Scarcity of Dredges Could Make Rebuilding Louisiana's Coast Slower and More Expensive
By Tristan Baurick
Times-Picayune / New Orleans Advocate
Just as Louisiana begins an ambitious slate of projects to rebuild its crumbling coastline, the essential ingredients — sea sand and river silt — will be harder to come by.
That’s not because these materials are rare; the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River are loaded with the stuff. But the dredges needed to dig up and move sand, silt and sediment are increasingly scarce.