Corps of Engineers Working on Plan to Close MRGO

[Sean in New Orleans]

Corps of Engineers working on plan to close MRGO

04:29 PM CDT on Saturday, June 10, 2006
By MARY FOSTER
Associated Press Writer



NEW ORLEANS — Congress' authorization of money to be spent by the Corps of Engineers to develop a plan to close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet to deep-draft shipping had environmentalists celebrating this weekend.


"It's a first step, and it's a tremendous step," Carlton Dufrechou, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said Saturday.


Congress last month authorized $3.5 million to draw up a plan to close the controversial channel, known locally as "Mr. Go", at least to deep-draft shipping.


"That's like saying we want to build a house," said Adam Sharp, communications director for Sen. Mary Landrieu. "We haven't built the house yet, but we've commissioned the blue print and you don't do that unless you plan to build."


The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet has been a thorny issue for years because it has destroyed marsh and cypress swamps since it was built in 1963. The 76-mile channel was dug as a short cut to New Orleans, but today few oceangoing ships use the channel.


St. Bernard officials blamed the channel for much of the flooding in the parish when Katrina slammed into the state.


"It's the will of congress that Mr. Go be closed, but we can't do that without knowing what the impact will be," Sharp said. "The Corps in six months must present a list of what projects must be authorized to close it and protect the wetlands."


Mr. Go is used by about 650 deep-draft ships a year.


But salt water brought into the marshes and wakes from cargo ships have destroyed 18,000 acres of land and 1,500 of cypress swamp, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which dredged it.


"My appreciation is that there will be no more dredging of Mr. Go and the deep draft passage is finished once the silt fills it in," Dufrechou said.


In the past the channel has been dredged to 36 feet. Since the Aug. 29 hurricane, sections of it are only 23 feet deep, Dufrechou said.


"As far as the channel filling up, that's not going to happen," Dufrechou said. "They've dredged more from there than they dredged to build the Panama Canal. To completely fill it in would be more than a billion dollars."


The ship channel is blamed for eroding one acre of wetlands every 36 hours.


"Now we've finally got a chance to restore the coast," Dufrechou said. "With it being dredged and used by deep draft ships there was no chance to restore the coast south of New Orleans."

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/0609 ... 8268e.html

[Audrey2Katrina]

I'd like to believe this; but it flies in the face of an article in today's NOLA.com from the Times Picayune:

Under a spending bill President George Bush is expected to sign this week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be given more than $3 million to study whether the Mississippi River- Gulf Outlet should be closed to ships.

This sounds more like all they're gonna do is study it to death.

But the Corps remains reluctant to say the Mr. Go is a storm surge conduit.
Jim Ward, deputy director of a Corps task force rebuilding the region's flood defenses, called that notion "a popular myth."
He said studies have shown the channel does not increase storm surge.

I don't know what book of "mythology" this clown is reading; but I KNOW those pictures showing the levees being overtopped at the confluence of the MRGO and the ICW aren't hallucinations. And I was THERE when it caused all the flooding for Betsy. This guy is in la-la land.

The report to Congress — due in December — could go in many directions, and it could even recommend continuing to allow deep-draft vessels to run up and down the channel.

THIS is the part that positively FLOORED me. I dearly hope what you've cited is true and they close this monstrous death-trap, as it's not only killing wetlands, and killing people, it's going to eventually kill the CITY if nothing is ever done about it! JMO, but I firmly believe it. The MRGO NEEDS TO GO!

A2K