Current Status: Most recently, sheet pile was driven into the WGL to improve its strength and restrict overtopping, completed in Summer 2007. The Corps is currently on track with a contract to lower the lake openings from -1.5 to -3.0 feet, enlarge the two eastern and one western channel in the ponding area, and repair the seepage in the WGS sheet pile. It is expected a contract will be signed around the middle or end of January 08

Real Time Project Stats:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/la/nwis/uv

• Price tag: $120 million (federal 75% / state 25%)
• Maximum Diversion Capacity: 10,650 cubic feet per second (cfs)
• Expectations: To preserve 33,000 acres of marsh and benefit 777,000 acres of marshes and bays, the latter being equal to the land area of Rhode Island
• Consists of four iron-gated 14' x 14' box culverts built into the Mississippi River levee, and an inflow channel 535' long x 85' wide will direct river water into the structure, while an outflow channel more than 11,000' long x 120' wide will extend behind the structure into the ponding area.
• The total project area comprises 10,084 acres, including the 9,200-acre ponding area.
• The 19-member advisory committee has representatives from: DNR; the Corps; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; National Marine Fisheries Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service; Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality; Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries; Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals; Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program; St. Charles, Jefferson, Lafourche and Plaquemines parishes; landowners; shrimpers (2); oyster fishermen and recreational fishermen.
• Authorized in the Flood Control Act of 1965 and modified most recently by the Water Resources Development Act of 1996
• Construction began in January 1997
• Dedicated in 2002