Posted on June 9, 2025
A major federal study on the future of the lower Mississippi River examining effects in Louisiana and six other states has been paused due to a lack of funding from the Trump administration, the Army Corps of Engineers said Friday.
Separately, the Corps’ New Orleans district confirmed it was losing around 80 of its 1,160 employees to early retirement or deferred resignations — allowing them to go on leave until the end of the fiscal year before departing — as the Trump administration seeks to cut federal spending. It said construction projects underway were not affected.
The so-called mega-study, whose launch was announced in 2023, was intended to last five years, cost $25 million and address a wide range of issues key to shipping, flooding concerns and drinking water quality, among others. In Louisiana, issues being analyzed by the study include saltwater intrusion, operations of the vital Old River Control Structure near Angola and shipping concerns along one of the world’s most important transportation lanes.
The plan was to begin defining how to manage the lower river from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, down to the Gulf nearly a century after the Mississippi’s modern shape took form with the construction of the vast levee and flood control system following the massive 1927 flood. Corps officials and other experts have stressed that a reassessment is needed due to the major changes in recent decades to the river itself and communities alongside it.
The study has not been granted funding in the Corps’ fiscal year 2025 work plan and President Donald Trump’s recently released fiscal year 2026 budget does not recommend it for funding, Corps spokesperson Ricky Boyett said.
“As a result, we are placing the study into a paused status until additional funding becomes available,” Boyett said of what is officially known as the Lower Mississippi River Comprehensive Management Study, which has been authorized by Congress.
A notice to stakeholders on the study’s pause also noted that “previous president budget funds received during FY25 must be returned to the United States Treasury.” It was not immediately clear how much must be returned. The study has been granted $9.5 million since it started.
Congress could eventually decide to fund the study as it sets out spending plans for the next fiscal year and beyond, though there are no guarantees. Boyett said the Corps could pick up where it left off if the study is again funded.
When the study was launched, Col. Cullen Jones, commander of the Corps’ New Orleans district, said it would provide “the opportunity to consider this critical flood risk management system and identify what, if any, opportunities, and modifications are needed to account for the change in river dynamics as well as the needs of the nation over the last century.”
“The Mississippi River is the nation’s most important waterway and one of the world’s most important natural resources,” he said. “We are committed to ensuring it remains so in the future.”
The study was proceeding alongside another major initiative looking at the lower river, particularly the Bird Foot Delta near its mouth, sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. That initiative, co-led by Tulane and LSU professors, is being paid for with $22 million from funds linked to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and is not in danger of being paused.
The two studies were in some ways designed to be complementary as the team of academics and Corps experts delve into the myriad issues at stake. Sam Bentley, an LSU geologist co-leading the National Academy study, said the Corps’ pause represents a major lost opportunity.
“This funding represented a legal authorization for the Corps to think about how to manage the river for the next 100 years,” Bentley said. “I can’t speak for the folks who are doing the work, but we all know that the river of the 21st Century is not the river of the early 20th Century. And this was a fabulous opportunity to begin working on the next generation of Mississippi River and tributaries management projects.”
Challenges to work through’
Mead Allison, a Tulane geologist and the other co-leader of the National Academy study, said “we are saddened” to hear the Corps had to pause its effort. He said issues being looked at included those of high importance to Louisiana, such as investigating ways to bring more sediment to the delta’s disappearing wetlands, minimizing the use of the Bonnet Carre Spillway and examining how to address saltwater intrusion threatening the New Orleans area’s drinking water.
“We can only hope Washington eventually lifts this pause and this worthwhile effort is allowed to reach its full potential,” he said.
The Port of New Orleans declined immediate comment, saying it had just learned of the pause.
Sean Duffy, executive director of the Big River Coalition, which advocates for commercial navigation interests, said his organization viewed the pause as part of a storm the industry had to weather, including cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which shipping companies rely upon.
“We’re seeing impacts across government agencies based on changes to funding, and each one presents different challenges to work through,” he said.
