Panel will evaluate hurricane project Morganza-to-the-Gulf

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 12, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A new state-organized panel will spend the next six months reviewing technical, social and environmental aspects of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection project.

The intent is to expedite construction of the hurricane protection for Terrebonne Parish, said Garrett Graves, of the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities.

“It was clear to us that any of the paths forward available were going to have challenges to them,” said Graves, who also is chairman of the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority group, which formed the technical panel.

The panel will help the state identify and address concerns about the project and help the Army Corps of Engineers complete its reassessment of the project, he said.

Planning for the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection system began in the early 1990s with the purpose of providing levee protection to Terrebonne Parish and the city of Houma.

The proposed 72 miles of levee, floodgates and other water-control structures would encompass 166,000 acres of land, of which about 85,000 acres is wetlands, said Jerome Zeringue, who is leaving his job as Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District executive director and, on Tuesday, taking a job with the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities.

Although the Morganza-to-the Gulf project received authorization through the federal Water Resources Development Act late last year, the estimated cost of the project increased substantially. That triggered a congressionally mandated “relook” at the cost and benefits of the project, corps officials have said.

In addition, the size of the levee project and the amount of wetlands inside the levee system have prompted some coastal organizations and scientists to question the design.

Morganza to the Gulf is called a “leaky” levee system, meaning that unless a storm is approaching, it’s intended to have enough water exchange between inside and outside the system to keep marsh areas healthy. Some researchers say the levees will stop water movement, which could hasten erosion and leave the parish more vulnerable to floods.

That’s one of the questions Graves said he’d like the new technical panel to address.

Graves said he plans to meet with the corps soon to discuss what information it needs for the project reassessment and how the state’s technical panel can help provide some of that information.

“We can begin answering questions the corps will be asking,” Graves said. “Waiting another three years for the corps to make a decision is unacceptable.”

In addition, the panel will be asked to identify those parts of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project that could be built soon without risking environmental damage, he said. For instance, construction of the Houma Navigation Canal lock would help prevent storm surges from the Gulf of Mexico from entering Houma.