More about MRGO

MRGO Facts At-A-Glance

Completed in 1965
Original 650 feet wide x 76 miles long
Now 2,000 feet wide x 76 miles long
290 million cubic yards of sand dredged to build the channel, 60 million cubic yards more than dredged to build the Panama Canal.
Original cost was $92 Million
Cost to maintain through 2006 approximately
$906 Million (per Closing the MRGO
Environmental and Economic Considerations,
LSU Ag Center, LA Sea Grant)

MRGO Closure Plan Facts

Offered by Senators Vitter (R-LA), Landrieu (D-LA), Inhofe (R-OK) and Jeffords (I-VT), the MRGO closure plan is part of an amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill. The Corps is provided $3.5 million to develop a plan for closure of the MRGO in six months.

The MRGO closure plan will:

De-authorize deep draft navigation at a minimum and will recommend if any navigation should be supported on MRGO;
Provide measures for protection from hurricanes and storms;
Prevent salt water intrusion;
Re-establish the storm buffering properties and ecological integrity of wetlands lost due to construction and operation of MRGO;
Complement overall restoration of coastal Louisiana.

A final plan will be submitted for closure funding by December 2007.

MRGO to be a Dump? Don’t go there DEQ and the Corps

200 Acres of Wetlands Adjacent to MRGO Threatened by Debris

July 14, 2006 - As the Corps of Engineers puts together a plan for the closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), community and environmental groups which advocated for the Congressional demand for that plan through are warning the public about a new threat – a proposed landfill on the banks of the MRGO.

This proposal defies common sense. The Corps is supposed to be creating a plan to restore the wetlands that the MRGO destroyed, but now they want to turn 200 acres of wetlands along the channel into a landfill.

Proposed by Newport Environmental Services, the class 3 construction and demolition debris landfill is currently seeking a permit from both the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Corps of Engineers. One of an ever-growing slate of new landfills proposed to deal with the impacts of Katrina, this proposal may be the most audacious.