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At the foot of the Mississippi’s 19,000-mile river system lie the six deep-water ports of southern Louisiana. These outlets to the world handle more than 450 million tons of cargo annually — much of it in exports from industry and agriculture throughout the nation. Continued wetlands loss will ultimately expose several of these ports to open water, rendering them vulnerable to severe damage from hurricanes and tropical storms.
Transportation and Shipping
The backbone to all industries is transportation. Any and every product produced in the world has to be transported along the established routes. With the Mississippi River central to the Gulf Coast outlet, together they form the largest Port Complex in the world.
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In addition to the 3,000 miles of commercially navigable waterways, coastal Louisiana has railroad transportation, Interstate, U.S. and state highways, commercial and general aviation airports, and an extensive network of oil and gas pipelines. Southern Pacific, Kansas City Southern, Amtrak, Illinois Central, and Union Pacific are the main railroads serving the area.
Our coastal ports and navigation channels are extremely important as a safe haven from the Gulf of Mexico during storms. It is not uncommon to have in excess of 400 large vessels at Port Fourchon during storm events.
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Industry and the Wetlands
America's economy is interwoven in the wetlands and therefore serves a crucial partnership between Louisiana and the rest of the country. The obvious industries are well known from the area: seafood, oil and natural gas as well as other petrochemicals. But what about the less obvious that we rely on in every part of our day? Did you know that plastics come from the wetlands as well? How about medicine and pharmaceutical research? There are so many unique industries that their successes are directly tied to the preservation of the wetlands that it won't be known until it's too late. |
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Louisiana and all of America will be affected if the demise of Louisiana's wetlands should continue. Voice of the Wetlands (VOW) is the voice of those people who seek human intervention to fix a natural balance disrupted by human intervention.
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