1. Beneficial Use of Dredged Material
Southwest Pass
Calcasieu
Mermentau
Freshwater
Atchafalaya
Houma
Lafourche
Barataria
Tiger Pass
South Pass
Baptiste Collette
Mississippi River
Shallow Draft Crossings
Beneficial Use Sites
Deep Draft Crossings
GIWW
New Orleans Harbor
Coastal Zone
The New Orleans District (MVN) has largest maintenance dredging program in the nation.
MVN maintains 11 major navigational channels in LA. (2800 miles of waterways)
Annually remove about 74.4 million CY of shoal material.
LA Coastal Zone generally follows the GIWW
Most Mississippi River Deep Draft Crossings (DDX) and all Shallow Draft Crossings (SDX) outside of LA Coastal Zone
Beneficial Use of Dredged Material

2. MVN Beneficial Use of Dredged Material
Average Annual Totals
Maintenance Dredging
= 74,440,564 CY
Fluff
= 16,319,069 CY
Unavailable
= 18,689,262 CY
Suitable & Available for BU
= 39,432,233 CY
Although approximately 74.4 million cubic yards (CY) is annually removed during routine maintenance dredging in MVN, the actual number of CY’s that is both suitable and available for beneficial use placement each year is a smaller number:
Unsuitable material = “Fluff”. Approximately 16.3 million CY of “fluff” is removed annually from the Calcasieu and Atchafalaya River bar channels.
Unavailable material = dredged material that is removed from sites that are too distant (i.e., remote) from suitable beneficial use disposal areas to be affordable (primarily from the Miss River Deep Draft and Shallow Draft Crossings).
Subtraction of material that is unsuitable and unavailable for beneficial use placement reduces the amount that can be used beneficially to about 39.4 million CY’s annually.
A recalculation of the amount of dredged material that is annually used beneficially to remove the amount that is either unsuitable or unavailable results in a percentage increase in the amount of dredged material that is annually used beneficially (to 42% instead of 22%).
BENEFICIAL USE
= 16,438,861 CY

3. 1976- 2015 ~39,568 acres of created land (~62 square miles of land)
NEW ORLEANS DISTRICT
Beneficial Use of Dredged material
~ 33,083 acres wetlands
~ 3,485 acres other habitats
~ 3,000 acres uplands (Southwest Pass)
Other Habitats = Bird Islands, Beach/Shoreline Nourishment, Barrier Island Restoration
~39,568 acres of created land
(~62 square miles of land)

4. Breakdown of Total Cumulative Acres Created from 1976 through 2015 (39,568 acres):
Wetlands = 33,083
Other Habitats = 3,485 (includes bird nesting islands, barrier island restoration, beach nourishment, bank stabilization)
Southwest Pass Uplands = 3,000

5. Projects with No Federal Standard BU Placement Sites
Houma
Shallow Draft Crossings
Deep Draft Crossings
Beneficial Use Sites
New Orleans Harbor
Berwick Bay Harbor & GIWW
Mississippi River
Dredging Sites remote from potential Beneficial Use (BU) sites:
Miss River-Shallow Draft Crossings, Miss River-Deep Draft Crossings, New Orleans Harbor, Berwick Bay Harbor, GIWW
Houma Navigation Canal, Terrebonne Bay/Cat Island Pass – existing oyster leases prohibit BU of dredged material in Terrebonne Bay

6. Projects with 100% Federal Standard BU Placement Sites
Mermentau
Freshwater
Lafourche
Barataria
Tiger Pass
South Pass
Baptiste Collette
Beneficial Use Sites
BU Sites are located adjacent to navigation channels
Little, or no, environmental, landowner, oyster lease impediments
2. Most BU efforts/placement sites are “unconfined” (no retention dikes required)

7. Projects with Some Federal Standard BU Placement Sites
Atchafalaya River
Beneficial Use Sites
Houma
Southwest Pass
Calcasieu River
BU Sites adjacent to navigation channels
BU efforts typically “unconfined”
Non-BU primarily for ODMDS use (Calcasieu, Atchafalaya, Southwest Pass)

