New Orleans CityBusiness: LA state senators want federal government to stop funding for

State Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Arabi, whose District I is in destroyed St. Bernard Parish, wants to pull the plug on the controversial water access project known as Mr. Go.

We just lost 30,000 homes in St. Bernard, another 10,000 in the Lower 9th Ward, and an undetermined amount in New Orleans East. It's clear that the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet was a factor in those losses, and we don't want to repeat history, he said.

We are tired of the federal government playing Russian roulette with our lives.

Boasso and state Sens. Nita Hutter, D-Chalmette, and Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, want to plug the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet known as MRGO. The project is blamed by the politicians for increasing the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina by increasing water intrusion.

Dug four decades ago, MRGO was intended to be a direct deepwater connection between the Gulf of Mexico and the Port of New Orleans. But few vessels use the waterway. In addition to providing hurricanes with a clear path to New Orleans and surrounding areas, the expanse of water in the MRGO is vulnerable to deadly storm surges, as evidenced by disastrous flooding from Hurricane Katrina in St. Bernard Parish, through which MRGO flows.

The MRGO is longer and wider than the Panama Canal and costs tens of millions of dollars annually to dredge. It's now used by just five businesses.

The delegation wants Congress to cease all funding directed to the project immediately.

A petition can be found at http://senate.legis.state.la.us/ Boasso/petition.asp.