In 2017, that number was over 7,500 ships moving 500 million tons of cargo. An average of approximately 6,000 ships a year enter and depart the channel through Southwest Pass. The Mississippi River Ship Channel (Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico) is the busiest shipping channel in the U.S., with four of the top 11 U.S. Using cutterhead dredges would enable pumping this material, which amounts to tens of millions of cubic yards per year, over the dikes next to the passes to reclaim the marshland that had been lost. In the Southwest Pass on the Lower Mississippi River, the Corps had relied on hopper dredges for channel maintenance, which would offload in the hopper dredge disposal area at the Head of Passes or in an EPA-approved placement site the ocean disposal site offshore. The Corps must also abide by the federal standard that requires it to use the most economically responsible options available. For many years, the Corps funded the Mississippi River operations with funds often intended for other projects. Sean Duffy, BRC executive director, explained that in 2011, the Corps of Engineers began requiring the Mississippi River to “live within its budget,” which had been running a $20 million deficit. This success is the result of a decade-long effort by the organization, which advocates and facilitates the use of material dredged from the navigation channel to reclaim the land surrounding the passes, land that has eroded to open water in recent decades.
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