Posted on April 18, 2025
‘How can a project that has anchored four coastal master plans be excluded?’ one advocate said during CPRA meeting.
Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority approved the agency’s annual plan Wednesday, which forecasts record spending of nearly $2 billion on projects aimed at creating new wetlands, elevating homes and building additional hurricane protections.
But more than a quarter of that spending, $573 million, is tied to one project, the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, which is in limbo after Gov. Jeff Landry questioned its effectiveness and state officials issued a 90-day pause on the project earlier this month. The annual plan provides funding for the project as though construction were to proceed.
The board unanimously voted to approve the spending plan, which now moves to the Legislature for final approval.
“We felt that you can’t just take something off [the plan] until there’s something officially done,” said CPRA board chairman Gordon Dove. “It was suspended for 90 days because the cost is just atrocious.”
In addition to the Mid-Barataria project, which would create a break in the Mississippi River levee in Plaquemines Parish and use the river to rebuild land, Dove said there are 140 other projects funded through the agency’s annual plan. Those include a pair of multi-year $3.4 billion projects.
One, in southwest Louisiana, is breaking ground this year and aims to elevate between 800 and 1,000 homes and is being carried out in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Another, the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Protection System, will provide storm surge protection to about 60,000 residents from Laplace to Garyville.
During the meeting, state Rep. Jerome Zeringue, R-Houma, who is Speaker of the House Phillip DeVillier’s designee on the agency’s board, said that he was uncomfortable with a plan that included the $2.9 billion diversion project when “the intent [is] to work to cancel it,” he said.
“It seems somewhat disingenuous to vote on a plan when we know that this one project is no longer included without a path forward or an indication of what we intend to do now that that project is being canceled.”
Dove countered that there were other plans in the works, and that CPRA and the governor’s administration would present them to the public “once we finish this aggressive compilation of everything.”
Zeringue, as the house speaker’s representative on the board, does not get a vote.
Advocates push back
During the meeting’s public comment period, representatives from environmental advocacy groups expressed their support for the Mid-Barataria project and criticized efforts to kill it.
“How can a project that has anchored four coastal master plans be excluded?” said Simone Maloz, the campaign director of Restore the Mississippi River Delta. “Louisianians want action, they do not want abandonment of the projects designed to protect their future.”
Kristi Trail, the executive director of the Pontchartrain Conservancy, urged the board not to approve the annual plan unless the Mid-Barataria project would proceed as previously planned.
“We’ve heard suggestions that a smaller diversion would suffice,” Trail said. “However, the current scale of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion is necessary to effectively address the magnitude of Louisiana’s coastal land loss.”
Ethan Melancon, the advocacy director for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, said the Mid-Barataria project “is and can be the solution to major issues that’s facing the Barataria Basin.”
“We’ve heard it’s the linchpin. We’ve heard it’s the cornerstone,” he added. “All the terms they have used are true.” But he stressed that his organization was committed to supporting other diversion projects that are also included in CPRA’s annual plan.
The project broke ground in 2023 and was expected to move forward before Landry took office in 2024. Shrimpers and fishermen have long opposed the project, which is expected to hurt some coastal fisheries. Landry appears to have taken their concerns to heart: He said last year the project would “break our culture.”
The Mid-Barataria project appears to have support among Louisianans more broadly. Several of the commenters cited independent polls released this week, paid for by Restore the Mississippi River Delta, that found that 83% of respondents supported the diversion project.
“You can’t get 83% of people to agree on the color of this table,” said Ryan Lambert, a charter boat captain in Buras. “But 83% of the people say they want the diversion because [CPRA] did such a good job … over the years, going and being transparent, teaching people, going all throughout the state with meetings, showing how it can be done, why it should be done.”
