dailycomet.com
Coastal advocates say Louisiana’s coastal master plan combined with the reparations from the BP oil spill will help expand the coastal restoration and water management industries in the state and create thousands of jobs over the next decade.
The $8.7 billion in reparations to the state from BP for the 2010 Deep Water Horizon oil spill represents an opportunity to not only to protect and restore the state’s coast but also to create new economic opportunities, said Justin Ehrenwerth, president and CEO of the Water Institute of the Gulf.
“One of our great hopes is that from a horrible tragedy, we have to always remember 11 people lost their lives and oil flowed into the Gulf for that 87 days -- it was the worst environmental disaster in our nation’s history,” Ehrenwerth said. “But there’s no question that with the settlement of the litigation against BP and the other responsible parties, we have an unprecedented opportunity to not only restore and protect our coast but also benefit from the economic reverberations from such a large investment.”
The money from BP, which will flow into the state over the next 15 years, combined with the 50-year, $50 billion coastal master, plan puts Louisiana in a unique spot to accelerate and expand its coastal restoration and water management industry.
Greater New Orleans Inc., an economic development agency based in New Orleans, predicted there would be 5,294 middle-skill jobs and 5,837 high-skill job openings over the next decade.
The most numerous openings for middle-skill workers are as sales representatives, service workers, welders, cutters, brazers and other positions. For high-skilled workers, the most openings are projected to be in civil engineering, general and operations managers, management analysts, accountants and auditors, and various engineers positions, according to GNO.
Simone Maloz, executive director of Thibodaux-based coastal advocacy group Restore or Retreat, and Matt Rookard, CEO of the Terrebonne Economic Authority, said many of the workers and businesses in the area who work in oil and gas may be in a good position to switch or begin also working in coastal restoration and water management because they’re already trained to work in the dynamic coastal environment.
“I think it’s one of the bigger opportunities statewide,” Rookard said. “We’re obviously looking at it locally, but there’s a lot of local expertise in coastal restoration. ... You’re still building the stuff, you’re still moving dirt, you’re still driving trucks, operating cranes, but the outcome is is a lot different. You’re just redeploying the same research.”
Maloz said what she’s heard industry folks say is these workers don’t need different training, they just need an extra day of training on green infrastructure, which is an approach to water management that protects, restores or mimics the natural water cycle. Where as a gray infrastructure project could mean building a new water treatment plant, a green infrastructure project would involve restoring wetlands.
“So that was really interesting for us to hear that we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel, we just maybe need to tweak it a little bit so they could be more diverse in how they apply their skills,” Maloz said. “You can take a long-range excavator guy and put him in an oilfield job or you could put him in a mitigation job.”
In the coastal master plan, which features 120 projects, there are several to benefit Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes at a combined $14.8 billion cost.
One of the larger projects includes an $8.3 billion upgrade to the 98-mile Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane-protection system, which would raise the levees to 15-16 feet.
There are also several projects aimed to create marsh, including a $1.9 billion project that will create 25,000 acres of marsh to buffer south Lafourche’s levee system and Port Fourchon from storms and tides. Similar projects in Terrebonne are looking to create 25,000 acres of marsh south of Dulac and Dularge, as well as 13,000 acres of marsh southwest of Dularge.
About $90 million will be spent to pay for the plan, engineering and design of the Terrebonne Bay Rim Marsh Creation project. An additional $1.4 billion will be spent in Terrebonne and $400 million in Lafourche on flood-proofing non-residential properties, elevating homes and acquiring residential properties with high flood risks.
“In the Gulf of Mexico, and in particular coastal Louisiana, restoring the ecosystem and the environment does the restore the economy because we are so intrinsically linked,” Ehrenwerth said. “So not only is it important to note the direct economic impact of restoration projects, but you also need to keep in mind that so many sectors of our economy rely on the environment.”
Ehrenwerth said the knowledge and expertise Louisiana has gained through working with water could also be exported. And Louisiana firms and coastal restoration and water-sector workers could go to other states around the Gulf of Mexico, around the country and even other parts of the world.
“You find many of these same challenges in coastal and deltaic environments all over the world,” Ehrenwerth said. “We happen to be at the tip of the spear when it comes to issues like sea level rise and getting ourselves ready for the next storm, but these issues are not unique. It’s our expertise, I think, that will continue to be needed in other parts of the country and other parts of the world, which again is a positive for the Louisiana economy and citizens of our state who are involved in the water sector.”