Flowing Water // Opening Waterways
by Kathleen Rodrigue, Features Editor A $200 million project to reintroduce the Mississippi River into Bayou Lafourche is underway to increase the bayou’s water flow, protecting the region’s drinking water supply, attracting more wildlife and combating saltwater intrusion, officials say. “We can’t do any restoration projects well without more fresh water flowing into Bayou Lafourche,” says Windell Curole, general manager and executive secretary of the South Lafourche Levee District. The Bayou Fresh Water District’s project includes dredging more than 29 miles of Bayou Lafourche to make it deeper; building a new $65 million water pump station at the mouth of Bayou Lafourche to pull more water from the Mississippi River; placing a new water control structure in the bayou near Labadieville; modifying the water control structure in Lockport; and removing the weir, a water flow structure, in Thibodaux, says Ben Malbrough, executive director of the Bayou Fresh Water District. Over $60 million of the $200 million comes from the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. The remaining funding comes from other state and federal partners. Malbrough expects the entire project to be completed before the end of 2019. The current project to open up the connection between the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche comes after more than a century of blocking the water to help with spring flooding, Malbrough says. The Mississippi river once flowed freely into Bayou Lafourche and was the main channel for commerce for this region, transporting goods to the Mississippi River and then to New Orleans. However, spring flooding was an issue. So to combat the flooding, the mouth of Bayou Lafourche was temporarily closed off from the Mississippi River in the early 1900s. And the temporary ended up becoming permanent, says Malbrough. So from 1902 until 1955, there was little to no fresh water flowing into the bayou from the Mississippi River. As the area became more populated, the Bayou Fresh Water District was formed in 1952 to provide the water purification facilities along Bayou Lafourche with fresh water. Eventually a pump station was installed at the mouth of Bayou Lafourche in 1955 allowing water to flow into the bayou again. Malbrough says the pump station is currently pumping its maximum water flow of 500 cubic feet per second, or about 3,740 gallons per second. But that is not enough to fix the problems we are facing. So in 2006, a plan was submitted to the Coastal Wetlands Protection and Restoration organization, but the project was not selected as a priority project. Then in 2008, Hurricane Gustav struck the region and turned Bayou Lafourche septic for about 30 days. Malbrough says this experience was the “Aha moment” that something needed to be done. So from there on out, the Bayou Fresh Water District and other supporting groups have been working toward soliciting money from different federal and state organizations to fund the project. “The problem has been getting worse and worse for years, so this is tremendous progress that took place and being done in a way that really minimizes the concerns of most people,” says Curole, with the South Lafourche Levee District. Not only will the project help with the environment and water flow, but it will also encourage recreation. “Everything that the Bayou Fresh Water District is doing will help recreation on the bayou,” says Ryan Perque, executive director of Friends of Bayou Lafourche, a nonprofit that promotes bayou activity and education. And help with commerce, says Malbrough. “Us having the ability to control the amount of water and the flow into Bayou Lafourche is critically important, not just for our residents, but for the industries in our region.”
Harnessing Offshore Wind // SEACOR
by Kathleen Rodrigue, features editor Three Louisiana companies are using their expertise from the oil and gas industry to contribute to the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States, supplying a cleaner source of energy. This project is successfully producing clean energy to power Block Island, which is about 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. Instead of diesel generators providing 5,000 homes with power, the island is being powered by renewable wind energy cutting residents’ electric bills by 50 percent, says Joe Orgeron, Falcon Global LLC’s special projects manager based out of Golden Meadow. Orgeron supplied Deepwater Wind, America’s leading offshore wind developer, with liftboats to help transport and install the wind turbines. This project, however, would have been near impossible without the help of Louisiana offshore industries. “It’s our long history of engineering, building, and installing oil and gas structures that could lend to this new industry,” says Roy Francis, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and Special Projects for Gulf Island Fabrication, Inc. based out of Houma. “Our experience with oil and gas helps with this new industry. We had the yard and capabilities to build it, where it doesn’t exist on the east coast.” Keystone Engineering, based in Metairie, designed the five steel foundation structures that sit on the seafloor, while Gulf Island Fabrication built them, says Francis. He said the building process took place in Houma and took about eight months to complete. Afterward, the structures were transported 2,100 miles in 12 days to Rhode Island.Francis said building the structure was not particularly difficult, because the company has built some of the largest structures in the ocean. He believes this wind farm project opened the doors for them to become more involved in the new industry, thus creating more jobs for the Terrebonne and Lafourche regions. “It’s been a great experience. We built it on time, on budget and safely. The customer was very happy with our work. It was a great relationship and it was exciting to be a part this new industry,” says Francis. Gulf Island also built the lift barge Falcon Global used during the project. Named “The Robert,” the 335-foot boat was steered along the South Coasts and around Florida to get to the east coast. Captain Farrel J. Charpentier, the captain of the boat’s expedition, said this was the longest journey he has had on a boat. Traveling about 2,000 miles, the trip took them 14 days and 14 nights, says Charpentier. He said he and his crew of 19 enjoyed the project because it was a much different landscape than the oil and gas industry. Once there, the workers were tasked with a few different jobs. They first helped hammer the piles to secure the steel structures into the seafloor, says Charpentier. They also transported the wind turbine’s blades and one-third of it’s tower to the offshore site. Orgeron says each blade weighs 30 tons, the tower piece weighs 100 tons, and the structure holding the blades weighed 100 tons as well. The lift barge carried three blades at a time. Their job also entailed sharing their expertise and knowledge about offshore with Rhode Island workers who were new to the industry. Orgeron says his men stepped in as their supervisors during shifts in order to ensure the job was done properly and safely. Orgeron says he has been attending conferences and been involved in discussions about offshore wind farms since 2009, hoping to diversify the need for his vessels. He notes that though the process was sometimes discouraging, he is well pleased with the work he and his team were able to produce. He explains that this 5-turbine wind farm is considered to be a demonstration project and has become the inspiration for more wind farms in the future. About 13 other wind farm projects like this are on the horizon for the east coast, Orgeron said. “We definitely have the momentum on our side and being first in the market is awesome.”
