Gulf States

Louisiana

(+) The U.S. Geological Survey has conducted research studies and monitoring in Louisiana for many years. Their Web site contains a wealth of coastal erosion data.
(+) Louisiana lawmakers and voters have restricted the use of oil drilling revenues to only wetlands and coastal preservation.
(0) Between 1956 and 2004, Louisiana's coastal land decrease was a net loss of 1,149 square miles, a total of about 24 square miles per year. From 2004 to 2005, there was a loss of approximately 217 square miles, an increase of about 193 square miles from the previous year’s totals.
(-) Public access to beaches and recreational areas situated on the Gulf of Mexico currently comprise less than one percent of the entire Louisiana coastline. Access points along the coast that were once available to the public are now closed due to private ownership or commercial development.
(-) Louisiana’s LCZ is experiencing drastic land loss brought about by a combination of levee construction, subsidence, and sea level rise.
(-) The Office of State Parks is concerned about sewage treatment, agricultural runoff, industrial waste, and littering affecting public recreational facilities.
(-) Federal and state reduction in funds has hampered the ability for normal everyday operations, maintenance, and repair of recreational facilities and programs. Funding from the federal government through the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Federal Highway Administration to fund acquisition and development of public outdoor recreation areas and facilities and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development’s Transportation Enhancement Program respectively have been cut drastically.
(-) Louisiana currently has no central repository for compiling pubic access available throughout the Louisiana Coastal Zone or the state. A database containing all public access sites with pertinent information (i.e., directions, specifications, and pictures) would aid Louisiana residents and tourists who use recreational facilities in Louisiana. This could also support emergency and planning efforts during the response and recovery stage of a natural disaster or other emergency event. The State of Louisiana does not publish a Coastal Access Guide or keep a Web site listing the coastal access locations.

Texas

(+) The Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act (CEPRA) requires erosion control projects that give preference to “soft” methods to manage erosion in lieu of hard structures and does not authorize the construction or funding of hard structures on or landward of a public beach.
(+) Only about 80 miles of the undeveloped Texas coast is developable. The balance is held in natural seashores, national wildlife refuges, and national, state, county and municipal parks.
(+) State rules require at least one public access site for every ½-mile of shoreline for pedestrian beaches closed to vehicular traffic.
(+) In 2003, the 78th Texas Legislature clarified the Texas Open Beaches Act (Texas Natural Resources Code §61.018) to where the Land Commissioner has the authority to bring forth enforcement actions, by request that the state Attorney General, any county attorney, district attorney, or criminal district attorney, shall file in a suit to obtain either a temporary or permanent court order or injunction, either prohibitory or mandatory, to remove or prevent any improvement, maintenance, obstruction, barrier, or other encroachment on a public beach, or to prohibit any unlawful restraint on the public's right of access to and use of a public beach or other activity that violates the Open Beaches Act. In addition, the Legislature gave the Land Commissioner, the Attorney General, or a county, district, or criminal district attorney the authority to recover penalties and the costs of removing any improvement, obstruction, barrier, or other encroachment if it is removed by public authorities pursuant to an order of the court. The Legislature also gave the Land Commissioner the authority to directly issue removal orders under §61.0183, and to assess daily civil penalties for violations, such penalties to be cumulative for each day a violation occurs or continues is a separate violation. Finally, the Land Commissioner was also given the authority to request that the state’s Attorney General or any county attorney bring suit for a declaratory judgment to try any issue affecting the public's right of access to or use of the public beach.
(0) Sixty-three percent of Texas’ Gulf shoreline has a historical erosion rate of more than 2 feet per year, although some locations along the upper Texas coast (Jefferson, Galveston and Brazoria counties) experience erosion at a rate of more than ten feet per year. On average, 235 acres of land per year along the Texas Gulf coast and along the state’s bays, estuaries and navigation channels are lost due to erosion.
(0) Fifty-eight coastal erosion projects are currently being managed under the state’s Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act (CEPRA) program, and the state will spend $17.2 million in state-appropriated funds over the course of the fiscal year 2008-2009 funding biennium on coastal erosion.
(0) The coastal region is Texas' second-most popular tourist attraction, generating $7 billion a year.
(-) Unlike neighboring Louisiana, Texas has not restricted the use of oil drilling revenues to wetlands and coastal preservation, so the funds may be used for "onshore infrastructure projects."
(-) Although Galveston has finally submitted a Beach Access Plan, there continue to be many Open Beaches Act violations, causing some people think the beaches are private.