Naomi B. Jones
March 11, 2008Exhibits
March 13, 2008Restore or Retreat, the Nicholls State University-based coastal advocacy group, hopes this will be the year freshwater is diverted into Bayou Lafourche.
Since 2000, the organization has fought for local projects. The group met in Gray March 4 to update members on the group’s recent efforts.
Of the projects supported by Restore or Retreat, the one having the most immediate effect on the Tri-parishes is the diversion of fresh Mississippi River water into Bayou Lafourche to help replenish the coastal wetlands around the bayou’s delta. The group is hoping the project can begin in late 2008.
Restore or Retreat’s long-term focus is on another project diverting fresh water into Louisiana’s wetlands, though. The group supports channeling Mississippi River water into Barataria Bay and Terrebonne Bay in an attempt to create new wetlands. The project is being called the Third Delta Conveyance Channel.
The group is also supporting transferring sediments from the Atchafalaya River delta to western Terrebonne Parish to help build wetlands.
State Sen. Reggie Dupre, who attended the meeting, said Morganza-to-the-Gulf, the mostly federally-funded project bringing hurricane protection levees to Terrebonne Parish, will have to undergo reevaluation by the federal government. The cost of building the levees could be 20 percent more than originally estimated, triggering the automatic reevaluation.
Additionally, Dupre said Global Positioning System measurements taken by Louisiana State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that parts of Lockport are unexpectedly below sea level.
