For Immediate Release: March 8, 2010
Contact: Chris Macaluso
(225) 342-3968
chris.macaluso@la.gov

Donaldsonville to the Gulf Review Panel Meeting Agenda for March 9 in Lafitte

JEAN LAFITTE, La. -- The Donaldsonville-to-the-Gulf Science and Engineering Review Panel will conduct a public meeting at 9 a.m Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at the Lafitte Multi-Purpose Complex located at 4917 City Park Drive in Jean Lafitte.

The meeting agenda is as follows:

Donaldsonville to the Gulf
Science & Engineering Review Panel
Lafitte Multi Purpose Complex
4917 City Park Drive
Jean Lafitte, LA 70067

March 9th 2010

Meeting Goal: to explore the environmental and restoration context for the Donaldsonville to the Gulf project

9am Welcome and Introductions
Review of agenda

9.15am Future Without Project Landscape Conditions
Ronnie Paille - US Fish and Wildlife Service
Q&A

10.30 break

10.45 am Appropriate Approaches to Evaluate Possible Environmental Impacts - Discussion
Temporal and spatial scale/resolution issues?
What level of detail can best inform this type of planning process?
What are the pitfalls different types of modelling approaches?

Noon Lunch

1.30pm Project Update
Bob Esenwein - USACE Project Manager

1.45 pm The Restoration Context - presentation on existing, planned and expected restoration actions in the vicinity of the project.
Dave Fruge - LA Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration
Q&A

Interagency Panel - NMFS, EPA, Jefferson Parish, National Parks Service

3:00pm Break

3.15pm Hydrodynamic modeling
Assumptions and base case
Potential outputs and uses for environmental assessment
Allen Teeter - Computational Hydraulics and Transport
Q&A

4.45pm Public Comment

5pm Adjourn

This is the second in a series of meetings being conducted by the panel. The first was conducted in November 2009 in Thibodaux, La.

The 11-member panel will evaluate and make recommendations to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority concerning the Donaldsonville-to-the-Gulf Hurricane Protection System currently being examined by state, federal and local flood protection officials.

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.

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 Meselhe, 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) of Sociology, University of New Orleans.

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