Ten years ago the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East– the levee board responsible for protecting the east bank of metro New Orleans– authorized a law firm to sue oil, gas and pipeline companies for their role in coastal land loss. While the lawsuit was my idea, my colleagues on the board — most of whom were Republican — unanimously embraced it for two reasons.

Although land loss has multiple causes, we knew — and scientific studies by oil companies agreed — that industry operations accounted for massive damage, often because companies violated regulations, permits and laws.

We also knew that the state’s $50 billion coastal master plan — whose real cost exceeds $100 billion— had insufficient funding. Once the billions of dollars from the BP settlement ran out, only a trickle of money would be available. So why not expect companies that caused the damage to pay?

U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, then chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, told us that our suit “has merit.” His deputy Kyle Graham said industry leaders “very well understand the liability that’s out there on the coast. There will come a day when there is some sort of settlement. It’s very difficult to see a future in which that isn’t there.” Jerome Zeringue, Graves’ successor as CPRA head and now chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said that “no one denies there is a responsibility and obligation on the part of oil and gas in regard to the effects of oil and gas activity.”

Yet the suit ignited a political firestorm and they all opposed it. I was removed from the CPRA and SLFPAE. Gov. Bobby Jindal demanded SLFPAE withdraw the suit. Legislators introduced 17 bills to kill it and one became law. A judge ruled it unconstitutional, but another judge ruled SLFPAE lacked standing. Our lawsuit failed.

A decade has passed. Considerable progress on coastal restoration has been made, most of it paid for by settlement dollars from BP’s spill. That money ends soon. Outgoing CPRA chief Chip Kline warns that without another funding source, “the progress is going to halt.”

Where’s another source? How about companies that caused so much land loss? The coastal damage the spill did is trivial compared to damage done by decades of industry operations.

After SLFPAE sued, seven coastal parishes also filed. The industry has delayed all trials for a decade, but the first trial will finally start in November. Money awarded to the parishes will go to restoration, but even if all those lawsuits succeed, they won’t provide enough resources.

That’s because most coastal parishes have not filed. Terrebone and Lafourche, the two parishes suffering the most land loss, haven’t, even though the state’s Department of Natural Resources attributed 76% of land loss there to industry activities.

Another problem: No statewide action has been taken to make those who own pipelines, which caused a huge part of the damage, contribute to the solution.

Instead, tax-hating politicians expect taxpayers to bear the entire cost of coastal repair, rather than asking the wealthiest industry in the history of the world to fix what it broke. Besides, coastal restoration protects industry infrastructure; should taxpayers pay for that? The Legislature hasn’t even created the vehicle necessary to implement a $100 million settlement — supported by Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry and Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards — between Freeport McMoran and several parishes.

Our politicians say the solution lies in increasing the state’s share of offshore oil and gas revenue. This would cost oil companies nothing; it would only redirect money from the federal treasury to Louisiana. I support that effort and even played a role in passing the 2006 law which first gave Louisiana a share of that revenue, but given current fights over federal spending, no effort to redirect money from the rest of the country to Louisiana will likely succeed. Even if it did, that’s no reason to excuse the oil industry from its liability.

Isn’t it time now to do what everyone knew was right 10 years ago? 

The politics shouldn’t be so tough. Polls have found overwhelming support for the idea that industry should repair the damage it did.

It may not be too late for Edwards to act. Or it may be up to the next governor.

Or possibly Graves can get something done. He opposed the lawsuit when he was working for Jindal. Now he’s his own man. Before SLFPAE sued he asked industry representatives to sit down and work out a voluntary agreement. They refused. Five years ago he arranged a congressional hearing on the coast and asked the witnesses, all of whom had opposed the suit except myself, if they would support federal legislation requiring the industry to contribute to the coast. We unanimously said we would.

Someone has to do it, or Louisiana as we know it will disappear. Anyone?

John M. Barry is a former vice president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, a former member of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and author of “Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America.”