For Immediate Release: October 21, 2009
Contact: Chris Macaluso
(225) 342-3968
chris.macaluso@la.gov

BATON ROUGE -- The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority has established an 11-member technical review panel that will evaluate and make recommendations concerning the Donaldsonville-to-the-Gulf Hurricane Protection System currently being examined by state, federal and local flood protection officials.

University of New Orleans Geophysics Professor Dr. Denise Reed will chair the panel. Other panel members include:

• Greg Baecher, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland

• Jim Cowan, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University

• Robert Gilbert, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Texas

• Mark Hester, Coastal Plant Ecology Laboratory, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Norma Mattei, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New Orleans

• Ehab Meselshe, Center for Louisiana Inland Water Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Leonard Shabman, Resources for the Future

• Phil Williams, Philip Williams & Associates, Former Professor in the Department of Environmental Hydrology- University of California at Berkeley

• Bill Mitsch, Director of Olentangy River Wetland Restoration Research Park, Ohio State University

• Shirley Laska, Professor (Emerita) Sociology, University of New Orleans.

Donaldsonville to the Gulf is being developed to provide protection to communities in Ascension, Assumption, St. James, St. John the Baptist, Lafourche, St. Charles, Jefferson, Orleans, and Plaquemines Parishes from storm surge flooding from the Barataria Basin. The basin's boundary ranges from the western Mississippi River levees in Plaquemines Parish west to Bayou Lafourche.

At its July 2009 meeting, the Authority asked the Governor's Office of Coastal Activities to assemble an expert panel to address any environmental concerns expressed regarding the narrowed range of project alignments and to review planned engineering design features and project costs. A feasibility study being conducted by the Corps of Engineers will look at four possible alignments for the system.

The panel will examine all available information regarding the project to ensure the current studies are using the best scientific and engineering analysis.

The first meeting will be held November 18-19, 2009 at a site to be determined. A report will be presented to the CPRA in June 2010.

For more information about Louisiana's coastal restoration and hurricane protection efforts, please contact Chris Macaluso at 225-342-3968 or by email at chris.macaluso@la.gov.

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The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority's mandate is to develop, implement and enforce a comprehensive coastal protection and restoration master plan. For the first time in Louisiana's history, this single state authority will integrate coastal restoration and hurricane protection by marshalling the expertise and resources of the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Transportation and Development, and other state agencies, to speak with one clear voice for the future of Louisiana's coast. Working with federal, state and local political subdivisions, including levee districts, the CPRA will work to establish a safe and sustainable coast that will protect our communities, the nation's critical energy infrastructure, and our bountiful natural resources for generations to come. The CPRA of Louisiana was established by Act 8 of the 1st Extraordinary Session of 2005