[StBernard] MR-GO opposition nets Sierra Club award for St. Bernard president

[Westley Annis]

MR-GO opposition nets Sierra Club award for St. Bernard president
Posted by The Times-Picayune April 18, 2007 3:17PM
St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez has won a state Sierra
Club award for his efforts to have the federal government close the
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, the Sierra Club said. 

Rodriguez will be presented with the "Wood Duck Award for Legislative
Leadership" by the Sierra Club's Delta Chapter during a banquet Saturday in
Baton Rouge, the environmental group and St. Bernard Parish government said
in news releases Wednesday. 

The Delta Chapter covers the entire state and has 3,000 members, said Leslie
March, Delta Chapter chair. 

St. Bernard Parish officials and residents, as well as some scientists, have
blamed the MR-GO for much of the devastating flooding that covered St.
Bernard Parish, the Lower 9th Ward and eastern New Orleans during Hurricane
Katrina. 

In a new release on St. Bernard Parish government's Web site, www.sbpg.net,
Rodriguez said he thinks the award will help spotlight the problems caused
by the MR-GO, which he blamed for the destruction of area wetlands that had
helped absorb the brunt of hurricanes. 

Even before the hurricane Rodriguez and other St. Bernard Parish officials
had called for the shipping channel to be closed. 

In the parish's news release, Aaron Viles, secretary for the Delta Chapter's
executive committee of New Orleans, said the channel "is a cancer on our
coast and Junior has been a consistent, effective proponent of its closure
and restoration of the wetlands to keep people safe."