Corps officially recommends closing MR-GO

It doesn't quite have the same ring as protesters' chants demanding that the "MR-GO has got to go," but the Army Corps of Engineers has essentially agreed and is calling for shutting down the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet by "immediate construction of a total closure structure."

Translation: The corps recommends that Congress close the 40-year-old shipping channel by funding a $13.5 million rock dam at Bayou La Loutre.

The decision, announced in a 128-page corps report released this week, was applauded by St. Bernard Parish officials who claim the channel intensified flooding during Hurricane Katrina.

"Obviously we're happy that the corps finally sees what we've seen for the last 40 years: That the MR-GO is a danger to this area and should be shut down," said Joey DiFatta, chairman of the St. Bernard Parish Council.

But corps officials cautioned that the closure, which could still be a year away, is expected to have a minimal impact on the flood risk in St. Bernard.

Greg Miller, a corps project manager, said the closure decision was based largely on environmental and economic factors.

"This is not a hurricane protection project," he said. "We're talking about a dam that will rise 5 feet above the surface of the water. It's not designed to stop storm surge."

The corps' report, a preliminary version of which was released in December, cited a study that concluded the MR-GO had minimal impact on Katrina's storm surge, contrary to popular belief that it served as a "hurricane highway."

But DiFatta said the waterway has contributed to significant loss of marshland over the decades, making the parish more vulnerable to hurricanes.

"Now that they have agreed to shut it down, we need to be aggressive in ensuring that they do so as soon as possible," he said.

The corps' report recommends the channel be closed "immediately." But Congress won't officially receive the document until December, when it will be included in a comprehensive plan for hurricane protection and coastal restoration in Louisiana.

Miller said construction of the 950-foot-long dam is expected to take six months. That means that even if Congress authorizes and funds the project in December, the dam likely couldn't be finished until June 2008 at the earliest.
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