80-ton, scrap-filled baskets to serve as coastal breakers

Restoring Louisiana’s coastal wetlands is serious business, but Terrebonne Parish-based Voice of the Wetlands is trying to make the effort fun.

The group-founded in 2004 by Houma blues musician Tab Benoit to advocate for coastal preservation – held an event at the Houma-Terrebonne Airport on Monday to promote its most recent project: dropping 80-ton industrial baskets into the Gulf of Mexico filled with metal scrap to act as breakwaters.

The event Monday had flyovers of Louisiana’s coast from Cocodrie to Morgan City and entertainment by bluesman Roy Rogers, zydeco accordionist Chubby Carrier and Benoit.

Also presented was the 2006 documentary about wetlands loss and Katrina, “Hurricane on the Bayou,” featuring Benoit, Carrier and Cajun fiddler Amanda Shaw.

For the breakwater project, seven baskets, all 20-feet high, will be deposited in seven feet of water in Bay Champagne sometime during the summer; three more will follow, said Kathleen Hunter, a representative of Voice of the Wetlands who initiated the project.

Wild Well Control, a Houston well firefighting and control firm, is donating the baskets, which measure 26-by-62 feet and cost $650,000 apiece.

Sand will accumulate inside to form the breakwater.

According to Hunter, Wild Well Control was spending $20,000 to clean sediment out of each basket.

“I said, ‘We’re wasting money,'” Hunter said. “They were sending it out to scrap, but we need breakwaters.”

She contacted Benoit about using the baskets, and he agreed to the project.

Four of the baskets that will be used are being stored at Wild Well Control and three are at Larose Scrap & Salvage, said Hunter, a business developer for marine vessel operators Gulf Fleet at Port Fourchon.

She also said that wellheads will be placed among the scrap metal in the baskets, as well as white sand brought in from Florida.

“A lot of people had to get together to make this work,” said Voice of the Wetlands board member Nicky Rhodes.

Lafourche Parish’s Coastal Zone Management and Port Fourchon are assisting with the basket drop.

A plane ride over the Terrebonne and St. Mary parish coasts with Benoit in the pilot seat showed the erosion of wetlands.

On both sides of Montegut and Chauvin is abundant open water that was wetland 20 years ago, Benoit said.

“You can see where Houma’s got a problem. Once you get to Chauvin, it’s a finger sticking out into the Gulf,” said Benoit, a Houma native. “It will continue to die if nothing is done to make it better.”

Around 25 miles west of the Houma-Terrebonne Airport, the coast begins to sprout trees whose canopies from high in the air look like broccoli tops.

Benoit said the greenery has resulted from fresh Atchafalaya River water spreading to the coast and reclaiming wetland.

“The difference is night and day,” he said. “Fight salt water with fresh water.”

Benoit is pushing to have fresh water from the Mississippi River introduced to Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes’ coasts.

“Fresh water is not happening,” he said. “The arguments against it are ridiculous. The oil and seafood people, it may cut into their profits a little bit.”

Back on land, Benoit pledged dedication to the Voice of the Wetlands cause.

“If you see me leaving Louisiana,” he said, “you better follow because that means there is no hope.”

Chubby Carrier (left) and Tab Benoit perform for invited guests Monday at a Voice of the Wetlands event held at the Houma-Terrebonne Airport. The group, headed by Benoit, is promoting its latest project to help protect Louisiana’s coastline. * Photo by KEYON J. JEFF