Building Back // Caminada Headland
by Kathleen Rodrigue, features editor The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority implemented a $200 million, two-year restoration project to rebuild the Caminada Headland, one of the largest headlands to disappear from Louisiana’s coast due to coastal land loss. “We’re just losing so much land now. Without coastal restoration projects, all locals would have to move,” said Mary-Suan Bourg, a Houma native who enjoys spending time at the Caminada Headland. Completed in March 2018, the now 13-mile barrier island stretches from the mouth of Bayou Lafourche toward Grande Isle, protecting Port Fourchon and several species of migratory birds. The Caminada beach stood proudly along Louisiana’s coast 50 years ago. Bourg says she remembers swimming, fishing, crabbing, riding in trucks along the sand dunes, and even camping in tents at night when she was a young child. However, due to the effects of coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion, the headland and dunes diminished completely over time, leaving Louisiana’s coast vulnerable, says Joni Tuck, external relations manager for the Greater Lafourche Port Commission. With this threat, Louisiana coastal advocate organizations and state coastal organizations combined their resources and raised money to make this project possible. Maloz said the money came from the Coastal Impact Assistance Program, surplus dollars from the state’s budget, and the largest piece came as a result from the BP oil spill. “The Caminada Headland is one of the largest projects the state has completed to date in terms of restoring a barrier island and headland,” says Simone Maloz, CEO of Restore or Retreat. Sand from Ship Shoal, a barrier island 30 miles off the coast of Terrebonne Parish that is now underwater, was dredged and pumped about 9 million cubic yards to rebuild the headland, says Tuck. “This is the first project in Louisiana to dredge sand from an offshore shoal in the Gulf of Mexico to restore habitat on a barrier shoreline,” according to the CPRA’s website. Maloz said the sand from Ship Shoal is of excellent quality; she compared it to the white sand seen on the beaches in Florida. “It’s not dirty, muddy Mississippi sand,” she says. About 300 acres and six miles of beach and dune on the western half of the headland, which protects Port Fourchon, has been restored. The eastern half, which includes Elmer’s Island and wildlife habitat refuge, has also been restored and includes about 500 acres and seven miles, according to the CPRA’s signage at the headland. Though the restoration piece of the project is complete, Tuck said the State of Louisiana will continue implementing projects at the Caminada Beach for recreational and accessibility purposes. Six million dollars will fund an improved road system leading to the beach, a shuttle service along the Caminada Beach, Kayak launches, trash can areas as well as more culverts under the road for better water drainage, Tuck says. Maloz says this restoration project, previously known as the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline or Triple BS project, was a high priority in the Coastal Protection Master Plan because the barrier island is the first line of defense against storm damage.Not only does the Caminada Headland protect the coastal residents and industries it surrounds, but it also provides protection to the largest portion of Louisiana’s economy — the oil and gas industry. The Caminada Headland protects Port Fourchon’s multi-billion-dollar assets above ground and, perhaps more importantly, below ground, says Tuck. The Caminada headland protects three of the largest pipelines in the country, including the LOOP pipeline, Shell-Mars pipeline, and Chevron’s biggest pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico. “Together those pipelines produce about 1 in every 5 barrels of oil in the country,” she says. “So just under 20 percent of all the nation’s oil is brought ashore through those three assets and is serviced by the assets in Port Fourchon every day.” Several similar projects to restore and protect our disappearing coast are underway. For a glimpse of these projects, visit coastal.la.gov.
Coastal Erosion // Grand Isle
by Ryant Price, staff videographer