Shell Island and Pelican Island, about 12 miles from Empire.

Two barrier islands built by dredging the Mississippi River and depositing sediment which he believes is a more viable alternative to river water diversion.

So dredges are not inexpensive to use, but you can build land in a short amount of time.

That's one of the advantages.

But one of the disadvantages is when you walk away that surface of the elevation of the marsh platform, it begins to to compact and consolidate.

And and over time, it's reducing an elevation.

Sea levels rising or the land is reducing.

They claim dredging isn't going to hold up.

There's proof right there.

The Gulf of Mexico right outside of the zone.

One of the most powerful sources of water you got around here, and it's held up to the storms that came in from the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Zeta Ida.

As chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Taskforce, Mitch is the voice of a community concerned about the consequences of the mid Barataria sediment diversion project.

To understand their concerns, consider that the estuary is a salt and fresh water cocktail with a delicate and precise mix of salinity and freshwater that gives life to an entire ecosystem and a major source of Louisiana's seafood industry.

Upsetting that balance could bring catastrophic consequences.

Well, the oysters will be totally devastated.

They'll be gone.

You won't have any more Plaquemines Parish oysters.

And that's a given.

100%.

The shrimp are going to move on further down the line.

They're going to go and they're going to have to get out of Dodge.

So will the fish.

So on the crabs or will there be other species that can move?

The dolphins are not going to leave.

They're going to stay here until they die.

Bottlenose dolphins reside year round in the Barataria Bay.

This population is genetically different from other nearby dolphin populations.

The Coastal Master Plan sets aside mitigation money to monitor the bottlenose dolphins once the sediment diversion starts.

The plan also offers resources for the affected communities and the commercial fisher people.

Some in the scientific community, are also voicing concerns, including marine biologist and geologist, questioning the data backing the mid Barataria sediment diversion project.

There are a couple of myths, challenges or misunderstandings around coastal processes.

One, I believe, is that we're in a state of crisis.

I don't think that's necessarily true.

The data shows that we've actually gained wetlands area in the past ten years, 15 years.

That gain appears to be coming from natural accretion.

Chris McLendon is an independent geologist, closely following the evolution of Louisiana's Coastal Master plan.

He points to a newly acquired data showing that current land sinking rates are less than half the values used in formulating the Coastal Master plan.

This appears to be a very robust supply of sediment.

It's probably being carried in by the tides.

And this is this is this information or this data is available through the coast wide reference monitoring system.

Louisiana's Coastal Restoration Master plan has a 50 year timeline.

Finding common ground with each of the proposed projects proves to be an ongoing challenge.

Coastal restoration was supposed to be the state partnered with local government to save our coast.

Saint Bernard and Plaquemine voted 100%.

We don't want it.

Louisiana's coastal restoration efforts also aim to protect and restore wildlife habitat affected by land loss and the BP oil spill in 2006.

In my report will look at the coastal Master plans, impact on Mother Nature and opportunities to foster thriving ecosystems.

It was a great story.

Karen, good job.

Thank you.

So that's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything Lpx PBS's Anytime, Wherever you are with our lab app, you can catch LP news and public affairs shows as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Carol BLOCK, and I'm crossing here until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together, together.

Together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.

This program is made possible in part by Frank's Restaurant, a place known for the gathering of friends, family and colleagues where deals are signed over a handshake and a biscuit.

For information on catering menus and locations, go to Frank's restaurant L.A. dot com.