SLIDELL, La. - One of the Northshore's final Katrina cleanup projects is now underway in the Coin du Lestin canals.
The subdivision is just south of Bayou Liberty Road near Slidell.
Katrina ripped massive mounds of marsh grass out of the Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge just south of Coin du Lestin, and deposited the grass throughout the subdivision. Streets and homes were cleaned years ago, but the three miles of canals which wind through the neighborhood weren't, until now.
A dredge vessel is sucking the organic debris out of the canals into a pipe and pumping it back into the Big Branch Marsh.
"Most of the material that's in the canals right now came from back there," said Danny Breaux, who manages the Refuge for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"Before Katrina, that was all solid marsh with a few small ponds in it. And the idea now is to pump this stuff back in to where it was solid marsh."
Workers built a berm out of hay around a 35-acre area in Big Branch. The area is now largely open water. The muck-like material is pumped from the Coin du Lestin canals into the area contained by the berm.
“The theory is: the muck is going to spread out," Breaux added. "In a large area and then slowly settle down."
The muck contains sands, silts and clays. Its organic matter, decomposing marsh grass, will serve as fertilizer for new marsh growth.
Which is why St. Tammany leaders call the project a win-win on both ends of the dredge pipe. The marsh gets nutrients to help grow new marsh grass, and homeowners in the Coin du Lestin area get their canals cleaned for the first time since Katrina.
"These people bought in a waterfront community," said St. Tammany Parish Public Works Director Shannon Davis. "All of a sudden, they could almost walk across the canals. It means a lot to them. Their property had really been devalued since the storm."
The dredge vessel began in the southern-most canal, and picked up a few 2-by-4's underwater, but nothing bigger yet. "We're a little more concerned about the other canals as you move a little bit further to the back that there may be other debris in those canals," St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis added.
The canals are the property of St. Tammany Parish, and for now, the parish will pay the $1.2 million to do this marsh nourishment project, but Kevin Davis said Wednesday, he's optimistic an arbitration judge will make FEMA reimburse the parish for the project.
Davis said, he hopes to know by early April.
Shannon Davis added, the dredge can work through bad weather and should be finished by the end of May.
