Office of Coastal Management

DNR SMALL DREDGE PROJECT TO BENEFIT AREAS IN JEFFERSON PARISH

Thursday, May 18, 2000

Construction work has recently started to create beneficial marshland at three sites in Jefferson Parish along Bayou Dupont. Department of Natural Resources’s (DNR) Coastal Restoration officials said the job was awarded to Grillot Land & Marine, LLC of Belle Chase and should be completed in eight months.

A small, mobile hydraulic dredge will be used to move sediment materials from inland waterways within the coastal zone and then deposited to nourish and rebuild threatened coastal marshes adjacent to those waterways. Specifically, the dredging project consist of three areas of concentration: Site 1 — located adjacent to the southern shoreline of The Pen and the headwaters of Bayou Dupont, approximately three miles south of Lafitte, and Sites 2 and 3 – located along Bayou Dupont about two miles south of The Pen.

The estimated 413,090 cubic yards of dredge material will be pumped into the existing shallow open water areas to an elevation of six inches above the adjacent marsh. Over 58 acres of marsh will be created or restored, DNR officials report.

Jefferson Parish President Tim Coulon said Jefferson was one of the first parishes selected for the state’s small dredge program which is totally funded from the statutorily dedicated Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Fund. The cost of the project is $996,630.

Editors: For more information, contact DNR Public Information Office at 225-342-8955.

News Archives »