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Louisiana River Levees Research Paper

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Louisiana 's marshes are constantly changing, and it 's costing a lot of money to save it. The cost is $14 billion to stop coastal erosion, which is at a rate of losing 2.5 acres of land per hour. New Yorkers should help pay for the cost too, as they are also being affected levees, man-made and natural causes, economically, environmentally, and socially. The main problem with the marshes is coastal erosion, which is affected greatly by levees. Levees direct river water straight into the Gulf of Mexico, where it no longer deposits sediment along the coast (p. 36). This causes all the excess water into only one location, and create pressure into one area to cause the levee to break. This happened in 1973, where the dam almost broke. People don 't realize that little things like that are actually affecting many things all at once. Something else people don 't realize, is that people are also the reasons to why the marshes are vanishing. A huge problem is …show more content…

However, it 's not only just because of man-made reasons. The coastal marshes disappearing can also be affected by natural causes. Sediment is being deposited into a river delta increasing the weight, which causes the entire area to sink (p. 11). Depositing may sound like a positive cause, but however if the course of the sediment changes then no new sediment will continue to be deposited. Another natural cause is oceans and hurricanes. Both the ocean waves and hurricanes accelerate erosion, which is a main cause to the marshes disappearing. Something New Yorkers should realize is that "80% of oil and natural gases produced in the U.S. travels through our marshes" as according to page 12. America 's economy could go so wrong if the marshes the oil processes through suddenly disappears. Also, a huge percentage of marine life loves in Louisiana 's marshes. With two big resources just gone, the economy will become unbalanced. This is why New Yorkers need to act fast and help Louisiana with such a

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