Down on the Batture

Oliver A. Houck

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781628468359
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de l'Amérique du Nord

The lower Mississippi River winds past the city of New Orleans between enormous levees and a rim of sand, mud, and trees called "the batture." On this remote and ignored piece of land thrives a humanity unique to the region—ramblers, artists, drinkers, fishers, rabbit hunters, dog walkers, sunset watchers, and refugees from immigration, alimony, and other aspects of modern life. Author Oliver A. Houck has frequented this place for the past twenty-five years. Down on the Batture describes a life, pastoral, at times marginal, but remarkably fecund and surprising. From this place he meditates on Louisiana, the state of the waterway, and its larger environs. He describes all the actors who have played lead roles on the edge of the mightiest river of the continent, and includes in his narrative plantations, pollution, murder, land grabs, keelboat brawlers, slave rebellions, the Corps of Engineers, and the oil industry. Houck draws from his experience in New Orleans since the early 1970s in the practice and teaching of law. He has been a player in many of the issues he describes, although he does not undertake to argue them here. Instead, story by story, he uses the batture to explore the forces that have shaped and spell out the future of the region. The picture emerges of a place that—for all its tangle of undergrowth, drifting humanity, shifting dimensions in the rise and fall of floodwater—provides respite and sanctuary for values that are original to America and ever at risk from the homogenizing forces of civilization.

SOURCES

Property

p. 10 Spanish and French traditions…: Charles Sherman, Roman Law in the Modern World (Boston: Boston Book Company, 1917), p. 141.

p. 10 The civil code declared…: Ari Kelman, A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003), p. 24.

p. 10 But in the late…: Carleton Hunt, Life and Services of Edward Livingston, address on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Louisiana Bar Association, May 9, 1903, in the Chamber of the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana, New Orleans, J. G. Hauser, 1903, pp. 3, 17.

p. 10 Edward Livingston was about…: Henry Rightor, “Edward Livingston,” Standard History of New Orleans (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1900), pp. 406–7.

p. 10 He was an accidental…: Kelman, A River, pp. 28–29.

p. 10 He remade himself, adding…: Hunt, pp. 124–25.

p. 10 Livingston’s accomplishments in the…: www.1911enyclopeia.org/Edward_Livingston, Classic Encyclopedia Brittanica.

p. 10 Indeed, Livingston declined…: Merrill Peterson, “Sage of Monticello,” Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 944–45.

p. 10 Instead, if he won…: Ibid., p. 944.

p. 10 The American notion of…: Ibid.

p. 11 By precedent rising from…: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Inaugural Addresses and Messages (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1859), pp. 515, 517.

p. 11 In a city oppressed…: H. C., “The New Orleans Levee: The Natural Results of Natural Causes,” New York Times, December 2, 1879.

p. 11 When Livingston’s client undertook…: Hunt, p. 140.

p. 11 He went out a…: Peterson, p. 945.

p. 11 On the other was…: Kelman, A River, p. 24.

p. 11 Thomas Jefferson considered the…: Ibid.

p. 11 After Livingston won his…: Hunt, p. 141.

p. 11 at which point Livingston…: Frederick Hicks, Men and Books Famous in the Law (Rochester, N.Y.: The Lawyers Co-Operative Publishing Company, 1921; reprinted 2000 by Beard Books), p. 167.

p. 11 When the dust settled…: Ibid., p. 168.

p. 11 Compromise that it was…: Kelman, A River, p. 49.

p. 11 New Orleanians not only…: Ibid., p. 44.

p. 11 He and Robert Fulton…: Tom Lewis, “The Democratic River,” The Hudson: A History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005), p. 157.

p. 12 Fulton’s steamboat had one…: The following paragraph is as described in Kelman, A River, p. 50.

p. 12 Henry Shreve came from…: Ari Kelman, “Forests and Other River Perils,” in Craig Colten, ed., Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), pp. 49–50.

