[StBernard] St. Bernard residents oppose diversion channel in MR-GO restoration plan

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Fri Jan 21 04:08:08 EST 2011


St. Bernard residents oppose diversion channel in MR-GO restoration plan

Published: Thursday, January 20, 2011, 9:56 PM Updated: Thursday,
January 20, 2011, 10:54 PM

By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune

At the first of three public meetings on the Army Corps of Engineers $2.9
billion plan to restore the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet ecosystem, there
were many corps jokes, and much corps bashing, with anger centering over the
proposed diversion channel through the unpopulated Sinclaire Tract in
Meraux.

Several hundred people attended the Chalmette meeting on Thursday night
that opened with a 20-minute presentation by the corps, followed with a
40-minute slideshow by St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro and
concluded with public commentary.

Most of the public commentators, virtually all of whom were St. Bernard
residents, pitted the struggle over the diversion in stark terms, with
flared emotions decrying it would either be the end of their livelihoods or
a slash across the physical, emotional and cultural belly of their parish.

Others wondered why the existing Violet Canal two miles to the south
couldn't be used instead.

Many questioned the benefits of a fresh water diversion altogether.

And at about 9 p.m., as the meeting began to hit its final wind, lawyer
Sidney Torres III took the microphone and stated that the Arlene and Joseph
Meraux Charitable Foundation, the nonprofit group that owns the Sinclaire
Tract, is against the proposed diversion altogether.

"I am here to tell you tonight that the Sinclaire tract is a nonstarter,"
Torres the foundation's attorney, told the corps officials at C.F. Rowley
Alternative School. "We don't want to be up there (in Washington, D.C.)
telling congressmen and the president that the only way we are going to
accept this is if you ram it down our throat. ... We don't want to be your
enemy."

Corps officials considered thousands of individual restoration projects,
combining them into a variety of alternatives, and then selected the current
proposal from among three "best buy" combinations.

Taffaro suggested "going back to the drawing board" and embracing an
entirely new plan that would use underground pipes to deliver the fresh
water rather than digging a channel.

Corps project manager Greg Miller, who gave the introduction, iterated and
reiterated that the proposal on the table was just a draft and that comments
at the meetings, including the two still to come, will be addressed in any
final document. Yet Miller also clearly stated that a fresh water diversion
is needed for any project.

The corps states the diversion must deliver 1,000 cubic feet of water and
sediment per second during most of the year, increasing it to about 7,000
feet per second from mid-April through May. The existing canal in Violet
could handle only 2,000 cubic feet per second.

Also, the corps report states that using the existing Violet canal would
require relocating 121 businesses, residences or structures.

As part of Congress' decision in 2007 to close the outlet, known as MR-GO,
it ordered the corps to develop a plan to restore the environmental
degradation caused by the navigation channel since it opened in 1965.

Its goal is to restore wetlands and land features lost to construction of
the ill-fated shipping channel and to erosion caused by the ships and barges
using the MR-GO as a shortcut from the Gulf of Mexico to the Industrial
Canal in New Orleans. The corps estimates the plan would restore or protect
92 square miles, or about 58,861 acres, of wetlands and land, and would take
10 years to complete with construction beginning as early as 2012.

The channel has been blamed both for the erosion of wetlands along Lake
Borgne and for expediting hurricane storm surge into Chalmette and New
Orleans.

Blocking salt water from the Gulf and creating a freshwater diversion from
the Mississippi River into Lake Borgne would keep salinity levels low enough
to allow vegetation to take root and thrive, reducing erosion and holding
soil in place that will aid restoration of a healthy cypress forest and
wetlands to provide additional protection from future storm surges and
waves.

While initially the corps had created a 45-day review period to end Jan. 31,
the corps provided a 15-day extension after community members complained
that a large period of that was cut into by the recent holidays. Now the
review period will end Feb. 14.

The corps also added a third public meeting where people can submit comments
on the draft plan. In addition to the next meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Leo
Seal Community Center, 529 Highway 90 in Waveland, Miss., an additional
meeting will now be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Light City church, 6117 St.
Claude Ave. in New Orleans.

After the reviews, an updated version of the plan and environmental
statement will undergo a 30-day review, then it will be submitted to the
chief of the corps, then to the White House for a final review before being
sent to Congress. Congress already has authorized the MR-GO restoration and
need only begin appropriating money for its construction.

More information about the plan is available at www.mrgo.gov or by
contacting Tammy Gilmore at 504. 862.1002.

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