Posted on October 16, 2024
The Senate Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works heard an update last week on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project that could be scaled down or delayed.
The proposed $2.9 billion project is designed to send land-building sediment from the Mississippi River to Louisiana’s shrinking wetlands along the coast.
The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority says the diversion would build between 10,000 and 30,000 acres of new wetlands over a 50-year period.
To date, $519 million has already been spent on initial construction. However, failure to receive permission from Plaquemine Parish officials has set the whole project back.
Before the new Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Chairman Gordon “Gordy” Dove took office in January, Plaquemines Parish issued a stop work order on the diversion project. They did so because the authority did not apply for or receive a local permit before construction began.
Dove also said at the hearing on Oct. 11 that the previous administration started before engineering was fully complete, something he says you never see in coastal protection projects.
The stoppage of work left a lot of materials hanging around, which cost $150,000 in storage fees a month according to Dove. So, CPRA got with the parish and they agreed to let the authority build early works such as access roads, fences, utilities and other smaller projects to stage the construction once a deal is finalized.
As for the deal, Dove could not disclose to the legislators what is being discussed because of a non-disclosure agreement. All he could say was no adjustments to the current plan have been made yet and it’s still up to the parish to decide if they want to bring a lawsuit.
“We have not gone in any direction, we’re putting everything together right now to sum it up,” Dove said. He also stated that if anything changes in planning, “Basically you’re gonna have to start over.”
Although Dove said the authority is trying to make a compromise with the parish to avoid court, Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, thinks they should push it and get a decision on the lawsuit now so it can move forward. Connick represents Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes in the Senate.
The parish isn’t the only ones who may bring a lawsuit as the result of the diversion. The Federal Economic Impact Statement says the oyster fisheries and brown shrimp industry would be adversely effected by the project. The sediment would also increase water levels, and therefor the risk of tidal flooding in Barataria basin communities.
Dove says lawsuits can come as a result of any of these issues. A portion of the $2.9 billion was put aside for litigation like this, but Dove still believes these are reasons why the parish might not allow full construction without a legal battle.
If a smaller diversion was decided on to decrease the flood and fishery risks, $378 million could be saved because it was specifically donated to maintain solidity levels for a longer, wider diversion.
Overall the committee was not pleased with the lack of information on where they go from here and if the project will ever be continued as it originally intended.
“It sounds like we’re reworking what the plan and the scope of the project is,” Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, said. “I got a sneaky suspicion we’re gonna end up wasting a lot of money and a lot of people’s time and it’s going to paint Louisiana in a terrible light.”
Dove agreed but thinks at this point they have to do their due diligence to ensure it’s done properly this time.
“It’s a bad situation all the way around,” Dove said.
Dove also assured the committee that the state wouldn’t automatically lose the money allocated if it became a smaller project. He said the state would just have to use it for another project, which would require resubmission and approval from many different government entities.
