[StBernard] New Orleans Restoration Project Will Create New Jobs, Group Says

[Westley Annis]

New Orleans Restoration Project Will Create New Jobs, Group Says

EDF praises city for breaking ground on 1st project to restore Central
Wetlands Unit

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sewerage and Water
Board of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish received praise today for
breaking ground on the $10 million Central Wetlands Assimilation Project as
a vital first step to restore the Central Wetlands Unit, improve storm surge
protection and create new jobs.

"The Central Wetlands Assimilation Project is a vital first step to showing
that environmental restoration equals economic restoration, creating
recreation opportunities, improving habitat and creating new jobs," said
Elizabeth Skree, communications manager for the Mississippi River Delta
Restoration project at Environmental Defense Fund, who attended the 1:30
p.m. ground breaking ceremony at the SWB East Bank Wastewater Treatment
Plant (6501 Florida Avenue, New Orleans, LA  70117).

Restoring the entire Central Wetlands Unit has the potential to create 680
direct and indirect restoration related jobs, according to an EDF study
released last year.  The Central Wetlands Assimilation Project is the first
vital step to restore impacted wetlands in the Central Wetlands Unit, a
30,000-acre area of open water east of New Orleans that was once a thriving
cypress forest that once provided vital hurricane and storm surge protection
to local communities. 

However, construction of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) inundated
the area with saltwater, killing the cypress trees and leaving behind open
water.  In 2005, the lack of vegetation in the open water increased storm
surge from Hurricane Katrina, worsening the damage it caused in the Lower
Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish. 

The Central Wetlands Assimilation Project will provide fresh water and
nutrients needed to reduce salinity and encourage plant growth-by
redirecting and reusing treated wastewater and effluent from the East Bank
Sewage Treatment Plant into the area-rather than discarding all of it in the
Mississippi River. 

"We applaud the City of New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish, the Sewerage and
Water Board and local and state officials for making this project a
reality," concluded Skree.  "We also commend our local and community
partners and the non-governmental organization community for keeping the
momentum going for restoring this area as well as other important
Mississippi River Delta ecosystems."

Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit organization,
creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental
problems. EDF links science, economics, law and innovative private-sector
partnerships. Follow us at Twitter.com/EDF_Louisiana and at
Facebook.com/EnvDefenseFund.