The Atchafalaya Basin Program held it’s first Draft Annual Plan review meeting tonight in Plaquemine. The second and final meeting will be held at the Town of Henderson Rec. Building on Amy Street (Guidry Memorial Park) on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 6 PM.

Steve Chustz, Acting Director of the Program, presented the plan and took comments from the audience.

I asked if the LSU monitoring contract was still in force, collecting much used data on the water quality in the Basin. I requested that the monitoring be continued to provide needed information for future decisions. Basin representatives indicated that the contract was nearing expiration but that one of the proposed projects in this plan would include continuation of the monitoring efforts.

Representatives of the Atchafalaya BasinKeeper called for more work on sedimentation problems in the Basin, noting that sediment is “pollution” because it is killing species, and should be treated as such.

Rep. Karen Gautreaux stated that she would try again this year to get the Basin funding amendment passed and would work to get Capital Outlay funding for this years projects (about $3.5 million for Water Management and Access projects.)

The draft plan can be downloaded from the DNR/ABP web site, or directly from this link:
http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/atchafalaya/2010-draft-annual-plan.pdf

Comments will be accepted until Feb. 16, 2009 at the Atchafalaya Basin Program Office and last-minute comments can be emailed to mailto://atchafalaya@dnr.state.la.us

The Plan, with public comments, will be reviewed at the public Research and Promotion Board meeting on Feb. 19, 2009, at 10 AM in the LaBelle Room of the LaSalle Building at 617 N. 3rd St. in Baton Rouge, LA.

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