The Oil and Gas Industry — Impacts Come Full Circle
The United States depends on the oil and gas shipped through and produced in Louisiana’s coastal zone. Wetlands and barrier islands protect the billions of dollars worth of infrastructure that supports the industry from wave and storm damage and is an integral part of the nation’s energy system. The industrial uses associated with offshore exploration and production, pipelines, and canal developments have directly and indirectly contributed to marsh destruction, putting the industry itself at risk.
While they improve access for the oil and shipping industries, man-made channels and canals also make it easy for salt water to move inland and increase water ponding in marshes. In the long run, the continued stress of all this water increases erosion and the eventual loss of marsh vegetation.
Navigation channels and canals dredged for oil and gas extraction have dramatically altered the hydrology of the coastal area. North-south channels and canals have brought salt water into fresh marshes, killing vegetation and habitat. East-west canals have impeded sheetflow, ponding the water on the marsh and leading to stress and eventual loss. Canals have also increased tidal processes that impact the marsh by increasing erosion. Channel deepening has caused saltwater intrusion, endangering the potable water supply of much of the coastal region.
As of 1997, there were more than 20,000 miles of pipelines in federal offshore lands and thousands more inland. They all make landfall on Louisiana’s barrier islands and wetland shorelines. The barriers are the first line of defense against combined wind and water forces of a hurricane, and they serve as anchor points for pipelines originating offshore. These islands protect the wetland habitants from an offshore oil spill and are critical in protecting the state’s wetland-oriented oil and gas facilities and thousands of jobs directly and indirectly tied to the industry.
Oil rigs and barge-mounted drilling hardware rely on navigation canals cut through the wetlands to reach their drilling sites. Unfortunately, these canals are also contributing to wetlands degradation.
If the barrier islands erode entirely, as expected in the next 50 years, platforms, pipelines and wells will be damaged in increasing numbers. More than 58 percent of the region’s wells are located in coastal parishes. Most of them are more than 50 years old and were not designed to withstand the conditions of open water they could face in the next 50 years. More than 30,000 wells are at risk within the 20-parish coastal area. Wells that were on land only a few years ago are now surrounded by water, a situation hazardous to boat traffic and an environmental liability to habitat and fisheries.
Workers, equipment, supplies and transportation facilities that accompany the rapid growth of the offshore oil and gas industry depend on land-based facilities. Roads, housing, water, acreage for new business locations and expansions of existing businesses, waste disposal facilities and other infrastructure facilities will be needed in localized areas along the Louisiana coast. Existing land-based infrastructure is already heavily overburdened and needs expansion and improvement, requiring extensive financial infusions from state and local governments. For example, Louisiana’s only highway leading to Port Fourchon is on the verge of crumbling under the strain of the thousands of trucks that travel on it each week. It will cost about $266 million to make the highway safe and fully useable.
LOOP also depends on onshore infrastructure protected by wetlands. Without this protection, America will lose an essential trade and navigation center that would affect commerce throughout the world.