Breaux Act Newsflash - Bonnet Carre' Spillway Workshop; CPRA Meeting
***********************************************************************The Louisiana Governor's Office of Coastal Activities (GOCA) and the
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources will jointly host a group of
hydrologists, ecologists and other scientists and researchers from both
Louisiana and Mississippi to discuss monitoring efforts related to the
recent opening of the Bonnet Carre' Spillway this spring at a day-long
workshop Friday, June 13, beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the Galvez Building
located at 602 North 5th Street.
In response to the opening of the Bonnet Carre' Spillway on April 11, 2008,
state and federal agencies and other organizations from Louisiana and
Mississippi have been collecting data to monitor the extent and effects of
the spillway opening. Representatives from GOCA, Louisiana Departments of
Natural Resources, Wildlife and Fisheries and Environmental Quality, as well
as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Geological Survey, will discuss
ongoing data collection and monitoring efforts related to the spillway
opening and will discuss coordination of future events.
The information presented and discussed will be used to improve the
understanding of freshwater and sediment diversions on a macro-scale.
"The state of Louisiana knows that the best way to be successful with
coastal restoration projects in the eastern and central parts of the state
is to put the Mississippi River back to work depositing sediment and feeding
marshes with nutrients," said Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
(CPRA) Chairman Garret Graves. "This is a rare opportunity to study a large
scale diversion of freshwater out of the river and into a coastal estuary,
which is what the state's Master Plan for Coastal Restoration and Hurricane
Protection calls for."
The Bonnet Carre' Spillway is a flood control device located in St. Charles
Parish, about 30 miles north of New Orleans, used to divert flood waters in
the Mississippi River away from the city and into Lake Pontchartrain's west
end.
The spillway was opened on April 11 of this year and closed completely on
May 8, after the flooding threat had passed. The Army Corps of Engineers
opened 160 of the 350 bays of the spillway at the peak of flooding, allowing
as much as 160,000 cfs of Mississippi River water to flow into Lake
Pontchartrain. Before this April, the spillway was last opened in the spring
of 1997.
For more information, please contact Chris Macaluso in the Louisiana
Governor's Office of Coastal Activities at 225-342-3968 or by email at
chris.macaluso@la.gov.
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NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
The next Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) meeting is
scheduled for 10:30 a.m. June 18 (Wednesday) at the Department of Natural
Resources, LaSalle Building (LaBelle Room), 617 North Third Street, Baton
Rouge, LA 70802
If you need further information, please call The Office of Coastal
Activities at (225) 342-3968, or email Chris Macaluso at
chris.macaluso@la.gov
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