Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve has prepared a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of the proposed demolition and rebuilding of twenty-nine structures and 2.63 miles of the 30-mile Entergy Louisiana LLC (Entergy) Golden Meadow-Barataria electrical transmission. Entergy’s Golden Meadow-Barataria transmission line runs from the Golden Meadow Substation located in Golden Meadow, Louisiana, through the park’s Barataria Preserve to the Barataria Substation near Jones Point, in Jefferson Parish. Built in 1964, the line provided a critical pathway of power to the electrical transmission system in southeast Louisiana, but it is no longer in usable condition because the poles and lines were damaged during two recent hurricane events (Hurricane Zeta in 2020 and Hurricane Ida in 2021). The structures within the National Park Service boundary of the Barataria Preserve are located just west of Bayou Segnette, and the line ends at the Barataria Substation just east of the Jones Point Community in Jefferson Parish.
We invite the public to comment on this EA beginning December 1, 2022. An electronic copy of this EA will be available on the National Park Service’s Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (PEPC) website. Comments may also be submitted via regular mail to:
419 Decatur Street New Orleans, LA 70130.
Please submit all comments by December 31, 2022. It is NPS practice to make all comments, including names and addresses of respondents who provide that information, available for public review. Individuals may request that the NPS withhold their name and/or address from public disclosure; simply checking the box on the website for “keep my contact information private”. If submitting written comments, please state this request at the beginning of your comment. NPS will honor such requests to the extent allowable by law.
The Barataria Preserve, located 17 miles south of New Orleans, is comprised of over 26,000 acres of Louisiana wetlands, including bottomland hardwood forest, cypress swamp, freshwater and intermediate (between freshwater and brackish) marshes, bayous and canals. The Preserve includes a network of boardwalks and hiking and canoe trails that allow visitors to access the park’s wild places and observe native plants, alligators, snakes and over 200 species of birds. Each year, over 450,000 visitors enjoy the Preserve’s trails, canoe waterways and programs that inspire stewardship of the natural and cultural resources of southern Louisiana and the many challenges they face.
Original source can be found here
