Where earth meets water, the land may grow or shrink, but it is never static. Louisiana’s coastal wetlands have been shrinking at an alarming rate. This is due in large part to the Mississippi River Levee system, which protects properties from flooding but also blocks thousands of tons of sediment that would otherwise be deposited into the eroding basin.
Eustis Engineering is proud to be on the design team of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project. This ambitious undertaking aims to address this issue by essentially knocking a carefully-positioned hole in the levee and letting the floodwaters resume their natural routine where they’re most needed. Despite the potential land gain, one large question loomed: Would it do more harm than good?
That’s what the U.S. Army Corps of engineers set out to learn in 2017, when they began research for their environmental impact report. Their results are finally in, and the conclusions are positive.
Score one for land gain!
https://www.nola.com/news/business/article_fdb34438-7c45-11eb-8164-5b2d879fcbef.html
