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Lousiana Water Stories, on GMA
We first went to Southern Louisiana with cameras one year ago; we’ve been back a couple times since and are just wrapping up the editing of a beautiful, provocative film – “SoLa, Louisiana Water Stories” – about man’s relationship with water in a part of the world where everywhere you look you’re surrounded by bayou, swamp or wetlands, the Mississippi River or Gulf of Mexico.
The region is home to the most unique and vital culture in America and every Cajun from Grand Isle to Breaux Bridge, has a story – or two, three or more – about … water.
Theirs are stories with a lot of passion and heart but also a fair amount of dismay. SoLa’s waterways are home to some serious environmental problems, including oil and gas spills, petrochemical waste that has filtered into the air and water, fertilizer run-off from its neighbors and coastal erosion that is disappearing twenty-five square miles of Southern Louisiana each year.
Tomorrow morning (August 27) between 8 and 9 a.m. EST ABC’s “Good Morning America” and Sam Champion are excerpting a piece from our film, taking their own look at one of the most serious and mysterious of SoLa’s problems, a growing Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tags: Bayou, Breaux Bridge, Cajun, Coastal Erosion, Grand Isle, Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi River, Oil Spills, Petrochemical Waste, SoLa, Swamp, Wetlands
Senator Russ Feingold came to Menomonie, WI yesterday (8/26) to view Lake Menomin which is now covered in the green pea soup of algae. The Red Cedar River flows through the lake, into the Chippewa River, which flows into the Mississippi and on into the Dead Zone in the Gulf. The Senator was not aware of the airborne toxins that threaten human health. State Senators & Representatives will also be here on Sunday, Aug 30th to view the problem. We understand the serious nature of this problem that affects both inland and coastal waters throughout the United States. The citizens of this community want to start at the very root of the problem to find strategic solutions in pilot programs that can eventually be shared throughout the United States to help restore the safe waters our original colonists enjoyed.
Thanks Peggy, I’m a big fan of Senator Feingold’s and I’m sure once he’s been made aware of the problem he’ll get his staff to pay attention to it! Run off from 31 states flows into the Mississippi River and ultimately ends up at its mouth and in the Gulf of Mexico, which is why Louisianans often feel, rightfully, like America’s toilet bowl.
Wetlands restoration will produce an unstable or stable Mississippi River?
http://www.freewebs.com/wetlandsmiss/
…The below writings will provide information for both sides of the fence.
The present Master Plan for wetlands restoration only covers one side of the fence. The plan discusses 20% to 30% of the river being diverted along the Mississippi River between Donaldsonville and the mouth of the river and, I believe, this will make the river unstable. The other side of the fence is diverting with keeping the river stable and I want to share some ideas of how, I believe, to keep the river stable…
Also in the article there is also shown a good way of removing the dead zone.
Regards
Ken