canceled was a companion project

Louisiana officials have canceled another major coastal restoration project — the Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish. 

Gordon Dove, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, confirmed to WVUE-TV Fox 8 Wednesday that the state will not continue the Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion. The project would have channeled fresh water and sediment from the Mississippi River near Wills Point to the dying coastal marshes of Breton Sound. 

It is the second major coastal restoration project Gov. Jeff Landry has shut down. He scrapped the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project in May even though $3 billion from the Deepwater Horizon settlement was available to complete the project and $560 million had already been spent. Construction hadn’t yet begun on the Mid-Breton project. 

Both projects served as key initiatives in Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, which has been in place for nearly two decades. Although the state is currently operating other river diversions, they are smaller in scope and designed only to prevent saltwater intrusion — not restore land. 

Landry’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon. He previously criticized the Mid-Barataria project for its rising costs and potential harm to oyster fisheries in that area.

Dove told WVUE the cost of Mid-Breton had ballooned from several hundred million dollars to an estimated $1.8 billion. The state has over $8 billion set aside for coastal restoration projects. The money came from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement.

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Coastal marshland serves as a natural storm barrier against hurricanes and soaks up rain and flood waters. It also creates habitat for fish and wildlife and absorbs air pollution. 

Louisiana has lost more than 2,000 square miles of coast since 1932, according to the 2023 Coastal Master Plan. Scientists say the marsh is dying because it stopped receiving the nutrient-rich fresh water and sediment once levees were built to control flooding along the Mississippi River. Rising sea levels brought about by climate change have made the situation worse, the plan stated.    

Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of national and local conservation groups, criticized the state’s decision in a news release Thursday, saying it goes against accepted science and the interests of Louisiana residents.

Cancelling the project could also place other coastal restoration efforts in jeopardy. Restore spokesman Charles Sutcliffe pointed out that other initiatives in Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, such as marsh building projects, rely on the sediment diversions for their long-term sustainability. 

Dredging and marsh creation projects left in the plan are going to sink and erode without a consistent source of fresh water and sediment, Sutcliffe added. He questioned the point of having a Coastal Master Plan that many stakeholders agreed on if one person can decide “behind closed doors” to cancel its biggest projects at any time.

The state’s Coastal Master Plan represents years of bipartisan work and investments from government officials, scientists, business owners, residents and engineers. The Mid-Breton project was added to the plan in 2007. 

“This cancellation disregards the decades of transparency and significant effort that went into research, permitting, community engagement and modeling for the project,” Restore said in a news release. “ … Canceling this project puts integral large-scale, sustainable coastal restoration years, or even decades, further out of reach.”