Source: LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF THE ATCHAFALAYA RIVER AND THE ATCHAFALAYA BASIN FLOODWAY
Sponsoring Institution
State Agricultural Experiment Station
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0206180
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Nov 1, 2005
Project End Date
Oct 31, 2008
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
202 HIMES HALL
BATON ROUGE,LA 70803-0100
Performing Department
School of Renewable Natural Resources
Non Technical Summary
The Atchafalaya River Basin, a bottomland hardwood floodplain swamp in southern Louisiana, is rapidly disappearing due to altered hydrology and increased sedimentation. These alterations have also increased water quality problems throughout the Basin during the flood pulse, to the detriment of the resident aquatic community. This project is designed to facilitate water management and monitoring activities in the Basin to restore historical water circulation patterns, and document the success of state and federal water management activities.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1120210205080%
1350899205010%
1360899205010%
Goals / Objectives
Coordinate the activities of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the LSU AgCenter regarding the development and implementation of water management and monitoring activities in the Atchafalaya Basin. Specific objectives include development and maintenance of budgets, data collection and development of project data bases, and interagency coordination of meetings and engineering, contracting, and monitoring activities by cooperating agencies.
Project Methods
This project involves the coordination of a large state and federal interagency project to restore and protect the ecological and socioeconomic values of the Atchafalaya River Basin, a floodplain bottomland hardwood swamp in southern Louisiana. The Basin has experienced tremendous human-caused changes in hydrology, sedimentation rates, and biodiversity over the last century, and the Atchafalaya Basin Project involves engineering projects (dredging, cutting gaps in canal levees to permit water flow into and out of the swamp, building sediment basins to reduce sediment accrual in the swamp, etc.)designed to ameliorate or even reverse the effects of these changes. Various components of the project include coordination of meetings and information exchange among federal, state, and university cooperators; development of project proposals, including Army Corps of Engineers planning documents and environmental assessments; budget administration; and data collection and compilation related to the construction and monitoring activities of approved water management projects. The overall objectives of the project are to restore historical water circulation during the annual flood pulse, reduce the spatial and temporal magnitude of hypoxia as floodwaters recede, and reduce the loss of aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats to increased sedimentation.

Progress 11/01/05 to 10/31/08

Outputs
During this project, the Environmental Assessment for the Buffalo Cove Management Unit was managed as a feature of the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway System Project (ABFS). This process included, but was not limited to, coordination and guidance in the selection of water management elements, and development of selected elements that are and will be constructed to improve water quality and habitat conditions in the Buffalo Cove area. The Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), signed in May 2005, fulfilled the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requirements, allowing further planning and construction to take place. In conjunction with development of project documents, the non-standard Project Cooperation Agreement (PCA) for the project (after resolution of many controversial issues dealing with land ownership, funding for the project, legal issues, and incorporation of concerns by commercial fishers and the Sierra Club) was finally executed in June 2005. This is the legal document signed by the State of Louisiana creating a partnership for operation and maintenance of the completed project into perpetuity. This is the legal document that laid out in detail the roles and responsibilities of both the Corps and non-Federal Sponsor. Because of the importance of this project to Louisiana and the Basin as a whole, the Federal Government will provide 100% of the costs for construction, with the Local Sponsor providing 25% of Operation and Maintenance costs. The environmental benefits of this Buffalo Cove Management Unit project will include spatial and temporal reductions or elimination of hypoxic water conditions that currently affect aquatic biota, improvement in interior circulation, and introduction of highly oxygenated water into the unit with limited amounts of sediment. This is a pilot project in all aspects, and the lessons learned during this project will be transferred to the management of the total Buffalo Cove Unit, as well as other units within the Atchafalaya Basin destined for construction. Opposition to the Buffalo Cove project led to a lawsuit filed in 3rd U.S. District Court, Lafayette, LA. Working extensively with the Corps Office of Counsel, data sufficient for the Court to dismiss the case was provided. An appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has been denied, and although progress in Buffalo Cove was interrupted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, a Task Order was issued for beginning the construction of Phase I in Buffalo Cove. Construction was anticipated to begin in early February 2006, but was delayed because of several issues, and is scheduled to begin in early 2007. This project is one of the few large-scale ecosystem restoration projects ever initiated by the Corps. It has required a close working relationship with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the Corps, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the development of a cooperative effort to implement water management projects that will rehabilitate the ecology, biological productivity, and cultural and socioeconomic the Basin for the citizens of the state.

Impacts
Aside from its value as one of the few functioning river swamp ecosystems in North America, the Atchafalaya River Basin has historically been a large part of the culture and heritage of the people of Louisiana. The Basin has suffered significant impacts to its hydrology and ecology, which significantly threaten its commercial and recreational value. Completion of this project, in spite of substantial legal, logistical, political, economic, and scientific obstacles, will have a huge impact on our ability to develop and implement effective ecosystem restoration projects in the future. Rehabilitation of the Atchafalaya Basin will have profound cultural, recreational, ecological, and socioeconomic effects for the state of Louisiana. Efforts by LSU AgCenter personnel have made significant contributions to the success of this project, and the development of stakeholder cooperation and the incorporation of well-founded science should provide long-term benefits for the Basin ecosystem and its stakeholder groups.

Publications

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