Posted on October 10, 2025
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The state of Louisiana has withdrawn permit applications for one of its largest coastal restoration efforts, the Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion Project on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish.
The project would have channeled up to 75,000 cubic feet per second of Mississippi River water and sediment into Breton Sound to build wetlands.
Gordon Dove, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, confirmed the state had effectively canceled the project.
The state had already pulled the plug on a similar project, the $3.1 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion on the west bank of the river in Plaquemines Parish.
While construction on Mid-Barataria had already begun, the Mid-Breton project was still in the design and engineering phase.
Coastal activists and many scientists had seen the diversions as cornerstones of Louisiana’s efforts to reverse land loss, projects intended to mimic how the Mississippi River built the South Louisiana delta over centuries.
However, the administration of Gov. Jeff Landry opposed the projects, citing rising costs and potential harm to fisheries.
“It doesn’t make economical sense,” said Dove.
The project would have required both state and federal permits.
Dove said the cost of Mid-Breton had ballooned from several hundred million dollars to an estimated $1.8 billion.
“There are no funds to build it,” Dove said.
He noted that a smaller freshwater diversion sits just to the north of Mid-Breton, and two larger cuts in the river already exist to the south.
Together, Mardi Gras Pass and Neptune Pass channel more than 100,000 cubic feet per second into the Breton Sound area.
The project’s cancellation is a victory for many in the commercial fishing industry, who feared large volumes of freshwater pouring into the sound would devastate marine life.
