[StBernard] MRGO Dredging Suspended for 1 Year

[Westley Annis]

Army Corps of Engineers says it won't dredge the MR-GO

CHALMETTE, La. U-S Representative Charlie Melancon says the Army Corps of
Engineers has suspended plans to dredge a shipping channel blamed for
amplifying Hurricane Katrina's deadly storm surge through Saint Bernard
Parish, eastern New Orleans and the Lower Ninth Ward.

After being partially filled in by Katrina, the Mississippi River-Gulf
Outlet, or MR-GO, will remain untouched for the next year as local and
federal officials grapple over whether to close or reconfigure the waterway.

The shipping channel was completed in 1965 as a 76-mile shortcut from the
Gulf of Mexico to wharves along the Industrial Canal.

But, during Katrina, experts says the MR-GO and a second channel, the
Intracoastal Waterway, acted as giant funnels that sent the storm's surge
shooting into the Industrial Canal at breakneck speed, knocking down levees
and leading to the deaths of hundreds of people. The surge also toppled
levees along the MR-GO, sending a second surge into Saint Bernard Parish
from the north.

Melancon said he asked the corps last week to suspend dredging until the
issue was resolved.