Lead author Molly Keogh shot this photo near Bohemia, looking northeast over the marshes of Breton Sound in southeastern Louisiana. (courtesy of Tulane University)
By Barri Bronston, Tulane University
A new Tulane University study questions the reliability of how sea-level rise in low-lying coastal areas such as southern Louisiana is measured and suggests that the current method underestimates the severity of the problem. The research is the focus of a news article published this week in the journal “Science.”
Relative sea-level rise, which is a combination of rising water level and subsiding land, is traditionally measured using tide gauges. But researchers Molly Keogh and Torbjörn Törnqvist argue that in coastal Louisiana, tide gauges tell only a part of the story.
The majority of the diesel fuel that leaked from the Sewerage & Water Board plant in Carrollton has been cleaned up, and no more has appeared, but officials are still unsure how it escaped in the first place, authorities said Thursday afternoon.