(A version of this ran as an official Advocate/Times-Picayune editorial, July 27)
As this newspaper long has supported the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, we lament the news that the painstakingly planned coastal-restoration project officially has been cancelled. But we respect that there were legitimate concerns about the project’s $3 billion price tag and its potential effects on commercial oyster growers and shrimpers along the coast.
The state should not, however, retreat from its wetlands-replenishment efforts, but instead should redouble them.
Fortunately, what they say about skinning cats also is true of swamp protection: There’s more than just one way to do it.
The state’s series of successive, six-year Master Plans for coastal rehabilitation have identified numerous means of successfully retarding and in some cases, reversing marshland loss. Among them are the three big approaches of diversions, drainage and dredging, but also in the mix are oyster-reef reconstruction, man-made berms and breakwaters, and more. The 2023 Master Plan has identified a plethora of possible projects worthy of implementation, often in specific locations and with a high level of confidence.
With the Mid-Barataria project now shelved, money originally slated for that huge project may be available for repurposing in dozens of smaller initiatives. Officials should quickly convene to decide which existing plans should be sped up or expanded, which new projects can now be funded and what other ideas new science or research may offer.
Alas, some $600 million already has been spent on the Mid-Barataria project. The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority will need to see if any of the work already done can be salvaged. The state says it hopes to build what’s known as the Myrtle Grove project, a diversion around a quarter of the size, and a large-scale land bridge in the Barataria Basin using dredged sediment.
Whatever happens next, it also helps to know that language in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act will direct as much as $50 million in additional funds to Louisiana for coastal protection each year. This means the CPRA happily will have more to work with than it could count on back when the 2023 Master Plan was adopted.
Louisiana’s land loss isn’t going away, so we must keep pressing forward. With the Mid-Barataria’s loss, a host of other opportunities now arise, just as we want new wetlands to arise in areas previously lost to the sea. State officials should move smartly and expeditiously to seize the day.
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[For the editorial as published, follow this link.]
