[StBernard] Corps agrees to alter MR-GO work plans

[Westley Annis]

The Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to scrap plans to use most of $75
million added to the agency's New Orleans maintenance budget last year to
place rocks and concrete mats on the banks of the Mississippi River-Gulf
Outlet to prevent erosion, U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said Tuesday.
 
Instead, some of the money will be redirected to where Vitter says he
intended it to be spent: designing ways to plug the channel to block storm
surge from the Gulf of Mexico, corps Deputy Director of Civil Works Steven
Stockton confirmed. 
 
In a statement released Tuesday, Vitter said corps New Orleans District
Commander Col. Rich Wagenaar "has assured me that he understands my concerns
about MR-GO and the need to prevent storm surge and saltwater intrusion." 
 
"He has agreed to 'wipe the slate clean' in regards to his previous
short-term spending plan and consider my urgent request for stronger action
toward closure," Vitter said. "MR-GO is a hurricane highway, and we owe it
to the residents nearby to address these issues immediately and
effectively." 
 
"What we promised Senator Vitter is that . . . we'll give him a list of all
the environmental restoration and conservation projects that we can do
around the MR-GO to stop the losses and move toward restoration, whether
it's open or closed," Wagenaar said during an interview on Friday. 
 
St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez said he may have
instigated the corps' reversal by sending a list of projects proposed by the
corps to Vitter's office about two weeks ago. 
 
On the list were three contracts totaling $27.8 million that the corps
awarded in April, July and September for repairs to rock dikes on both sides
of the channel that runs through the parish and on the shoreline of Lake
Borgne, as well as plans to award six more rock dike contracts and one
contract to line a part of one of the banks with concrete mattresses, which
would have used up the rest of the $75 million. 
"I sent his office staff a copy of their proposal, and he was all upset when
he got it," Rodriguez said. 
 
Stockton said the original list was devised after the corps concluded it
couldn't use the money to build a structure across the MR-GO because
Congress has not yet deauthorized its use as a navigation channel. 
 
In December, the corps issued a preliminary report on whether
deauthorization should occur. That report concluded that the cost of
dredging to keep the channel open was more than its benefit to the national
economy as a shipping channel, and said the agency was considering closing
it with an armored earthen dam. 
 
But that decision must wait until a comprehensive environmental impact
statement is completed and a final report is submitted to Congress in
December. 
 
Stockton said the corps will submit a new list of projects on which the $75
million will be spent in about two weeks, and that it will focus more
closely on preventing saltwater intrusion and storm surge. 
 
Included will be alternative designs for closing the channel with an earthen
dam or a gate, based on whether Congress decides to keep the channel open
for deep-draft shipping, to restrict its depth to shallow-draft boats, or to
deauthorize the channel and order it closed, Stockton said. 
 
"We agreed to advance the designs for those options so once the decision is
made, we will be able to move quickly into construction without going
through a detailed design," he said. 
. . . . . . . 
Mark Schleifstein can be reached at mschleifstein at timespicayune.com or (504)
826-3327.