[StBernard] St. Bernard Residents: MRGO Must Go

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Residents: MRGO Must Go
TheNewOrleansChannel.com

NEW ORLEANS - The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet is blamed for flooding St.
Bernard Parish during Hurricane Katrina and now there are several plans to
shut it down. Fishing captain Barry Brechtel knows the waterways around St.
Bernard Parish since he started fishing there some 20 to 25 years ago. 

In 1965, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed the short cut to the
Gulf, and not long after that came the controversy over environmental
issues. Now it is blamed for the catastrophic flooding in St. Bernard Parish
a year ago. 

"If you remember all the hurricane experts always warned about the big storm
that would come up the river. Well we unnecessarily gave ourselves another
river and the storm came up the second river," said Brechtel. 

The parish wants the MRGO shut down. 

"We're talking about basically total closure at Bayou Latoutre," said Parish
President Junior Rodriguez 

The plan also includes creating a series of strong levees, and gates would
be installed from Verette to the inter coastal waterway. 

"These gates would be closed when a hurricane is coming," said Rodriguez 

But the man who headed the levee panel for the Bring New Orleans Back
Commission said to not completely shut down the MRGO at the ridge, instead
put a gate there as well. 

"To just plug it up would deny all sorts of commerce and passage. You don't
need to plug, leave it open 364 days a year. If there's a storm coming you
can have a mechanism there to close it," said levee expert John Koerner 

Congress has ordered the Corps to come up with a preliminary closure plan in
the next few months, but the people who live and work in St. Bernard said
they don't have much time to wait.