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Six Months After Hurricane Katrina Struck, Sierra Club Calls for Renewed Sense of Urgency

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION
February 28, 2006

Chris Smith
Media Relations Coordinator
(504) 884-4008

Six Months After Hurricane Katrina Struck,
Sierra Club Calls for Renewed Sense of Urgency

NEW ORLEANS – Though Hurricane consumption is the custom on Fat Tuesday, New Orleans residents will resume hurricane recovery and prevention on Ash Wednesday, the six-month anniversary of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

“We hope everyone had a wonderful Mardi Gras,” says Leslie March, chair of the Louisiana Sierra Club. “But now it’s time to tackle the problems facing the Gulf Coast. It’s important to stay focused on the most important task facing us – making our region safer before the next hurricane season begins on June 1.”

The Sierra Club has identified four basic tasks necessary to prepare for the next hurricane season.

  • Identify the weaknesses in the hurricane defense system
  • Repair the levees to Category 3 protection levels
  • Close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO)
  • Develop an emergency evacuation plan and reliable communication system

In addition, rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina and Rita has given environmentalists, politicians and government officials the chance to become visionaries, says March. She says it’s a golden opportunity, a chance to correct the mistakes of the past.

Beginning in the 1940s, the coastal wetlands of the Gulf Coast have been under siege and are so severely degraded that they no longer can provide a healthy buffer for storm surge.

“It took a major hurricane to bring serious attention to the loss of wetlands and how they protect people,” says March. “Now everyone realizes that this is a problem that must be solved. Let’s keep the momentum going. Let’s not lose this chance to repair the Gulf Coast.”

March says the goal of the Sierra Club's Gulf Coast Environmental Restoration Project is to engage the communities hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in the rebuilding process and to support environmental and public health policies that will protect people from the impact of storms in the future. During the next year, the Sierra Club has the following objectives:

  • Give organizing assistance to communities in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi to ensure that their voices are a part of the rebuilding process
  • Educate Gulf Coast communities about water-quality issues in impacted areas (both surface water and drinking water) and give water-sampling training and assistance to residents
  • Promote improved handling of toxic substances, including rethinking how they are stored and transported
  • Organize volunteer participation in public planning processes for rebuilding communities

“We recently worked with the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association to help clean up their yards and streets,” says March. “Caring about New Orleans means caring for the areas that were flooded – even in simple ways like planting flowers.”

The Sierra Club hopes to educate the public and administrative decision-makers about the need to invest in fuel economy, green-building, energy conservation measures, and diversification of energy supplies to include renewables.

“Economic well-being and quality of life in the region are linked to a good environment. We can promote smart-growth and transportation choices, and support energy conservation and clean-energy options,” says March. “We need to reconsider the folly of destroying coastal wetlands and other special places in a search for dwindling supplies of oil.”

March says the Gulf Coast needs to rebuild with vision and innovation. “We have a lot of work to do and the Sierra Club will use its voice to ensure that the appropriate steps are taken during the rebuilding process.”

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Open or Closed? Sierra Club Focuses on MRGO at Tulane Environmental Law Panel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2006

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Chris Smith
Sierra Club Media Relations Coordinator
(504) 884-4008

OPEN OR CLOSED? SIERRA CLUB FOCUSES ON MRGO AT TULANE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW PANEL

NEW ORLEANS One of the most controversial issues following the devastation of Katrina the future of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet will be the focus of a panel discussion at Tulane University's 11th Annual Environmental Law Conference.

MRGO: Open or Closed?will occur from 3:45 to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, April 1, at the Tulane University School of Law Building, in Uptown New Orleans.

The panel will feature legal and environmental experts who will discuss the impact of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet on the delta and its relationship to flooding during Hurricane Katrina. The panel will examine the environmental and economical impacts of closing the outlet, as well as discuss the value of keeping the waterway open for business.

The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet has become a major focal point following Katrina because many believe it promoted the storm surge that caused flooding,explains Jerry Speir, the panel moderator. Speir has been an environmental activist in Louisiana for more than 20 years. He is a former director of the Tulane Institute for Environmental Law and Policy. In recent years, his research has focused on efforts to invent environmental law and regulation. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the value of MRGO and to investigate whether it is wise to maintain it or close it down.The panelists are:

Pam Dashiell is a long-time community activist and is one of the founding members of Citizens Against Widening the Industrial Canal. She serves as president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association and has lived in that neighborhood for more than 15 years.

Carlton Dufrechou is executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, a membership-based citizens' organization dedicated to restoring and preserving the Lake Pontchartrain Basin. He also served as a planner and project manager with the New Orleans District of the Corps of Engineers where he participated in the planning, implementation and management of water resource, environmental restoration, and flood control projects throughout central and southern Louisiana.

David Flotte is a trial lawyer and partner with the firm of Courtenay, Hunter and Fontana of New Orleans. He is a litigator who has defended maritime companies for the past 21 years including environmental criminal prosecutions by the United States Justice Department.

The conference features numerous other presentations and panel discussion on a variety of environmental issues, including: Rebuilding and Repopulation in the Hit Zone; How the Animals Weathered the Storm; Levee Failure and Liability; and the Past, Present and Future of the Lake Maurepas and Manchac Swamps. The conference is open to the public; attendance is $25 for the one-day event. For more information, visit http://www.law.tulane.edu/enlaw/

The Sierra Club Delta Chapter (Louisiana) is a sponsor of the 11th Annual Environmental Law Conference. For more information about the local chapter of the Sierra Club, visit http://www.louisiana.sierraclub.org/

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FOR OUR FAMILIES, FOR OUR FUTURE!

The Delta Chapter is 3,000 of your neighbors supporting the work of the Sierra Club in Louisiana. We advance the cause of protecting Louisiana's environment in a variety of ways, including lobbying the state legislature in Baton Rouge, sponsoring a Mercury Public Education Campaign, raising public awareness about climate change, and working to keep the Atchafalaya Basin, America's greatest river swamp, wet and wild. In addition, we encourage our members to get outside and enjoy our beautiful planet.

The Sierra Club's members and supporters are more than 1.3 million of your friends and neighbors. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet. The Club is America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization.

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