that point, but I don't see where it 

 makes that much difference which 

 parameters we tie them to as long as 

 we can document the benefits asso- 

 ciated with that diversion. And, as 

 I mentioned to you earlier this morn- 

 ing, we can recommend to Congress a 

 program that has a B.C. (benefit/ 

 cost) ratio of less than one if it is 

 an environmental enhancement project. 

 The district engineer views fresh- 

 water diversion in that manner and 

 he would have no problem at all rec- 

 ommending to higher authority that 

 the project be authorized even though 

 we are having problems coming up with 

 monetary values for benefits. 



Question: Just what is your 

 anticipated schedule for implementa- 

 tion of the first structure? 



Answer : That is somewhat in the 

 state of flux, because the Louisiana 

 Coastal area study is a long-term 

 study so what we have to do with 

 that one is to get authorization to 

 go with an interim report to address 

 just freshwater diversion instead of 

 erosion prevention and hurricane 

 protection and other things we're 

 supposed to study. The request to 

 do that is now in Washington and 

 we're waiting for approval. And as 

 far as the Mississippi-Louisiana 

 estuarine study, we're attempting to 

 accelerate that schedule and combine 

 the state two and three phases of 

 the study which will shorten the 

 period of time for it. But we do 

 not have authorization to do that at 

 the present time, that's the best 

 answer I can give you. 



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