While the Louisiana coast is losing an alarming 16 square miles of land a year to the Gulf of Mexico, St. Charles Parish’s shoreline has grown by 9 acres.
It is hard-won ground gained through the parish’s West Lake Pontchartrain Shoreline Project completed last year.
“Any additional acreage in southeastern Louisiana is good news,” said Earl Matherne, planning administrator with the parish’s Planning and Zoning Department. “The goal is to hold the shoreline where it is.”
Called a breakwater, the structure is made of rock and placed about 200 feet offshore. It’s designed to catch waterborne sediment while still releasing the water.Matherne said the process takes a little while, but it basically fills in the coastline, which means it’s holding onto the ground and protecting the structure that provides the protection.
Federal funding from the Coastal Impact Assistance Program covered the project, which is aimed at protecting and increasing the shoreline. The east and west projects were completed in the last five years and both contributed to the 9-acre gain.
The projects have been so effective that Matherne said they are seeking funds for another phase that would take the parish all the way to the Jefferson Parish line.
The concept was first tried at Lake Salvador nearly 12 years, where it basically solved two problems by growing land and did the job without damaging the shoreline, he said.
“Nature’s done it for us,” Matherne said. “It’s a fairly effective way to build marsh.”
St. Charles Parish, which has its share of erosion and subsidence issues, certainly needs the protection. Residents acknowledged the voting in a 4-mill tax on themselves for hurricane levee protection. It is projected that most of southeastern Louisiana unprotected by levees will be swallowed by the Gulf of Mexico in 50 years.
“The only way to keep up with it is to stay ahead of it,” Matherne said. “We have to grow St. Charles Parish just to keep up with how fast things are going away.”
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