Charcoal filtered

Hey, if it's good enough for vodka, right?

Snuggled between the Mississippi River and the wetlands bordering Barataria Bay, Myrtle Grove has been identified by coastal restoration experts as an excellent place for a river sediment diversion. The diversion would allow the river to periodically coat adjacent wetlands with mud-rich water the way it did before levees were built and annual flooding was brought under control. But a coal storage depot proposed by RAM Terminals, LLC, is also planned for the same spot, raising concern that toxins from the coal will damage marsh grasses needed to anchor river silt and eventually build new land.

Why does Jeff Landry hate robustness?

Today's T-P editorial page criticizes Rep. Landry's proposal to ban a standardized method the Corps of Engineers has put in place for determining mitigation requirements for developers who destroy wetlands.

If the final version of the bill is adopted with the ban in place, the corps will have to come up with an alternate method or go back to its previous way of deciding how much mitigation is required, a judgment call that was less precise. Col. Ed Fleming, commander of the corps' New Orleans district, said that approach resulted in an underestimate of damage.

That's simply not in Louisiana's best interest, even though a Louisiana lawmaker is pushing it, with the support of local officials. U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky of Indiana pointed out the inconsistency when he argued against Rep. Landry's amendment.

"If it doesn't work, I do not know why in 2006 and 2007 the New Orleans District worked with its federal and state partners to modify the Charleston Method so it better reflected the unique conditions found in southern Louisiana,'' Rep. Visclosky said.

What's driving the proposed ban is an effort to avoid the higher cost of more robust mitigation.