[StBernard] Corps could be helping rebuild coast with dredged river sediment, state says

[Westley Annis]

Corps could be helping rebuild coast with dredged river sediment, state says
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune 
November 23, 2009, 9:01PM

Ellis Lucia/The Times-PicayuneSediment from a dredge in Lake Pontchartrain
is piped into a marsh area in 2008. In June, corps officials said they used
about 12 percent of the 60 million tons of material they dredged each year
for environmental restoration. 
Louisiana officials on Monday asked the secretary of the federal Department
of Commerce to mediate the state's dispute with the Army Corps of Engineers
over the agency's failure to use most of the sediment it dredges from the
lower Mississippi River each year to rebuild wetlands.

Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Chairman Garret Graves warned
that limiting the use of the 60 million tons or more of dredged sediment for
rebuilding wetlands seems to parallel the corps' mismanagement of the
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet -- which a federal judge last week held
directly responsible for flood damage in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower
9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina. 

"We're losing an extraordinary amount of land in south Louisiana as a result
of the management of this river system," said Graves at a news conference on
the river behind Audubon Zoo, where he was flanked by representatives of the
Port of New Orleans, the National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon
Society and Plaquemines Parish.

"We don't want to see a similar scenario happen as occurred during Hurricane
Katrina in St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes," Graves said. "If all this
material were used beneficially, we could build between 10 and 16 square
miles of land per year in Louisiana, rather than the extraordinary rate of
loss we've recently experienced, up to 35 square miles of land a year."

A corps spokesman replied that the agency's existing beneficial use program
had created 39 square miles of wetlands over the past 20 years, nearly half
of which was created with material from the Mississippi. In June, corps
officials said they used about 12 percent of the 60 million tons of material
they dredged each year for environmental restoration. 

Cost-effective disposal

Corps officials in the past have contended that federal regulations require
them to dispose of sediment in the most cost-effective way. Using material
to build wetlands miles away from where it is dredged is often considered
too expensive.

But in letters to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Edward Creef, chief of
the corps' New Orleans District environmental function office, state
Department of Natural Resources officials say the corps is incorrectly
interpreting those regulations and improperly dismissing other federal laws
governing environmental actions.

The letters say the corps cannot simply determine that the beneficial use of
dredged material is too costly; it must also request the needed money from
Congress.

The corps' use of Pass a Loutre near the river's mouth as a storage area for
some of the dredged material also is blocking the flow of sediment and
freshwater into the eastern side of the river's birdfoot delta, which is
speeding erosion in that area, the letters said. The rest of the dredged
sediment is either resuspended in the river, which carries it into the Gulf
of Mexico, or moved into disposal sites in deep water, where it also is
lost. 

The state wants the corps to use between 75 percent and 80 percent of
sediment dredged from the river to rebuild wetlands. 

Rules for private dredging

Until a recent rule change, the state had been requiring industry to reuse
only 22 percent of the mud picked up in private dredging operations. Such
operations generate about 3 million tons a year -- far less than the corps'
dredging, but still a substantial amount. The rule change will require
industry to reuse 100 percent of its mud for restoration or pay the dollar
equivalent into the state's coastal restoration fund.

In asking for federal mediation, the state is invoking a provision of the
Coastal Zone Management Act, under which Louisiana creates its own coastal
zone management plan that calls for the maximum use of dredged material to
build wetlands.

Under the law, the state can find a federal action, such as the corps
dredging plan, inconsistent with its state plan and then either ask for
mediation or attempt to block the action through a formal veto of the corps'
dredging plans. 

But state officials aren't ready to attempt to block the corps' dredging,
Graves said, as that would result in shoaling at the mouth of the river ---
which would disrupt shipping and hurt business for the state's ports.