NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers extended the public comment period on the Draft Environmental Assessment for the “Mississippi River and Tributaries, Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana Humble Canal Gate Site Preparation and Initial Levee Preload,” through Sept. 25, 2021.
The draft was released Aug. 12 for a 30-day comment period, as Hurricane Ida made landfall during the comment period it has been extended two additional weeks.
The draft environmental assessment evaluates construction of a proposed preload levee with offsite borrow sites to tie-in to the Morganza to the Gulf levee system (MTG) in Terrebonne Parish. A preliminary step in the MTG project, the preload levee is a mound of mostly clay and sand soil for inducing consolidation, increasing foundation strengths, and mitigating future settlement prior to completion of a full embankment levee.
Approximately 150,000 cubic yards of fill and borrow would be excavated and used to construct the preload levee. The proposed preload levee will directly impact approximately 0.1 acres of open water in Humble Canal and approximately 9.6 acres of existing wetlands consisting of bottomland hardwoods and fresh and brackish marsh.
Release of the draft environmental assessment for public comment follows the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404(b)(1) guidelines.
The general public, interested parties, and stakeholders are invited to comment on the draft environmental assessment. The draft environmental assessment, public notice, and supporting documents are available online here: https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/About/Projects/Morganza-to-the-Gulf/
Comments will be accepted through Sept. 25, 2021 and should be directed to:
Daniel Meden
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Regional Planning and Environmental Division South
PDS-C
7400 Leake Ave,
New Orleans, LA 70118
Comments can also be submitted electronically to the following:
mvnenvironmental@usace.army.mil
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