On Tuesday April 14, 2009, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced plans to use a pipeline to pump Mississippi River mud into the Louisiana coastal wetlands. This process would, of course, mimic the sediment delivered to the coastal wetlands from annual flooding in earlier times.
This test is called the Mississippi River Sediment Delivery System at Bayou Dupont. Governor Jindal hopes that this test of pipeline sediment delivery will be successful and that many more such projects will be built. The project will cost about $28 million and will involve a 36 inch diameter pipeline running 6 miles from the Mississippi River to Bayou Dupont. The project is on the east side of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish below New Orleans. It is expected that the project will be completed in August 2009.
For more information on this project, see the Baton Rouge Advocate article of Wednesday April 15, 2009 written by Cain Burdeau entitled, La. to pipe Mississippi River mud to help wetlands.