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The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) yesterday joined its partners from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, the Pontchartrain Levee District, and St. John the Baptist, St. James, and St. Charles Parishes to break ground on the River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp Project (MSP).
Levees along the river, which provide flood protection to the communities, have disconnected the river from the Maurepas Swamp, depleting the swamp’s need for freshwater nutrients.
The MSP is a 2,000 cubic feet per second freshwater diversion located on the East Bank of the Mississippi River in St. John the Baptist Parish, just west of Garyville, La.
The project will reconnect the Mississippi River to the Maurepas Swamp and revitalize over 45,000 acres with freshwater, sediment and nutrients to nourish one of Louisiana’s largest and last remaining coastal freshwater swamps.
The project involves constructing a headworks structure consisting of three 10’x10’ box culverts in the Mississippi River Levee. These culverts will connect to a newly built two-mile-long conveyance channel, which will flow into the existing Hope Canal.
For the final 3.5 miles, the canal will be enhanced with small earthen levees, guiding water into the Maurepas Swamp outfall area, located just north of I-10.