Coastal Conservation Association (CCA)

Storm Warnings for the Gulf

By Ted Venker
From the July/August 2005 Issue
of TIDE Magazine

By the time this column is printed, we will be right in the middle of another hurricane season. Predictions of a more active season than normal have been made by the experts. Hopefully they will be wrong. Florida could certainly use a break.

While anglers and boaters keep an eye on the sky, storms of a different kind are roiling Gulf waters this year. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and a legal battle over the future of red snapper are vast low pressure systems hovering over warm ocean water, slowly gaining strength, moving in erratic, unpredictable fashion.

Open-loop LNG terminals continue to be proposed along the Gulf coast, although they should be a matter of concern for any state with a coastline. This issue places the conservation of marine resources squarely in the path of national energy policy, so this issue is a solid Category 5 hurricane for conservationists.

CCA is on record in opposition to the open-loop systems, which can filter up to 190 million gallons of water day to reheat LNG, releasing the water back into the Gulf not only 20 degrees cooler, but chlorinated as well. Closed-loop systems reuse the same water for the reheating process and are more expensive for the energy companies to operate, but vastly more friendly to marine resources.

Over the objections of CCA and every regional and federal fisheries management agency overseeing the Gulf of Mexico, an open-loop permit was approved for a Shell terminal 38 miles off Louisiana earlier this year.

However, some encouraging signs have since emerged. Strong mitigation and monitoring requirements were put in place for the Shell facility. The permit process for a ConocoPhillips terminal 11 miles south of Dauphin Island was temporarily halted to address new concerns from the Environmental Protection Agency. And in a particularly heartening move, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has decided to oppose the licensing of any future offshore liquefied natural gas terminal that proposes to use the open-rack vaporization system. CCA has called on other Gulf state governors to join Gov. Blanco in that effort.

Perhaps the LNG hurricane is moving over cooler water, but it remains a dangerous storm.

Meanwhile, a CCA petition requesting the Secretary of Commerce to put emergency measures into effect to end the overfishing of red snapper by the shrimp fleet has been open for public comment for the past several weeks and will close on July 11. CCA mobilized a successful grassroots effort via email in early May to rally support for our petition.

The red snapper issue is a long-lived hurricane, wandering in endless circles. However, without significant bycatch reduction in the shrimp fleet, the red snapper fishery is in dire straits, making this a damaging Category 4 storm. No one knows where or when it will come ashore or who will bear the brunt of repeated management shortcomings.

There are some dark clouds out there for conservationists, but we can weather the storms. As we have seen in the LNG debate, grassroots pressure can make a difference. A torrent of emails in support of the CCA petition for red snapper may yet make a difference. As part of the CCA grassroots network you can do your part by including your email address the next time you renew your CCA membership at a banquet or boat show or other event so that you can receive email alerts. It is critical that when you receive those alerts you take a few moments to send a message to the appropriate legislator or bureaucrat or agency. It means more than you can imagine.

A single mangrove tree or a patch of marsh grass won’t do much to buffer the full force of a hurricane, but together they can turn aside a disaster. In these stormy times, the CCA grassroots network is needed more than ever.