The Mississippi Delta is slowly disappearing. The Delta was formed during the melting of the great ice sheets of the last ice age which began around 8000 years ago. Since then the Delta has been slowly sinking. It is true that sediments from the Mississippi River have continued to build land in the Delta, however they no longer can keep up with the land loss.
Geologically, this picture is the normal progression of deltas during the latter stage of an inter-glacial period. The sediments of the delta were deposited during the time that the great glaciers were melting and huge volumes of water were rushing down the rivers. Great to volumes of sediments were eroded from the mountains as the glaciers melted and carried down and became our deltas. Now the melting is complete and the amount of water and therefore the amount of sediment is greatly reduced. The result is that the deltas are sinking as their organic material is degraded and compressed along with the sediments themselves. There is nothing we can do to stop this process. Deltas are a dynamic feature. We would like them to be static and fixed forever for ourselves and our children but it just is not going to happen. We can throw billions of dollars at the problem and nothing we do will have any permanence to it. The work on Elmer's Island will last until the first major hurricane impacts it and then it will be gone. We need to learn to live with nature as it is not the way we would like it to be.
Meanwhile, our clueless politicians continue to throw huge amounts of money into the wrong places trying to stem the tide of land loss. Freshwater diversion projects are expensive and essentially only help the oyster fisherman keep their leases producing good oysters. The oyster men provide no direct support for this expenditure. We have to ask ourselves is it better to spend money moving populations out of the lands that will soon be submerged or at very least devastated by even the smallest tropical storm. We in America love to live by the water but there are dangers and living close to water and risks. I think governments that allow development in areas that have significant geological risk should be penalized and further I think that insurance companies that allow people who insist on building and risk prone areas should also be penalized. I myself would be one of those penalized.
