A debris removal effort to clean both the coastal waters and inland waterways of the Mississippi Coast has reached the $230 million mark.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday that it hopes the work will be finished by the end of January. Inland cleanup in waterways north of Interstate 10 should also be finished by the end of January, said the agency in a news release.

FEMA said the primary area of saltwater cleanup is a belt of the Mississippi Sound extending a half mile out and spreading from state line to state line. The removal of debris from deeper waters, extending four miles out, is scheduled to begin in January and may last into the summer.

The underwater cleanup gained publicity recently when an unusually low tide in early December allowed workmen to wade far out into areas not usually exposed. Nearly 13,000 cubic yards of debris have been taken from the key coastal strip out to the half-mile point, and a total of more than

51,000 cubic yards have come out of the water since marine cleanup began last September. Marine debris removal will be 100 percent federally funded until May 15, 2007.

Hurricane Katrina devastated a large portion of Mississippi and Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005.