Black Lake
 

My neighbor fished the Salt Ditch today and said they saw a crane working in Black Lake. They are starting the levee that will seal off about a third of the lake and fill it with ship channel dredge spoil. There was an article about it in the LC paper last year. They also didn't catch anything.

That sucks

what???????/

Is this on the west side of the lake?

Ya on the west side of the lake. Making the water very muddy in the lake.

I will send someone a marked up Google image if they can post it. It shows the area that will be filled. This will block off all of the western marsh cuts and all of the nursery flats where the shrimp come out. This property is owned by Curt Marcantel and is listed at 300 acres but the area shown is much larger than that. The cost is estimated at $10 million.

They....the Government....Us / We.....are spending $ 33,333 per acre to build up privately owned marsh????

Or....if the area is really larger, maybe it is a better deal...... ~ $20 - 25,000 per acre of marsh land.

They are not filling it in for the land owners. They have no place to put the spoil.
They are offering to build up private marshes to help with erosion and have a place
to put the spoil.
They are trying to put the marsh back to what it looked like before all the erosion.
They are not forcing anyone to take the spoil.
I saw the presentation from the mud pimp for the port a couple years ago.

They are going to do some in the Sabine Refuge also. It is for the best, in my opinion.

i seen where they put up to dredge the ship channel on fedbizopps just a few days ago ........didn't think it would start this fast though

Whenever you hear coastal restoration think that the sportsman is going to loose access to some fishing or hunting areas. I saw it in Sabine refuge when they dumped all the dredging spoil in Hog Island gully and we are going to see it again in Black Lake. Yes we have had erosion, Moss Lake used to be a great spot for white perch. I don't think that we should try to go back to how is was in the 40's. The weirs are great places to fish in the winter but I think that we would be better off without damming up all the marsh drains into our lakes. Just my opinion.

there are stipulations when the state builds up private marsh though.

its very technical, but many times if the state funds an erosion project that land becomes state property

It is federal money doing this. The Corps pay the LC Port to dredge. The port has no
place to dump spoil, so large land owners were asked to use their land to deposit
spoil. I think it is a win/win situation.
I hunted alligators on some of the old Amoco land and there is some big open water
back there that was once some nice marsh just 20 years ago.

yea, its def a win win,

sometimes you have to sacrifice things for saving our coast

I work for Mike Hooks Inc. also part owner of this dredgeing company. We are located in Westlake La. and are family owned and operated. The Sabine Refuge job mentioned in the above post was done by us. These contracts that the Army Corp of engineers are releasing now are for Marsh Restoration and Creation jobs. The Marsh Creation Contract for Black Lake is a large job and will fill most of the western part of black lake with spoil. This certain job has been in the Army Corps books for many years due to a promise made with the Marcantel family. Which I have come up with the conclusion of this certain job being "Politics." Although the jobs that we perform will rebuild the marshes and create shelter and new life for Birds, Salt water Fish, reptiles and etc. In by no way will this effect our fisheries besides cutting off some great fishing holes but there are plenty of those in S.W. La.

The Marsh creation in black lake is going to total out at $50,000,000. We missed the bid by a small amount. Weaks Marine will be doing this contract.

There is not much sacrificed out there. They are just rebuilding what was eroded.
It will only help in the long run. If I had the land out there, I wouldn't mind them
rebuilding my land, for free.

Salt Ditch
 

Not familiar with the Black Lake area other than its location on a map and was interested in the effects of the spoil dumping to rebuild the marsh. What part of the lake is proposed for the dumping? What are the depths of this lake? Don't hear of any reports from Black Lake or areas related to it. Is the Salt Ditch you referenced also known as "Alkali Ditch" and how deep is the ditch itself? How will the deposit of the spoil affect the main arteries accessing Black Lake...will this silt these canals restricting access to Black Lake itself or will the Corps also dredge some of the main channels leading to the lake? Just curious if anyone has any feedback on what this could mean for fishing, hunting or rebuilding the areas near there as well as any effects on the fishing in Big Lake itself and the surrounding area such as the ship channel from this project.

They are not going to block it off.
The salt ditch is used for oilfield boats and tugs/barges to get into the lake.
There are wells in the lake that need attention. Oil won't be cut off in Black Lake.

So is "Salt Ditch" what is refferenced as "Alkali Ditch" running from IC to Black Lake?

Yes. Also the spoil will be pumped from the ship channel to what is called a "Disposal Area" in black lake. The disposal area has a dike as its perimeter that will hold all the spoil in the area. There will be no run off until it is eroded away but then there will be Maintenance in the disposal area to maintain stable dikes to hold the material in. In fact almost all the islands that divide the ship channel and Lake Cal. are disposal areas

Thanks. Just tried looking at Black Lake on Google Earth to get an idea of the scope of this and there is a big cloud bank covering about half of the lake. The area you indicated as the targeted area appears to have oilfield canals there as well. Will these canals remain opened? Are any of the other spoil areas you referenced as islands maintained as the proposed project will be?