Abstract: Deciphering the Role of the Oil and Gas Industry in Louisiana's Coastal Land Loss Crisis

Shea Penland, L. D. Wyne, M. Byrnes, S. Jeffress Williams, Patrick L. Wilkey, Donald O. Johnson, Ted Williams

Louisiana is experiencing the worst coastal land loss conditions in the United States. The rates of coastal land loss peaked at 41 sq mi per year in the 1970's and have decreased to 25 square miles per year. controversy surrounds the causes and processes of coastal land loss. Coexistence of oil and gas reserves with coastal wetlands put these two resources in conflict. A wide variety of causes have been identified but not substantiated nor quantified. One source suggests that the oil and gas industry may be a major cause of the coastal land loss found in Louisiana. Other causes of coastal land loss include practices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Nutria. In order to quantify the forms and processes of coastal land loss for the first time in Louisiana, a team of scientists fro Louisiana State University. U.S. Geological Survey, Argonne National Laboratory, and Gas Research Institute are using geographic information system (GIS) technology in combination with a multi-disciplinary committee of experts to quantify coastal land loss. this paper reports the status of this study.

This research is being sponsored by the Gas Research Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994