8. West Bay Sediment Diversion-
Mile 0.0
South Pass
Southwest Pass
Pass a Loutre
West Bay Sediment Diversion
Cubit’s Gap
Burrwood Bayou
Mile 10.0 BHP
Mile 17.0 BHP
Mile 10.0 AHP
ODMDS
HDDA
Mile 22.0 BHP
Mississippi River
SOUTHWEST PASS Mile 10.0 AHP to Mile 22.0 BHP
LEGEND
Dredging Reach
Open Water Placement Sites
O&M primarily accomplished using Hopper Dredges
Nature of shoaling due to efforts in maintaining full authorized channel dimensions all year round
Cutterheads are not used in Head of Passes and Jetties reaches where channel bends (navigation safety issues)
Hopper Dredges dump in ODMDS and Head of Passes hopper dredge disposal area (HDDA)
No direct Beneficial Use (BU) of dredged material
Cutterhead dredges performing maintenance of the Southwest Pass navigation channel deposit material on either side of the channel in shallow open water areas for coastal habitat (i.e., emergent and high marsh) creation/restoration.
3. HDDA maintenance dredging = 100% BU (cutterhead dredge)
Necessary to maintain disposal capacity of HDDA for Head of Passes hopper dredge use
Indirect BU for Southwest Pass O&M

9. MISSISSIPPI RIVER DEEP DRAFT CROSSINGS
Lake
Pontchartrain
New Orleans
Baton Rouge
Belmont Crossing
LaBranche Wetlands
The estimated cost to transport 1 million CY Dredged Material from Belmont Crossing to the LaBranche Wetlands site is about $26 million (using either of the 2 transportation alternatives investigated)
Belmont Crossing is the annually dredged site located nearest to the LaBranche Wetlands site (approximately 31 miles distance following the Miss River alignment & crossing the Bonnet Carre Spillway property)
Pumping dredged material from the crossing to this site via cutterhead dredge pipeline not economically feasible due to amount of pipeline & booster pumps required (also doubtful if any dredging contractor has sufficient pipeline to meet this need – would need to purchase additional pipeline, which would further drive up the costs)
Plan 1 uses 25 hopper barges and 3 booster pumps in addition to a hopper dredge working at the crossing: barges travel Miss River to Bonnet Carre Spillway and then dredged material is pumped from barges across spillway property northwards to reach the eroded marsh LaBranche Wetlands placement site (total distance of about 31 miles).
Plan 2 uses 84 hopper barges and no booster pumps in addition to a hopper dredge working at the crossing: barges travel Miss River to IHNC Lock and then travel across Lake Pontchartrain to reach the LaBranche Wetlands placement site (total distance of about 84 miles).

10. Southwest Pass
Calcasieu River
Lafourche
Barataria
CWPPRA - O&M Program 1. 1,514 acres of coastal habitat restored under CWPPRA 2. 6,217,041 CY of dredged material from 6 projects (1996 – 2015)
Calcasieu River – CWPPRA sites (6) are all located in the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge (5,516,810 CY = 1,329 acres)
Bayou Lafourche/Port Fourchon – West Belle Pass CWPPRA site (426,202 CY = 168 acres)
Barataria Bay Waterway – CWPPRA project on Queen Bess Island to restore barrier island habitat for nesting brown pelicans (51,950 CY = 0 acres)
Southwest Pass – CWPPRA demonstration project using a dustpan dredge (BEACHBUILDER) with flexible pipeline to perform maintenance dredging in Southwest Pass with dredged material being discharged to create emergent marsh in shallow open water areas in West Bay (222,079 CY = 17 acres)

11. Continuing Authorities Program 1
Continuing Authorities Program acres of coastal habitat restored using Section 204 & ,166,597 CY of dredged material from 4 projects (1991 – 2003) 3. $5,485,852 (average = $3648 per acre)
Calcasieu River
Houma
Barataria
Beneficial Use Sites
MR-GO

12. Cubic Yards From Fiscal Year (FY) 1996 through FY 2015:
Average Annual CY
Average Annual BU CY
From Fiscal Year (FY) 1996 through FY 2015:
Average annual CY = 74.4 million CY
Average annual BU paid for by MVN O&M program = 14.9 million CY (20%)
Average annual BU paid for by Others = 1.4 million CY (1.9%)
Average annual BU CY = 16.3 million CY (22%)
Average annual Non-BU CY = 58.1 million CY (78%)
BU O&M = beneficial use of dredged material paid for by MVN project O&M funds
BU Other = beneficial us of dredged material paid for by programs other than MVN O&M funding (such as CWPPRA, CIAP, Section 204, Section 1135, and Contributed Funds)
Non-BU = dredged material not used beneficially