Answer : (from the panel) Not 

 that I know of but that's an excel- 

 lent idea. I don't think that's the 

 only hindrance to the implementation 

 of the plan. It would still be dif- 

 ficult, of course, but not impossible 

 to construct such a site in a parish 

 that did not want that site in that 

 parish. I know certainly that's an 

 area that the State of Louisiana 

 could assist us in, either offering 

 to cover that 25 percent, or convince 

 local interests that they don't mind 

 putting up the 25 percent, or if it 

 happens to go to 100 percent Federal 

 funding, then they ought not oppose 

 the construction of such a site in 

 their community. 



Question : Do you have any indi- 

 cation of how the retention of the 

 sediments in the Atchafalaya Bay 

 wouldi change if you changed the major 

 flow from the Atchafalaya to the Wax 

 Lake Outlet? Would there be a change 

 in the retention there? 



Answer : (from the panel) No, I 

 just think it would change the loca- 

 tion of deposition slightly. It's 

 possible, yes, that it could since 

 the reef does form sort of an impedi- 

 ment over on the lower Atchafalaya 

 River side, whereas on the Wax Lake 

 side that's not necessarily the case. 

 But I think you would still get even- 

 tually a general fill of the bay be- 

 hind the reef. 



Question : Clark Lozes , Plaque- 

 mines Parish. My basic reason for 

 attending is to find out what's 

 happening on a national scale and to 

 find out more about what's happening 

 in the rest of the states. I am a 

 little nervous so please bear with me 

 on this. I'm not normally a public 

 speaker, but I do have several ques- 

 tions. In regard to introducing 

 fresh water into the marsh, and es- 

 pecially because we do have such a 



bad marsh, I see two basic concepts: 

 one, we're trying to spend Federal 

 money to improve a very small area in 

 the whole United States. I think 

 that this is good for the local 

 community however, I think it can be 

 served better. We have an area on 

 the right descending bank of the 

 Mississippi approximately 40 miles 

 miles below the city of New Orleans 

 called Empire that has a ship chan- 

 nel and locks . We can easily di- 

 vert the flow of Mississippi 

 water into the marsh through the 

 locks . This is an area that needs to 

 be studied a little bit farther be- 

 fore we go opening up new freshwater 

 inflows. In addition to that at the 

 Algiers Canal just south about mile 

 68 on the Mississippi River, there 

 is the ability to take fresh-water 

 from the river and introduce it 

 through the bayou. This would not 

 cost any great amount of money to do. 

 It would require some coordination on 

 both the U.S. Corps of Engineers, 

 the marine biologists, and more than 

 likely, other state agencies. One of 

 our problems that we see is the lack 

 of local government input. An ex- 

 ample of this was last year when we 

 had oyster fishing on what we call 

 Quarantine Bay right adjacent to a 

 bayou which is a freshwater inlet for 

 oysters. The BODs indicated by the 

 health department showed that the 

 oyster reef should be shut down. The 

 water being poured on the oyster reef 

 was from a controlled structure put 

 there by the Federal Government. We 

 had closed down three other water 

 control structures to stop BODs. It 

 took us three and a half weeks to 

 get the government to come down and 

 close their water control structure. 

 That's what we don't want to see- 

 Federal Government interfering with 

 the local fishermen. If it's time 

 to close it down, Gentlemen, it's 

 time to close it down. It's not 

 three weeks later that affects the 



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