Gov. John Bel Edwards has announced that construction has started on the Lake Borgne Marsh Creation Project in St. Bernard Parish. Deputy Executive Director for Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Greg Grandy said this is the largest marsh creation project that the state of Louisiana has ever undertaken.
“When it’s complete it’s going to create and nourish almost 2,800 acres of marsh on the southern shoreline of Lake Borgne near Shell Beach,” Grandy said.
The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group outlined the plan in January of 2017 and is funded by dollars obtained following compensation for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Grandy said the main piece of equipment used during the project is a cutter head dredge that will pick up sediment and transport it into the marshes.
“We’ll raise the elevation of those open water shallow areas so that vegetation can then take hold back in those areas,” Grandy said.
The restoration will provide benefits to the risk reduction system around the greater New Orleans region. Grandy said that the project will also benefit the wetland ecosystem and fishermen…
They’ll see areas that were begging to become open water on the other side of the MRGO. Those areas will be filled in with marsh and there will be some channels in those areas that will allow the water to move in and out,” Grandy said.
The project’s construction budget is $61 million.
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