Green Accessibility

To my supporters,

On December 13, 2022, I had a meeting with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR) to apply for a permit to build a terrace in the wetlands. Prior to the meeting I sent a summary, below, that describes the purpose of the permit. As a result of the meeting, the LDNR gave the go ahead to proceed forward with the permit application.

Thanks for your support,

Richard C. Russo



To The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.

The first thing to say is every penny spent in the wetlands effort should be for the purpose of reducing the effects of sea level rise. If we don’t stop the ocean from rising, everything we are doing in the wetlands will eventually be over topped. Making south Louisiana uninhabitable.

The Tide Pump Project uses renewable energy to lifts sediment above the tidal waters and places it to elevate land. Lifting the sediment gives the arctic water a place to go without raising the ocean.

The project uses a syphon system to lift the sediment using solar energy. The syphon system can be built into a bulkhead that will provide structural support for solar panels. The bulkhead can then be used to enclose open salt water that used to be land. Then the Tide Pump system can be used to pump out the enclosure and bring back dry land. The bulkhead is built into an earthen terrace that increases in height as the sediment is captured.

The terrace provides for the acreage to create a solar farm that powers the grid and syphon system. Money from the grid will return the investment money over time which can be used to build another enclosure and maintain the system. It will replicate itself over and over.

A pipeline system built into the terrace can store the energy created by the syphon and can transport sediment where needed within the terrace and adjoining terraces. As the number of enclosures increase, area of transport increases.

The location of the enclosures can be designed to allow for the creatures in wetlands to have their occupation. Saltwater, freshwater, brackish water and land creatures including man will have their habitat. Grass and trees will naturally grow back. Grazing animals can control the growth in the solar farm.

The system can also control the depth of a river. It will dig a hole at the bottom of the river then remove the sediment as it settles in the hole in a timely manner. Multiple holes will create a channel that will not silt up and not require dredging. This is dredge prevention. The required depth of the river will be maintained while powering the grid.

The sediment in the Mississippi river can be syphoned over the levee and transported through the pipeline system using the wetlands water, not the Mississippi river water. This could settle the complaint that fishermen have, that the water from the planned diversion will harm their fishing industry and are considering a lawsuit. The Tide Pump Project is a miniature diversion that transports the sediment to targeted areas. If this system is implemented into the Mississippi river, when the planned diversion is opened during the spring flood there will be no substantial sediment in the water diverted in to the wetlands.

Several parishes in Louisiana are suiting oil companies for digging canals and not closing them back. Again the project could settle this complaint also. The Tide Pump system will pump out the oil field canals which can be used for flood control as retention ponds. The ponds will be an asset and not a liability.  The money not spent on the lawsuit will allow oil companies to build solar farm enclosures and power the grid which will bring revenue to the state.

The data gathered through research and development in a boat slip on the Vermilion River has made the Tide Pump Project possible and a reality.