March 27, 1995
Rep. Richard Combo
RE: Rep. Billy Tauzin and House Republican’s efforts and determination to destroy the Clean Water and Endangered Species Act and in particular the “Sham and Scam” Congressional hearings chaired by Rep. Tauzin in Belle Chase, Louisiana on March 13, 1995 concerning the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.
Dear Rep. Combo:
Please be advised I represent Save Our Wetlands, Inc. (SOWL) concerning the above captioned. SOWL has a membership of over 1,500 Louisiana residents. In this regard, find enclosed a SOWL Fact Sheet which is self explanatory.
Can you explain why SOWL’s 20 year plus track record did not at least merit an invitation by Tauzin’s “Sham and Scam” congressional hearings held in Belle Chase recently? There was no proper notice of such hearings except for an article in the Times-Picayune the weekend before the hearing.
It is obvious Tauzin does not want the people or Congress to hear how the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts have saved the taxpayers billions of dollars from past government-corporate Louisiana pork barrel projects that were “determined” to develop wetlands at taxpayer’s expenses.
For example:
In 1977, SOWL obtained an injunction in the United States Eastern District Court for the State of Louisiana enjoining the Corps of Engineers from building a billion dollar dam at the Chef Menteur Rigolets Fort Pike area where the Gulf of Mexico enters into Lake Pontchartrain.
If SOWL had not obtained this injunction Lake Pontchartrain would be a stagnant body of water, and over 28,000 acres of wetlands in New Orleans East would have been developed into the Orlandia Subdivision. The Clean Water Act was used to stop this subdivision.
Basically, what this all means is that tax payers’ monies were going to be used to build levees and help drain wetlands for residential and commercial developments in low lying areas extremely susceptible to hurricane tidal surges. And once a hurricane hits and floods these low lying areas, it’s the taxpayers who have to pay for the disaster loans. This is what the Clean Water Acts does, it saves the taxpayers from subsidizing ill-conceived projects backed by political/corporate muscle.
I suggest you look from where Bill Tauzin speaks. He speaks from a state losing over 50 square miles of her coastal zone a year from coastal erosion. This is caused by disastrous projects such as the Corps’ Mississippi River Gulf Coast Outlet (MRGO) washing away St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes. The MRGO was constructed before the Clean Water Act.
SOWL’s present big battle is to save the United States’ last remaining wild river, namely the West Pearl River, in the Honey Island swamps of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. The river is being attacked by a Corps 36 million dollar navigational dredging project “determined” to make Bogalusa a sea port.
This project is backed by Bogalusa’s Louisiana State Rep. Sixty B.B. Rayburn, a thirty plus year veteran of the Louisiana legislature and powerful enough to pull the strings of Louisiana DEQ agencies. The project is also backed by ex-Leut. Gov. Jimmy Fitzmorris, and U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston.
Here again the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Acts are being used in the United States District Courts to stop this disastrous pork barrel ecological-economical, political poo poo project.
The Gulf Coast Sturgeon is being threatened by this ill conceived project and the Endangered Species Act could very well save the taxpayer’s a 100 billion dollars plus economic resource called the Pearl River Basin.
This House of Representatives is reckless. The Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act maintain our ecological economic treasures for this generation and generations to come.
Our virgin forests have been cut. The East Coast has lost its cod fisheries industry. The West Coast is in danger of losing its salmon fishing industry. Here in Louisiana, we have been using the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts to save our fishing and wetland estuaries resources.
Representatives hopping on Billy Tauzin’s bank wagon should be put on notice that the Tauzin hearings held in January of 1995 in Belle Chase, Louisiana were a sham and a scam.
SOWL hopes there are still some distinguished members of the United States Congress who will forge to save the Clean Water and Endangered Species Act and stand up for our economic natural resources to be preserved now and for the future generations in the name of the people and not just for the corporate few.
SOWL requests this letter and the SOWL Fact Sheet made part of the permanent record in this matter.
Finally, SOWL requests this letter and the SOWL Fact Sheet go to each member of the U.S. Congress.
Sincerely,
LF/kcm