Project Location
The project is located in Jefferson Parish just south of The Pen, between Barataria Waterway and Bayou Dupont.
Project Description
This project involves the creation of approximately 1,163 acres of marsh near the south shore of The Pen in Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes using sediment from the Alliance Anchorage and Willis Point Anchorage borrow areas. The project is an increment of the Large-Scale Marsh Creation Project Component E identified in the NRDA Draft Strategic Restoration Plan for the Barataria Basin.
Issue Addressed
The Barataria marsh system provides unique habitat for coastal fisheries and wildlife and protects interior wetlands, aquatic habitats, coastal communities and infrastructure from tidal inundation, storm surges, and wave action. These wetlands and aquatic habitats are some of the most rapidly eroding land in the country. Wetland loss rates between 1974 and 1990 averaged nearly 5,700 acres per year within the Barataria Basin. Wetland loss in the area is attributed to the combination of natural erosional processes of sea-level rise, subsidence, winds, tides, currents, and herbivory, and the human activities of channelization, levee construction, and development.
Project Goals
The Upper Barataria Marsh Creation project is expected create and restore 1,300 acres of brackish marsh with a 20-year project life following construction. The objectives of this restoration project are to create intertidal vegetated wetland habitat. This project helps to form a portion of the Barataria land bridge while working synergistically with three previously constructed projects in the area, the Long Distance Sediment Pipeline (BA-43EB), Bayou Dupont Ridge Creation and Marsh Restoration (BA-48), and Bayou Dupont Sediment Delivery - Marsh Creation and Terracing #3 (BA-164).
Verify Date
1/12/2021