Office of Coastal Management

FIRST STAGE OF COASTAL PROJECT UNDERWAY IN ST. MARY PARISH

Engineering work on the Cote Blanche Hydrologic Restoration Project located in St. Mary parish is now underway announced Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) Coastal Restoration Division officials today. Project manager Garrett Broussard said the project will protect nearly 5,000 acres of marsh. The project features seven low level weirs and 10,000 linear feet of rock dike along the project's southern boundary.

The area to benefit from this project is bounded on the north by the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW), on the east by LA Highway 317, on the south by East Cote Blanche Bay, and on the west by West Cote Blanche Bay.

Over the past several decades, the Cote Blanche Wetlands (approximately 30,000 acres) converted from a brackish/saline marsh to an entirely fresh/intermediate community. In addition to land loss and subsidence, increasing amounts of freshwater are delivered to the project area from the Atchafalaya River system through Wax Lake Outlet and westward down the GIWW. Large volumes of freshwater are also transported from the Atchafalaya Delta to east and west Cote Blanche bays by west and southwest winds.

Project goals include reduction of excessive water level fluctuations and water exchange, reduction of shoreline erosion from wave energy in critical areas, and the reduction of interior wetland loss rates, and the introduction of growth of emergent and submergent vegetation in eroded areas.

Fish and wildlife resources are numerous in the area, with the most important commercial species of estuarine organisms being white shrimp, Gulf menhaden, and blue crab. Wildlife found in the area are muskrat, nutria, and alligator.

Funding is provided through the Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) on a cost-share basis with the state and federal sponsor, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The estimated completion cost of the project is $6.5 million. Construction work is anticipated within the next twelve months.

Editors: For more information on this coastal restoration project (TV-04), please contact Garrett Broussard, DNR/CRD Project Manager at (318) 893-3643, or Phyllis Darensbourg, DNR Public Information Officer at (504) 342-8955.