This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have any comments.
Dive brief:
- Federal authorities have warned that they expect Louisiana to return the funds allocated for the $3 billion Mid-Barataria sediment diversion project if the state is no longer committed to the flagship coastal restoration effort, according to AP News.
- The Louisiana coast in Plaquemines Parish it is rapidly eroding and sinking due to hydrologic alteration, saltwater intrusion and sea level rise caused by climate change, according to the project’s website. The project began in August 2023, but has since been halted by court cases.
- In an Oct. 18 letter to the head of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, the agency overseeing the project, federal officials asked whether the state is committed to the megaproject and requested a “clear statement” that he plans to follow it as designed, according to AP News.
Diving knowledge:
The Louisiana coast and Mississippi River Delta are eroding rapidly: A the football field of the wetlands disappears into open water every 100 minutes, according to the nonprofit Restore the Mississippi River Delta, and Louisiana has lost an area roughly the size of Delaware since the 1930s.
The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion is Louisiana’s largest effort to address its worsening land loss problem. It would channel freshwater and sediment from the Mississippi River into the Barataria Basin to rebuild wetlands and maintain the shoreline, according to the project’s website, with the goal of building up to 30,000 acres of wetlands over 50 years and restoring coastal ecosystems.
However, the project has faced pushback from some state lawmakers and members of the fishing industry.
The parish authorities of Plaquemines sued Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority in November 2023, just months after the project broke ground, alleging a flawed permitting process and saying it could increase the risk of flooding for local communities, according to NOLA .com
Then, in January, local oyster companies and the environmental group Earth Island Institute filed a lawsuit against the project’s permitting agencies: the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. They say that the The project will alter the quality of the waterthey threaten commercial fisheries and harm marine life like bottlenose dolphins, NOLA.com reports.
Representatives from the EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture — all of which oversee federal funds obtained in a settlement following the 2010 BP oil spill — signed the letter to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. They said the returned funds would be used for future restoration activities, but did not specify whether they would remain earmarked for projects in Louisiana. The state has already done it spent over $500 million about the diversion project, according to NOLA.com.
Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration has declined to comment publicly on the matter, per NOLA.com, citing Plaquemines Parish’s ongoing lawsuit against the state. Landry’s office did not immediately respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.