p. 12 He built his own…: Kelman, A River, pp. 57–58.

p. 12 Now Shreve had actually…: Kelman, “Forests,” pp. 49–50.

p. 12 More threatening, Shreve tried…: Ibid.

p. 12 Livingston had to make…: The following paragraph is as described in Kelman, A River, p. 59; see also Hodding Carter, Lower Mississippi (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1942), pp. 219–21 (describing the Shreve-Livingston standoff). Livingston is reported to have told Shreve, “You deserve well of your country, young man, but we shall be compelled to beat you if we can.” Ibid., p. 221.

p. 12 Two hundred years later…: Mark Waller, “Batture Property Rights in Question,” Times-Picayune, May 29, 2007, http://blog.nola.com/topnews/2007/05/fishers_endure_odyssey_to_ply.html.

p. 12 Out near Lake Pontchartrain…: “Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity: Status of Tree Removal Program,” http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/hps2/images/Survey_ROE_map.jpg.

High Water

p. 15 Pesticides managed to eliminate…: Michael Lipske, “How Rachel Carson Helped Save the Brown Pelican,” National Wildlife, December/January 2000, vol. 38, no. 1.

p. 15 The whistling ducks are…: John Patton O’Neill, Great Texas Birds, edited by Suzanne Winckler (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999), p. 24.

p. 15 is all one…: See statement of oncologist Dr. Carl G. Kardinal, Ochsner Foundation Hospital, Metairie, Louisiana: “No one really knows what is happening to the water in the Mississippi River…. No one knows for sure what these chemicals are doing in the Mississippi River as far as cancer is concerned.” Shoenberger, “Survey Will Probe High Cancer Rate in Area,” Times-Picayune, Aprril 15, 1982. See also statement of of EPA chemist Eugene Sawicki: “It’s human experimentation going on … all we can do right now is collect statistics from our human guinea pigs so to speak, then wait and see.” Michaud, “Three Plant Areas under Federal Study,” Sunday Advocate, February 18, 1979. Research by Dr. Marise Gottlieb of the Tulane University School of Medicine, M. Gottlieb et al., “Cancer and Drinking Water in Louisiana: Colon and Rectum,” 1981, and Dr. Pelayo Corryea of the LSU School of Medicine, cited in Sierra Club, Delta Chapter, “Emissions of 212 Pounds of Toxic Chemicals into the Air in the Saint Gabriel/Geismar Area,” 1986, showed rectal cancers at more than twice the normal elevations for those living along the Mississippi River, and a 60 percent greater chance of lung cancer. To which a Louisiana Chemical Association representative responded, “I’m tired of having to address the issue of cancer and the chemical industry, when there is no evidence that they are related.” “Industry, Cancer Link Unproved,” Morning Advocate, April 25, 1985, quoting LCA President Fred Loy. The 2008 Environmental Protection Agency inventory ranks the state of Louisiana fifth in toxic water discharges, the vast majority of them from plants along the Mississippi River. EPA, Toxic Release Inventory, p. B-11. If discharges from the mining industry are subtracted, Louisiana leads the nation. Ibid., pp. B-11, B16a. Louisiana colon and rectal cancer rates continue to lead the nation as well (fifth in death ratios for white males, first for black males). Cancer in Louisiana 2001–2005, LSU Health Sciences Center, vol. 23, fig. 3. Louisiana ranks second in the country in overall cancer rates, National Cancer Institute, Cancer Mortality Maps & Graphs available at http://cancercontrolplanet.cancer.gov/atlas/index1.jsp?.ac=1.

p. 16 “screw too much …”: “Great Louisiana Toxics March Sets the Pace for the Movement,” Rachel’s Hazardous Waste News #101, October 31, 1988, quoting from a story in the Washington Post.

p. 16 zone at its mouth…: Press release, “Spring Nutrient Delivery to the Gulf Estimated among the Highest in Three Decades,” US Geological Survey, July 11, 2008.

