[StBernard] Corps recommends closing MrGO to Congress

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Fri Nov 16 19:34:13 EST 2007


Corps recommends closing MrGO to Congress
Posted by btheveno November 16, 2007 3:17PM
By Mark Schleifstein
Staff writer

The Army Corps of Engineers will recommend to Congress that the Mississippi
River-Gulf Outlet be closed with a rock dike at Bayou la Loutre, a project
that would cost $24.7 million and could be completed in 170 days.

The decision would put an end to shipping on the controversial shortcut from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Industrial Canal in New Orleans.

Fishing vessels also would have to find alternate ways around the closure,
which will include short onshore berms connecting the plug to ridge formed
by the southern banks of the bayou.

The long-awaited recommendation is contained in the final version of a
Congressionally-mandated report and legislative environmental impact
statement made public on Friday, and available on the Web at
http://mrgo.usace.army.mil/ .

The plug's top would be 12 feet wide and 7 feet above sea level, and the
structure would be built with 391,500 tons of stone. It would be maintained
at a height of at least 4 feet above sea level after construction is
complete.

After construction, operation and maintenance of the structure would be the
responsibility of the local sponsor, which could be St. Bernard Parish or
the state. The corps estimates the annual cost of maintenance at about
$172,000.

The MR-GO channel would be deauthorized for navigation from mile 60, where
the channel connects with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, to the Gulf of
Mexico.

The corps is not recommending filling the entire channel, which has been
blamed both for the erosion of wetlands along the shore of Lake Borgne and
by some as a short-cut for hurricane storm surge into Chalmette and New
Orleans.

Just filling the channel between mile 60 and Bayou la Loutre would require
350 million cubic yards of dredged material, cost $2.8 billion and take 15
to 44 years, according to the study.

The public has 30 days to comment on the recommendation, which comes only
days after Congress ordered deauthorization of the channel as part of the
Water Resources Development Act, which was approved after being vetoed by
President George W. Bush.

Corps spokeswoman Julie Morgan said the New Orleans district office is
awaiting guidance from senior corps and White House officials as to how the
water bill's deauthorization requirement will affect its closure
recommendation or the timing of construction.

The water bill also authorizes Congress to make available $75 million to the
Port of New Orleans to move its public facilities along the Industrial Canal
affected by the MR-GO closure to other locations on the Mississippi River.
Another $85 million in loan guarantees would assist private entities to move
their facilities.

Congress must still appropriate that money.




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