By Brandon Neilsen

From an aerial view, Louisiana’s wetlands look like they have been sliced with a giant knife.  These man-made slices are actually canals, which were dug by oil companies for faster access to wells and natural gas reserves.  However, these canals have helped destroy Louisiana wetlands by allowing too much salt water to bleed into the swamps, killing vegetation and wildlife and increasing coastal erosion.

Until the late 1980s and early 1990s, coastal land loss in Louisiana was not widely recognized as a problem; therefore, canal digging went on unabated. More recently, Louisiana’s erosion has become a top priority for the state, which is trying to get the federal government to invest billions of dollars to save the coast. We need the coast because it is home to many people and animals alike. The Louisiana coast accounts for more then 40% of the nation's wetlands.  The loss of Louisiana's wetlands is the single most catastrophic environmental disaster ever to hit the continental U.S. The loss of these wetlands to the U.S. would be like losing an arm or leg. With the destruction of our wetlands, we also put the oil and natural gas industry at serious risk. As you may know, the wetlands act like a barrier to the inland. If we lose these “barriers”, we will leave all pipes carrying oil and gas vulnerable to hurricanes. This is a major problem since 18% of U.S. oil production originates in, is transported through, or is processed in Louisiana coastal wetlands with a value of $6.3 billion a year. Almost 24% of U.S. natural gas production originates or is processed in Louisiana’s coastal wetlands with a value of $10.3 billion a year. If coastal erosion is not stopped,  hurricanes could come through and destroy thousands of miles of pipes that are used to transport natural gas and oil. This could be cataclysmic to our nation’s economy.

When oil and natural gas companies start construction on a new well, they destroy some of the wetlands getting back and forth from their wells. Many land owners lease out land to oil and natural gas companies for drilling. As of December 1998, Louisiana offshore leases totaled 5,363, with more than 27 million acres under lease, 130 active drilling rigs, 4,489 producing oil wells and 3,813 producing gas wells.  Now that coastal erosion is more widely understood, landowners include terms in leases that compel oil companies to restore the marsh to pre-construction conditions, said Brian Kendrick, who runs Coastal Planning and Engineering of Louisiana, a coastal restoration firm.

When these companies start construction, they cut out canals and dredge paths for easy access. When these canals are cut, salt water enters and kills the marsh. Also, waves build up along the inside of these canals and steadily push the marshes back further. For example, a 33-foot canal that was cut 20 years ago could have grown in size to about 200 feet because of waves that were caused naturally by wind or by boats. Now when oil and natural gas companies cut canals, they have to fill them with haystacks and this can tend to be very costly. This process, mitigation, is when a company or individual must offset for damages and habitat loss caused by their activities.

In conclusion, one of the reasons that Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are disappearing at such a fast pace is because of the oil and natural gas industry. Although they have taken responsibility for recent damages, we are left to deal with the healing of the scars left from long ago.