Finally using all that royalty money for something good

[Ray]

The federal Minerals Management Service has approved a $699,400 grant to Tangipahoa Parish for the engineering and design of a project to protect the northern shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain.
Once the design work is completed, additional grant money will be
provided to build a detached breakwater system along the shoreline to reduce wave energy, and stem erosion. The breakwater will extend about 18,000 feet from Pass Manchac to the Tangipahoa River. The entire project is estimated to cost $6.6 million.
The money comes from the federal Coastal Impact Assistance Program, which funnels about $250 million a year from oil and gas produced in federal Outer Continental Shelf waters from 2007 to 2011 to Louisiana and five other states that are affected by those operations.
Tangipahoa Parish is one of 19 coastal parishes eligible for a share of the revenue.
The lake's northwestern shoreline is eroding at a rate of about 5 feet a year along the three miles to the west of the river. Based on the performance of similar restoration projects at Turtle Cove, just east of the project area, state officials believe breakwaters will reduce or halt shoreline erosion.
The coastal assistance program was co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and David Vitter, R-La., as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.