[StBernard] Army Corps of Engineers says it may spend $1 billion to restore wetlands damaged by levee work

[Westley Annis]

Army Corps of Engineers says it may spend $1 billion to restore wetlands
damaged by levee work
by Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune 
Tuesday September 01, 2009, 9:30 AM

The Army Corps of Engineers expects to spend between $400 million and $1.1
billion on coastal restoration and forest-rebuilding projects to make up for
the destruction of similar habitat caused by its ongoing levee improvement
program, corps officials said Monday.

Federal law requires the corps to replace each acre of habitat damaged
during construction with an equal number of acres of similar wetlands and
forested areas.

Monday's meeting marked the first time corps officials revealed how much
money might be available for mitigation. They hope they'll have enough money
in the $14.7 billion that has been appropriated for levee and drainage
improvements to cover mitigation, but they won't know until closer to the
end of the construction program, said Col. Al Lee, commander of the New
Orleans District office.

"We're going to do everything we can to insure there is adequate funding, "
Lee said. "If we get to the point where we need additional funding, we'll
ask for additional funding."

Local governments will have a voice in how the money is spent, although the
corps will make the final decision on what projects are built. For several
hours Monday, corps officials at the agency's offices on Leake Avenue heard
from a steady stream of state and parish officials, representatives of
environmental groups, scientists and landowners with ideas about what
projects it should build and where.

Their suggestions included a long list of projects, most of which have
already been proposed for construction under other federal programs. Among
them:

-- Rebuilding wetlands and cypress forest in what's known as the Central
Wetlands Unit, between the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Lower 9th
Ward, Arabi and Chalmette, using treated wastewater from sewage plants in
New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish.

-- Funneling fresh water and sediment from the Mississippi River into the
Labranche Wetlands in St. Charles Parish through the Bonnet Carre Spillway
during high river years, with treated wastewater pumped into the wetlands
from Jefferson Parish.

-- Rebuilding wetlands along the land bridge in Barataria Basin in
Plaquemines, Jefferson and Lafourche parishes, using sediment pumped from
the Mississippi River through a permanent pipeline to be built by the state.

-- Paying some of the costs of Plaquemines Parish's plans to rebuild
wetlands and natural ridges in areas aimed at protecting levees.

The cost estimate is based on an estimate of 5,000 acres that would be
damaged by construction of the 100-year hurricane risk reduction system,
said Gib Owen, chief of ecological planning for the corps' New Orleans
District office.

The cost of creating an acre of wetlands or bottomland hardwood forest, such
as cypress, is estimated at between $80,000 and $220,000, he said.

That could include the cost of buying the land and turning it over to the
state, as the corps will require that all mitigation projects be built on
publicly owned land. It also includes operation and maintenance, paid for by
the state, once the restoration is completed.

Owen said the number of acres that need to be replaced could drop as
construction is completed and contractors are able to avoid causing damage.

The corps' estimate of affected acreage includes the effects of borrow pits
it operates. But private contractors who sell clay to the corps from their
own borrow pits will be required to make their own mitigation arrangements.
They're expected to use several "mitigation banks, " coastal restoration
projects operated by private landowners.

The corps should seriously consider funneling the majority of the mitigation
money into large projects that are part of the state's coastal master plan,
rather than pay for smaller or new projects, said Garret Graves, chairman of
the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and coastal adviser
to Gov. Bobby Jindal.

"We have 17 projects authorized under the (Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem
Restoration Plan) that are expected to cost $7 billion, " Graves said, "and
not a dollar has been appropriated by Congress for construction yet."

Those projects already have gone through extensive review by state and corps
officials, and been approved by Congress, he said, and should have priority.

The corps also should be mindful of future sea level rise caused by global
warming in determining where projects should be built, said retired LSU
coastal scientist John Day, who recommended using part of the money for the
Labranche Wetlands and the Central Wetlands proposals.

Owen said construction of individual projects will probably take two years,
once they're chosen and design and engineering work is completed. The corps
has not yet set a date on when individual projects will be chosen, he said.

More information, including presentations of those speaking at Monday's
meeting, will be posted in the "proposed mitigation" section of the corps'
environmental compliance Web site, www.nolaenvironmental.gov