Subsiding Hopes: Southeast Louisiana is sinking under its own weight, even as sea levels rise …

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http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1229322062298170.xml&coll=1

SUBSIDING HOPES

Southeast Louisiana is sinking under its own weight, even as sea levels rise worldwide. Only perpetual vigilance can avert disaster.

Monday, December 15, 2008
By Bob Marshall
Staff writer

Part 2 of 3

LEEVILLE -- From atop the bridge soaring over Bayou Lafourche, a sweeping panorama of the southeast Louisiana coast unfolds. Scattered strings of green marsh break up wide expanses of open water. Pelicans swing on the breezes. Fish jump across the waves as crabbers and oyster harvesters pursue their livelihoods in a postcard scene of a rich life close to nature.

But Windell Curole, whose family has lived here for five generations, can't find the beauty in it. He sees tragedy. "When my grandfather was a boy, there were cotton fields here," he said waving his hand in a 180-degree arc that took in mostly water. "But in just 50 years, it became marsh, then it became open water."

The culprit: subsidence of soft marsh soils, combined with coastal erosion.

"This whole area is sinking -- and we're sinking at the same time the Gulf of Mexico is rising. You don't need to be a scientist to understand what that means," said Curole, general manager of the South Lafourche Parish Levee District.

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[HelenWheels]

1. Reason for sinking

One of the reasons the land mass is sinking is they drained so much water out of the wet lands to use it to build houses and businesses on the land. The water held the land in place. Now they are paying the price.