The Atchafalaya Basin Program Public Hearings on the 2011 Annual Plan are complete. Check the message on this site for a summary.
The Draft 2011 Atchafalaya Basin Program Annual Plan is now posted on the DNR web site.

The Research and Promotion Board approved the Plan with minor changes and will present it to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority at its meeting in New Orleans on December 9, 2009.

The plan includes several water projects in the East Grand Lake/Flat Lake water management area, which was targeted for detailed planning in the 2010 Plan. That planning is moving ahead and the tools from the Total Basin Inventory and Assessment Project are being improved to analyze the current situation in the Basin and to help determine the best projects to improve the conditions in that area. In the meantime, the Technical Advisory Goup (TAG) chose non-controversial projects that would generally reopen traditional waterways and not foreclose future options for managing the unit.

One project was also approved for the Brown Bayou Area, east of the main channel and south of Interstate-10, again opening a traditional bayou and introducing needed water to the area below the opening.

The other major project proposed involves the reopening of part of Bayou LaRose and making cuts in barriers in the Cocodrie Swamp, south of Henderson Lake and north of the Beau Bayou Area. This project relied heavily on the Assessment Tools and work with the local proponents to arrive at a plan to reduce the fragmentation of several areas within the Cocodrie Swamp area. This area is representative of many areas of the Basin where the blockage of historic waterways has isolated small areas and prevented them from filling and draining as in the past.

The changes from the public hearings addressed some confusion caused by the editing of the Technical Advisory Group recommendations and some typos. One item added to the Plan was a recommendation by the Audubon/National Wildlife/Environmental Defense Coastal Initiative to recognize the directive given by the Congress to the Corps to re-evaluate the management of the Old River Control Structure as a component of Coastal Management.

The process seems to be working. Now if we can just get some dirt moving.

Stay tuned for  more as the Plan moves forward.

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