McNeese State University and the Port of Lake Charles are working together to improve the environment and economy of Southwest Louisiana, according to Janet Woolman, director of research services and the Louisiana Environmental Research Center at McNeese.
"McNeese and the Port of Lake Charles have developed a partnership to identify the source of the shoal material that lies at the bottom of the Calcasieu Ship Channel in hopes of finding a way to prevent the sediment from flowing into the channel,” said Woolman.
To determine the answer, professors from the McNeese Harold and Pearl Dripps Department of Agricultural Sciences and the Department of Engineering are working on a sediment source characterization study and a transport model to ascertain where the material comes from and how it gets into the channel.
To better understand the problem, Woolman recently joined the Port of Lake Charles and the Corps of Engineers for an inspection trip to a beneficial use disposal site and a tour of the ship channel.
"Identifying the source of the sediment and the method for preventing the sediment from flowing into the channel will help preserve our marshes and reduce our reliance on scarce federal dollars to keep the Port of Lake Charles commercially viable,” said Woolman.
Since its creation in 1990 by the Louisiana Board of Regents, LERC has conducted basic research, accumulated and disseminated information and created awareness through education on environmental issues and concepts related to wetlands restoration/remediation.
Woolman said this partnership with the Port of Lake Charles is among several coastal zone research and restoration projects being conducted by LERC to preserve, restore and rebuild the wetlands that comprise the Louisiana coastline.
Over the past 20 years, she said LERC has worked with such federal agencies as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Natural Resources Conservation Service to fund such projects as the Chenier Plain Sustainability Initiative to study improved coastal restoration for Southwest Louisiana and the Louisiana Native Plant Initiative to re-establish natural plant communities and conserve Louisiana ecotypes. Partnerships with such groups as the Coastal Plain Conservancy, Nicholls State University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, U.S. Geological Survey, LA Ash, and others are vitally important in a time when resources are limited and coastal land loss is continuing at a rapid rate. Louisiana has lost more than 1500 square miles of coastal land in the past 50 years.
"McNeese will continue to partner with organizations like the Port of Lake Charles to provide beneficial results for Southwest Louisiana,” Woolman said.
Janet Woolman, far right, director of research services and the Louisiana Environmental Research Center at McNeese State University, joined several members of the Corps of Engineers and Port of Lake Charles for an inspection trip to a beneficial use disposal site and a tour of the Calcasieu Ship Channel.
