Support grows for sediment pipeline

A long-distance sediment pipeline from the Atchafalaya River to restore Terrebonne Parish wetlands could prove greatly beneficial to St. Mary Parish, too.
Area officials say a recent spike in support gives them hope for making that idea a reality.
That pipeline to transport sand dredged from the Atchafalaya River to Terrebonne Parish would help keep the river navigable for vessels while rebuilding marshes that are rapidly disappearing, according to proponents of the project.
“It would eliminate a lot of the issues we have in the river,” said Raymond “Mac” Wade, executive director for the Port of Morgan City.
If state coastal leaders will use the sediment to go toward restoring the coast, the port won’t have to use its own operation and maintenance funds to dredge an area of the river that accumulates sediment, Wade aid.
“Everybody is buying into this,” Wade said of the project.
St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said installing a sediment pipeline would also assist in protecting St. Mary from potential flooding by removing excess sand from the river, Matte said.
“The more open the Atchafalaya River Channel is, the more readily it can carry flood waters. Doing that obviously benefits us all,” Matte said.
Many officials spoke in favor of including the pipeline in the 2017 coastal master plan at a public meeting Tuesday in Houma, said Project Engineer Hilary Thibodeaux of CB&I technology and infrastructure company.
The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority will accept public comments on the plan until March 26.
Though the sediment pipeline wasn’t included in a draft of the plan, proposed disposal sites in Terrebonne are in the plan, Thibodeaux said.
The pipeline project had been “kind of off the radar” for the past seven to eight months, and momentum on the project has increased a lot because of greater support, Thibodeaux said.
What initially hurt the project was its several billion-dollar price tag to create 30,000 acres of land. However, project leaders are planning to benefit the same areas but at a lesser value than what it would take to create that much land, he said.
The pipeline would likely be 30 to 40 miles long, and maybe as long as 50 miles, Wade said.
With the pipeline, officials could keep the river consistently at its 400-foot wide and 20-foot depth.
The port could then focus its efforts on dredging the fluid mud, or fluff, that builds up in the Bar Channel further downriver, Wade said.
State Rep. Jerome “Zee” Zeringue, R-Houma, represents Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, and is also a former executive director and chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
“The project, on many fronts, is beneficial to both the region and wetlands and also to navigation, which is critical to the folks in and around St. Mary and even Terrebonne,” Zeringue said.
The state’s coastal plan is focused on rebuilding wetlands in Terrebonne “and the pipeline is the tool that we can do it most efficiently and effectively,” Zeringue said.
Port of Morgan City officials want the pipeline to use sand at a spot 15 miles south of Morgan City “where the sand’s building up,” Wade said.
Port leaders want to get sediment from a 3- or 4-mile stretch of the river.
“This is actually taking the sediment from the system that built the wetlands and putting it where it needs to be,” Zeringue said.
Zeringue believes the pipeline would possibly be more cost-effective and efficient than the projects proposed in the master plan.
“It would be a win-win for everyone, for navigation, for the channel, for the wetlands,” Zeringue said.
The pipeline could work well together with the project to increase Atchafalaya River flow to Terrebonne’s marshes.
Bringing freshwater and sediment from the Atchafalaya “would be an integral part and a key tool in helping rebuild and sustain the wetlands in Terrebonne” and close to Lafourche, Zeringue said.
Zeringue recognizes that Port of Morgan City officials have some concerns about the freshwater diversion in regard to potential silting problems, he said.
“We could work through those issues,” Zeringue said.