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February 2013

The Conveyance Online
Restore or Retreat's E-newsletter
In This Issue
Post Spill Path Forward
Small Dredge Demo
Bayou Lafourche Clean-Up
Restore or Retreat Executive Committee

 

Mike Plaisance, President

Plaisance Dragline and Dredging

 

Ted Falgout,VP

Ted M. Falgout and Associates

 

Robert Naquin, Treasurer

Capital One

 

Henri Boulet, Secretary

LA 1 Coalition

 

Tim Allen

Apache Louisiana Minerals

 

Charlotte Bollinger

Bollinger Shipyards

 

Berwick Duval

Duval, Funderburk, Sundbery, Lovell and Watkins

 

Dr. John J. Jones, Jr.

Jones Dermatology

Calendar

 

Thursday, February 14

6pm- Public Meeting Fiscal Year 2014 Draft Annual Plan Meetings,

Terrebonne Civic Center

 

Tuesday, February 19

5pm- Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council Public Engagement Sessiion,

Terrebonne Civic Center

 

Wednesday, February 20

9:30am- CPRA, LaBelle Room, LaSalle (DNR) Building,

Baton Rouge

 

10:30am- Greater Lafourche Port Commission, Port Admin, Galliano

 

6pm- Public Meeting Fiscal Year 2014 Draft Annual Plan Meeting, Homer Hitt, UNO

 

Tuesday, February 26

10am- Governor's Advisory Commission

Algiers Library

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Gulf Coast Restoration Council Issues Path Forward;

Meeting Set For Terrebonne

 

 The RESTORE Act established the Council to help restore the ecosystem and economy of the Gulf Coast by developing and overseeing a Comprehensive Plan and other responsibilities.

 

In late January, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council released "The Path Forward to Restoring the Gulf Coast: A Proposed Comprehensive Plan." The document reflects the deliberations of the Council to date in developing a more detailed initial Comprehensive Plan. The collective focus is on how to ensure the long-term health, prosperity, and resilience of the Gulf Coast. 

 

Click here to view the document.

 

Following the document's release, the Council also announced public engagement sessions for initial input on the "Path Forward."  Louisiana will host their engagement session on February 19 at 5pm at the Terrebonne Civic Center in Houma.

 

"I'm confident that we can do this in a way that restores the environment, reinvigorates local economies, and creates jobs in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas," said Council Chair Rebecca Blank in a statement. "The Council recognizes this unique and unprecedented opportunity to implement a coordinated Gulf Coast region-wide restoration effort. We are committed to developing a plan in collaboration with the people who live and work in the Gulf Coast region."

 

 

The Council is chaired by the Secretary of Commerce and includes the Governors of the States of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas and the Secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Army, Homeland Security and the Interior, and the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Council has oversight over the expenditure of sixty percent of the funds made available from the Trust Fund.

  

Thirty percent will be administered for restoration and protection according to the Comprehensive Plan developed by the Council. The other thirty percent will be allocated to the States according to a formula set forth in the RESTORE Act and spent according to individual State expenditure plans to contribute the overall economic and ecological recovery of the Gulf.

 

Locals Work Together on Small Dredge Demo

  The hopeful outcome of the project is to demonstrate cost-efficient restoration with a permanent local dredge is possible, reducing the cost to public entities.

 Small Dredge

With the dedication of many and help from a few, the futuristic Amphibex 400 was delivered in mid-January to the South Lafourche Levee District and its' director Windell Curole for a marsh creation project. 

  

Along with Curole, Dwayne Bourgeois of the North Lafourche Conservation Levee and Drainage District, Reggie Dupre of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District, and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources assisted in the demonstration project's implementation.   

 

The equipment is manufactured in Terrebonne, Canada, by Normrock Industries.  Normrock, along with Upperline Equipment in New Orleans, donated the machine for three weeks, and LDNR kicked in $150,000 for the costs to mobilize and demobilize the equipment. 

 

The dredge has been working along the hurricane protection system in Golden Meadow, acquiring its material from the interior borrow canal already permitted for use by the levee district.  After working in one shallow area, the machine was able to cruise north at a max speed of 6 knots, towing its pipeline along the way. 

 

In addition to marsh creation the self-contained and self-propelled Amphibex can clean and restore waterways and ponds, control vegetation, install pipelines and perform many other aquatic environment and environmental work tasks.  There are over 150 Amphibex machines working around the world, including remote locations in Africa, India and Iraq.

 

Small Dredge in the News:

Courier

Fox 8 New Orleans

Lafourche Gazette

Second Bayou Lafourche Clean-Up Scheduled for March 

Bayou Lafourche Donaldsonville    

The Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP) and Keep Louisiana Beautiful is gearing up for their upcoming Help Clean Bayou Lafourche that will be held on March 2, 2013 from 8am-12pm. It is projected to clean up 106 miles of the bayou from Donaldsonville to Leeville. The cleanup will be done mostly from boats, but volunteers will be also needed to clean in areas around bridges and along the bayou side.

Last March, more than 1,200 volunteers removed more than 18 tons of garbage from Bayou Lafourche during the first Clean Up Bayou Lafourche event.

 

If you are interested in being a site captain or volunteering your time to help beautify the bayou and clean the body of water that provides the drinking water for our area, please contact Alma Robichaux at [email protected].

Thank you for your continuous support for our organization!
 
Sincerely,

Simone Maloz

Executive Director

Restore or Retreat, Inc.