美国国家公共电台 NPR Louisiana Wants To Use The Muddy Mississippi To Build Up Its Coast

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The state of Louisiana is sinking. It's already lost thousands of square miles because of rising seas. The state's marshland is disappearing as a result. Now, there is an ambitious plan to divert parts of the sediment²-rich Mississippi River into those marshes³ to try and build up the coast. Travis Lux of member station WWNO in New Orleans reports.

TRAVIS LUX, BYLINE⁴: Albertine Kimble and I could have walked to the Mississippi River from her house, but it sounded like more fun to take a four-wheeler. Kimble is 56, a retired⁵ local government worker with a passion for duck hunting. She lives on a sinking patch of land about an hour south of New Orleans in rural Plaquemines Parish. We scoot up the side of a tall, grass levee built to hold the river back.

ALBERTINE KIMBLE: OK, so to the left, we're looking at the Mississippi River. This is my front yard, actually. And on the right-hand side is Highway 39 and then the marsh¹.

LUX: From the top of the levee, it's easy to see the river is murky⁶ and brown, full of sand and dirt. Kimble says there's a huge difference between this, the river side, and the marsh side.

KIMBLE: It smells fresh. Back there don't smell - it smells rot.

LUX: The marsh behind her house is dying for many reasons, but one of them is that it hasn't been getting the water and sediment from the river that it needs to stay healthy. Kimble gestures toward the river, says it's time to connect it to the marsh.

KIMBLE: This is the salvation⁷ of Plaquemines Parish.

LUX: The state thinks so too. Up and down the river, Louisiana wants to remove parts of the levee and divert some of that sediment-rich water through channels into the dying marsh nearby. The idea is that the sand and silt⁸ in the river will slowly pile up and build land. Many environmental groups support this plan; many commercial fishermen don't. They say shooting freshwater into the estuary⁹ could ruin the habitat and threaten their jobs. But the state is moving ahead. It's just built a new model to put these sediment diversions to the test.

RUDY SIMONEAUX: It looks like they're just starting to fill it up with water again.

LUX: Rudy Simoneaux is an engineer with the state's Coastal¹⁰ Protection and Restoration Authority. This model is huge - the size of two basketball courts. A deep groove¹¹ filled with water snakes diagonally across the middle of it. That's the lower Mississippi River.

SIMONEAUX: This model looks at one specific thing - the river's ability to transport bedload sand.

LUX: Engineers ran a test run the day before. You can still see a pile of black plastic beads¹² where the diversion dumped out the fake sand.

SIMONEAUX: I think we feel pretty good about what you see down there.

LUX: But a new study questions whether the river can build land quickly enough. Researcher Elizabeth Chamberlain - until recently at Tulane University - looked at how fast the river built land about a thousand years ago.

ELIZABETH CHAMBERLAIN: Between 6 and 8 square kilometers per year.

LUX: That's 2 to 3 square miles. The trouble is right now the state is losing land way faster - five times faster.

CHAMBERLAIN: It's not going to be feasible to sustain the entire Delta¹³ or to return it to what it looked like before a lot of the land was lost.

LUX: Engineer Simoneaux says he isn't surprised by the report. The state realizes that even if every restoration project is built, there will still be a net loss of land. He says that makes diverting the river even more urgent.

SIMONEAUX: You know, the longer we wait to start doing projects, it will become more difficult to catch up.

LUX: The state is setting aside more than a billion dollars to build the first diversion and is starting to apply for permits. Officials hope that by 2025, Mississippi River water will start flowing into the state's coastal marshes. For NPR News, I'm Travis Lux in New Orleans.

(SOUNDBITE OF ODDISEE'S "AFTER THOUGHTS")

1 marsh   

n.沼泽，湿地

参考例句：

• There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
• I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。

2 sediment   

n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物)

参考例句：

• The sediment settled and the water was clear.杂质沉淀后，水变清了。
• Sediment begins to choke the channel's opening.沉积物开始淤塞河道口。

3 marshes   

n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Cows were grazing on the marshes. 牛群在湿地上吃草。
• We had to cross the marshes. 我们不得不穿过那片沼泽地。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

6 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。

7 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

8 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

9 estuary   

n.河口，江口

参考例句：

• We live near the Thames estuary.我们的住处靠近泰晤士河入海口。
• The ship has touched bottom.The estuary must be shallower than we thought.船搁浅了。这河口的水比我们想像的要浅。

10 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

11 groove   

n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯

参考例句：

• They're happy to stay in the same old groove.他们乐于墨守成规。
• The cupboard door slides open along the groove.食橱门沿槽移开。

12 beads   

n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链

参考例句：

• a necklace of wooden beads 一条木珠项链
• Beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. 他的前额上挂着汗珠。

13 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。