General DNR News

Public meetings to focus on use of dredged material

BATON ROUGE - During the first two weeks of September, the New Orleans District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, will host a series of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) scoping meetings to solicit public comments and provide information on the Beneficial Use of Dredged Material (BUDMAT) Program Study, a component of the Louisiana Coastal Area, Louisiana (LCA) - Ecosystem Restoration.

The purpose of LCA BUDMAT is to use material dredged from federally maintained navigation channels to:

create, restore, and/or nourish coastal wetlands
create or restore coastal landscape features, including barrier islands, chenier ridges, and shorelines
provide protection to coastal wetlands or coastal landscape features
Five public scoping meetings are scheduled to initiate a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the LCA BUDMAT Program Study. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and comment on any aspect of the study following scheduled presentations.

The meetings will begin with an open house at 6:30 p.m. and will be immediately followed by presentations at 7 p.m. at the following locations:

Wednesday, Sept. 6 - Morgan City Auditorium, 728 Myrtle Street, Morgan City
Thursday, Sept. 7 - Lake Charles Civic Auditorium, Jean Lafitte Room, 900 Lakeshore Drive, Lake Charles
Monday Sept . 11 - University of New Orleans, Lindy Boggs Building, 2000 Lakeshore Drive, New Orleans
Tuesday Sept. 12 - Larose Civic Center, 307 East Fifth St., Larose
Wednesday, Sept. 13 - Houma Municipal Auditorium, 800 Verret Street, Houma

Public input and additional meetings will continue as the LCA BUDMAT Program Study progresses.

Persons unable to attend the September meetings can submit official NEPA scoping comments until October 14, 2006 to: Beth McCasland, US Army Corps of Engineers PM-RS, P.O. Box 60267, New Orleans, LA 70160-0267.

Additional information on the LCA BUDMAT Program Study and the LCA Study can be found at: http://www.lca.gov

For more information, contact Julie Morgan USACE, 504.862.2587 or Cynthia Poland, DNR, 225.342.0058