La Quinta Terminal Mitigation: Dredged Material Beneficial Reuse for Estuarine Habitat Creation

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has adopted, as a part of the 404-permit process, a policy that allows offset of project impacts through in-kind mitigation. To address these requirements, the local port authority was responsible for creating 6.6 acres of smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) habitat and 19.2 acres of shoal grass (Halodule wrightii) habitat as mitigation for the La Quinta Terminal Project. Meeting these mitigation requirements in semi-arid South Texas was a challenge that required careful planning, design, and construction. This challenge was approached by constructing the 200-acre Beneficial Use Site 6 (BUS 6) using new work (non-maintenance) dredged material through several phases. These included placement of dredge materials into BUS 6, reworking of placed materials, reuse of dredged material from an upland dredged material placement area (DMPA), and planting of 12.6 acres of marsh vegetation and 25.3 acres of shoal grass: the largest known actively planted seagrass mitigation project in Texas.