LWF has wrapped up our two community meetings to highlight Tulane’s promising research showing how the Ama and Union diversions – when operated jointly with the River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project – could both benefit habitat through restoration AND significantly reduce impacts from operating the Bonnet Carré Spillway.
Meetings were held in Gonzales and Luling and featured presentations by Tulane scientist, Dr. Ehab Meselhe – lead scientist of the study – and brief overviews of projects and Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
“We’re reducing the potential impact from large releases from Bonnet Carré, while we’re actually making better use of these resources.”
– Dr. Ehab Meselhe, Tulane University
Many thanks to those who helped LWF host community meetings for residents to learn about benefits of proposed diversion projects (Ama, Union, Maurepas) to help reduce impacts of Bonnet Carré Spillway openings including, Tulane University, the Louisiana Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority, Restore the Mississippi River Delta, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Senator Eddie Lambert, Captain Ryan Lambert and especially to those that came out or tuned in to learn more!
The Corps has shown interest in learning more about this research and how it could influence operations of the spillway. Dr. Meselhe will be presenting his research to the Corps (who manages Bonnet Carré) on May 4, 2022 at the Corps’ district office in New Orleans. Thanks to Dr. Meselhe and his team for continuing this important research!
You can read more background in our previous post about the study and projects.
You can watch the recording here.
PDF of slide presentations: