Posted on May 19, 2025
State Coastal Chair suggests an alternative to Louisiana’s largest wetlands project
MYRTLE GROVE, LA. – Kevin Crossen runs a charter boat out of Myrtle Grove near the site of Louisiana’s largest coastal project.
“You’re out here enough, you see it disappear daily,” said Crossen of the rapid loss of the state’s coastal marshes and ridges.
“It’s very frustrating that we’ve reached this point,” Crossen said. “So many projects, the money’s been lost to permitting and studying.”
In the end, that may be the fate of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, the state’s effort to mimic the Mississippi River’s land-building powers by delivering sediment into the marsh on the Plaquemines Parish west bank.
Mid-Barataria, as conceived, would channel up to 75,000 cubic feet of fresh water per second, nearly the equivalent of an Olympic-size pool, into the bay.
“We’ve just about destroyed this place in the last 100-120 years because we’ve harvested it so much,” said Foster Creppel, a coastal activist and diversion supporter. “It’s a very rich place and we’ve harvested it like no tomorrow,” Creppel said. “So now, it’s our turn to take care of it. It’s not going to be simple.”
The $3.1 billion project, which has been seen as the lynchpin of Louisiana’s coastal restoration efforts, would funded primarily through fines and settlements associated with the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
Governor Jeff Landry, who has been critical of the project, claims the administration of former Governor John Bel Edwards concealed an unfavorable study that showed the diversion would build only one-third of the 21 square miles of land forecast in another computer model and used as the basis for a federal permit.
Edward denies Landry’s claim that the state hid the report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which granted the permit in December of 2022.
The Corps recently suspended the permit, partly it said, because the state withheld information and partly because of the lack of progress in recent months.
The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority has ordered a 90-day suspension of all work on the diversion.
“There’s a very good chance we won’t get much out of it and that’s a shame,” Creppel said.
Mid-Barataria’s opponents, who have long criticized the introduction of that much fresh water into the brackish bay, believe state coastal leaders ignored warning signs about the project’s potential harm.
“I couldn’t understand why they continued to double down when they had all these lights going off on their dashboard,” said Dennis Lambert, an engineer who once worked on the diversion projects before souring on the concept of the large diversions.
“If you’re spending that kind of money, who’s going to stand up and say, we’re going down the wrong road?” Lambert said.
One breaking point for Lambert was a change to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, designed to protect bottlenose dolphins and other marine mammals.
Louisiana’s congressional leaders carved out a special exemption from the act for diversions after experts repeatedly warned introducing that much fresh water would virtually wipe out the dolphins in Barataria Bay.
“I don’t think that’s right,” Lambert said. “I think it’s inhumane to knowingly kill an intelligent mammal. I think that shows a complete lack of respect for creation itself.”
Commercial fishing interests fear a similar fate for oysters and brown shrimp.
“I know there’s a lot of money that’s been spent on this, but things moved along too hastily with the end of the last administration,” said Mitch Jurisich, an oyster grower and Plaquemines Parish Councilman who has joined a lawsuit to stop the project in federal court.
Landry and his top aides also criticize the project’s $3.1 billion cost, which they say has roughly doubled over the last decade.
“Let’s get down to the bottom of it, you don’t have enough money to build it,” said Gordon Dove, CPRA Chairman.
“There’s no more construction funding,” Dove said. “So, where are we going to get the money?”
Supporters point out the state had signed a contract with a Construction Manager at Risk, an arrangement under which the contractor oversees construction to prevent cost overruns.
“The newest argument is that we won’t be able to afford this, but that’s simply not true,” said Lauren Bourg, Director of the Mississippi River Delta Program for the National Audubon Society. “The money was already dedicated for this project,” Bourg said. “It was fully funded as is.”
However, Dove points to hidden costs, including a requirement the state pay for dredging to provide access to oil and gas canals.
Dove estimated maintenance dredging would average $24 million per year over the course of the next half century.
The BP settlement money would not cover that cost, Dove said, forcing the state to dip into other sources of coastal funding.
“That’s not fair to the other parishes,” Dove said.
However, Dove argues the state can still salvage a project from Mid-Barataria’s demise.
He has suggested a three-part substitute, including: a smaller diversion of 2,500 to 15,000 cfs; marsh creation from dredging; and a long-distance sediment pipeline to build a roughly 20-mile-long landbridge from Port Sulphur past Lafitte to serve as a barrier between salt and fresh water.
Dove’s plan would revive a smaller diversion the Army Corps was planning 18 years ago until the state pushed for a larger project.
“You start producing immediately with long-distance pipeline sediment,” Dove said. “That’s why I believe in it.”
Under his plan, the Corps would revive the smaller diversion project and cover 65 percent of the cost.
Congress would have to approve funding for the diversion, which could also require a years-long environmental review before any construction could take place.
Jurisich, who also serves as Chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, applauds the alternative idea.
“I really think that we’re going to get this right this time after all these years of looking at this,” Jurisich said. “I’m very thankful that someone finally listened.”
Advocates of the larger diversion argue the smaller option would do nothing to change the dynamics that lead to Louisiana’s land loss, including levees that disconnected the river from the marsh.
“We have to mimic nature,” Creppel said. “We can’t just dump sand and put rocks out here and expect to rebuild this organic place.”
Dove argued that going with a smaller diversion would free up roughly $2 billion for other projects along the coast.
However, many coastal advocates point to guardrails that Congress and the courts put around the money.
For example, they say, one pot of money can only be spent on barrier islands and diversions.
Dove, who once served as Terrebonne Parish President, is also reluctant to ram a project down the throats of Plaquemines Parish leaders who went on record as opposed to it.
“I never will,” Dove said. “I don’t believe in it.”
Lambert also argues the wishes of local leaders were never taken into consideration.
“That’s why they passed that ordinance to protect themselves, and it was completely ignored as if they were never good enough to be acknowledged,” Lambert said. “I think that was wrong.”
The debate has frustrated many coastal advocates, who fear Louisiana is missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“We don’t need to be fighting like the Governor and oyster fishermen and the environmentalists,” Creppel said. “We all have to get together and work together or we’re not going to save our coast.”