p. 16 Granted, a lot of…: “Mississippi river water quality and the Clean Water Act” by National Academies Press, National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Animal Nutrition, p. 54, available at http://books.google.com/books?id=INwwkzzIOtwC&pg=PP1&dq=mississippi+river+water+quality+and+the+clean+water+act.

p. 16 The heavy metals and carcinogens, though…: Greenpeace, We All Live Downstream: The Mississippi River and the National Toxics Crisis, December 1989, p. 91.

p. 16 130 industrial plants…: Ibid.

p. 17 state issues a report…: “Louisiana Tumor Registry: About LTR,” http://publichealth.lsuhsc.edu/tumorregistry/about_LTR.asp.

p. 17 state will not disclose…: “Louisiana Tumor Registry: Requests for Data,” http://publichhealth.lsuhsc.edu/tumorregistry/data_request.asp.

Spillway

p. 24 The Bonnet Carré spillway…: “Final Environmental Impact Statement, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi River and Tributaries Levee and Channel Improvement,” February 1976, pp. 43–44.

p. 24 it resisted the notion…: John Barry, Rising Tide (New York: Touchstone, 1998), pp. 32–92.

p. 24 Not until 1927 when…: “Final Environmental Impact Statement,” pp. 3, 4; Barry, pp. 423–26.

p. 24 on the Atchafalaya River…: Martin Reuss, Designing the Bayous: The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya Basin, 1800–1995 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004); John McPhee, The Control of Nature (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003), pp. 3–92.

p. 25 an international jetport in…: Matt Scallan, “Nagin Will Propose New Site for Airport,” Times-Picayune, May 17, 2005, p. 1.

p. 25 airport in Lake Pontchartrain…: Dennis Pessica, “Eastern N.O. Airport Study on Turbulent Course,” Times-Picayune, December 1, 1993, p. A9; Kim Chatelain, “New Airport Won’t Fly, Critics Say,” Times-Picayune, December 2, 1993, p. A-8.

p. 25 You don’t understand, he…: Personal conversation with New Orleans mayor Barthelemy, November 1993, accompanied by Dr. Robert Thomas, who at the time directed the Louisiana Nature Center in New Orleans East.

p. 25 the wave of Florida-style…: Interview with Willie Fontenot, former member, Office of the Attorney General, Louisiana, June 30, 2009; Mr. Fontenot was a member of the Sierra Club residing in New Orleans at the time. Interview with Doris Falkenheiner, former board member, Delta Chapter of the Sierra Club, June 31, 2009; Ms. Falkenheiner recorded the sales agent at Jones Island.

p. 27 has more buffalo fish…: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “The Atchafalaya, America’s Greatest River Swamp,” 1978, p. 7, states, “The aquatic resources of the floodway are phenomenal … over 85 fish species occur in the floodway, and their populations frequently exceed 1,000 pounds per acre.”

p. 27 will siphon half of…: “Final Environmental Impact Statement,” p. 22.

p. 27 under heavy pressure to…: Reuss, pp. 249–64, describing early controversy on Corps plans.

p. 27 It took time to…: Ibid., pp. 273–53, describing later controversy, negotiations, and new Atchafalaya Floodway plan.

Expressway

p. 29 After a five count…: Personal interview with Bill Borah, February 2009. For a full description of the freeway and its antecedents and politics, ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• The Batture
• Motorcycle
• Property
• High Water
• Superbowl
• Spillway
• Expressway
• Elvis
• Statue
• Low Water
• Parish Line
• Southport
• Molytones
• Ghosts
• Rivermen
• High Wires
• Casino
• Seagulls
• Joe Louis
• Katrina
• Rabbit
• Liberty
• Ferry
• Cycling
• Paggio
• Homicide
• Even
• Gypsum
• Fight
• Gustav
• Dewberries
• IT
• Communist
• Squatters
• Oil
• Time
• Malorie
• Dog
• Highest and Best
• Acknowledgments
• Sources