Posted on February 3, 2019
The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority expects to have 23 levee and coastal restoration projects under construction in Southeastern Louisiana during fiscal year 2020 and another 20 projects will undergo engineering and design work, the authority’s new executive director said during a public hearing in New Orleans Wednesday evening (Jan. 30).
The projects are included in the authority’s proposed $783 million coastal annual plan, which outlines how money will be spent on wetlands and land restoration and hurricane storm surge risk reduction projects that are part of the state’s $50 billion, 50-year coastal Master Plan.
The annual plan was the subject of a public hearing Wednesday at the Lakefront Airport in New Orleans. During the hearing, new CPRA executive director Bren Haase said the list of projects includes continued construction of a major restoration project in Plaquemines Parish.
“I think the biggest marsh and ridge restoration project that the state’s ever undertaken is located in Plaquemines Parish, the Spanish Pass project,” Haase said.
The state will spend $1.9 million on the project on the west side of the Mississippi River in the Barataria Basin in 2020, but has plans to spend $60 million on construction in fiscal year 2021 and another $53.6 million the year after, with most of the money coming from the BP oil spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment process.
In addition to the natural resource benefits, the elevation of the ridge should also help block hurricane storm surges threatening nearby populated areas.
The project also will make use of sediment dredged from the Mississippi River by the Army Corps of Engineers as part of operations to maintain its navigation channel.
Haase said the 2020 budget also includes money to study the potential of using pipelines to move sediment from the Mississippi River to rebuild wetlands on the river’s east side. Similar pipeline projects have been completed on the west side of the river during the past few years.
About $505 million of the annual plan’s total would be spent on construction, and another $141 million on engineering and design. Officials predict that the fiscal year 2021 annual plan will include $738 million in spending, and that fiscal year 2022 will see expenditures of $938 million.
Future years could average near $1 billion, thanks to a steady stream of money for restoration projects from fines and payments related to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill that are being paid to the state over 15 years; and the state’s share of federal offshore oil revenue from the Gulf of Mexico that will slowly increase from about $70 million this year to as much as $140 million when production of oil from new wells increases.
While the annual plan – and the multi-year updates of the master plan – have all been approved unanimously by the Legislature since 2007, the budget does include several controversial projects.
At the top of the list are the proposed Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton sediment diversions that would funnel sediment and freshwater from the Mississippi River during high-river periods into wetlands on the west and east banks.
State officials contend the diversions will both build new wetlands by filling areas of open water and nourish existing wetlands by adding sediment to them.
Fishers contend the freshwater from the diversions will destroy existing oyster beds, most of which are on state-owned water bottoms leased to private growers; and will disrupt the life cycle of shrimp species that use the wetlands to grow from juvenile stages to sizes large enough to harvest.
State officials agree that there will be changes in a variety of commercial fisheries over time because of the projects, but say some of those changes will occur anyway because of the continued loss of wetlands if the projects aren’t built.
The state already has embarked on an effort to find ways of mitigating those effects, reviewing whether fishers can install refrigeration equipment and changes to their vessels’ engines to allow the capture of fish farther away from present fishing locations. They’re also looking to see if new areas can be identified where salinity levels will be adequate to grow oysters.
The review also includes looking at alternatives to pay fishers for damages resulting from the projects.
Chalmette native Jimmy Delery said during the hearing that he’s concerned the CPRA is not giving enough credit to the views of fishers about the the way water should be controlled if the diversions are built.
“Our community is one of the oldest fishing communities in the United States, actually in North America,” Delery said. “We don’t see us being protected, or the state’s plans furthering the productivity of our industry.”
Speaking in support of the annual plan was John Kinabrew, chairman of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation’s board of directors.
“We’re seeing critical restoration recognized as a priority at the state level, our state taking the crisis seriously and finally stepping up with major action steps, keystone projects like sediment diversions, marsh creation, living shorelines, ridge restoration — and the ramp-up of construction is really impressive,” Kinabrew said.
He also said CPRA’s leadership should be credited for assuring that “science is being used to prioritize planning, to assure that available funding is used towards the best, most powerful, impactful projects, to match the urgency of our land loss crisis.”
Across the coast, the plan includes 38 projects under construction that will restore or improve 8,624 acres of wetlands or land and 162.3 miles of levee.
The plan also breaks down the sources of money used to pay for projects:
Criminal and civil fines and natural resource damage restoration payments stemming from the 2010 BP disaster and oil spill are expected to provide $407.7 million to coastal restoration projects.
The state will use federal offshore oil revenue totaling $184.3 million to pay the state’s share of a variety of levee and restoration projects.
On Jan. 23, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the state also would use about $55 million from the state’s fiscal year 2018 surplus to help pay for some of the projects listed in the annual plan. The plan’s financial estimates will be adjusted to reflect those increased funds before being submitted to the Legislature in April.
The annual plan also calls for asking the Legislature for $103.1 million from its Capital Outlay budget to make the state’s first of 30 years of repayments to the Army Corps of Engineers for the state’s share of the cost of rebuilding the New Orleans area levee system in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That money is in addition to the plan’s $ $783 million in projects.
Edwards has said that state’s Congressional delegation is still trying to reduce the amount the state owes, with the state proposing to instead use whatever reduction it is granted to pay for other coastal Master Plan projects in the future.
The annual plan includes 48 active projects in the southeast third of the state’s coastal parishes, including:
- Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion, $18 million from BP spill-related fine revenue. This project in Plaquemines Parish will eventually cost $800 million, with construction expected to begin in 2023.
- Rosethorne and Jean Lafitte Tidal Basin levees, $4 million in fiscal year 2020, with another $7 million to be spent in fiscal year 2021. The project will build about 8,000 feet of levees in the Jean Lafitte area that will be about 8 feet above sea level, high enough to reduce existing flooding threats from high tides.
- Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection, $38.4 million. Includes money the state might need to spend as part of its share of land costs or mitigation costs for the New Orleans area levee system, the Southeast Louisiana flood protection projects in New Orleans and Jefferson parishes; and for the state’s land costs for federally-built levee improvements in Plaquemines Parish.
- Queen Bess Island Restoration, $10 million. The state expects to receive the money from the BP oil spill natural resource damage program.
- Grand Isle Beach Stabilization, $10.4 million, to be paid for with offshore oil money.
- Golden Triangle Marsh Creation, $21.4 million. State officials expect this project to be funded with natural resource damage restoration money from the BP oil spill, but the money hasn’t been authorized yet.
- Terrebonne Basin barrier island and beach nourishment, $104.7 million. State officials expect this project to be funded with natural resource damage restoration money from the BP oil spill, but the money hasn’t been authorized yet.
The plan also includes $10 million in Restore Act BP spill fine money that the state has set aside to match the cost of projects that coastal parishes are building with their own Restore Act grants.
Also funded are a variety of park and recreation improvements, including to Grand Isle and Bayou Segnette state parks, Middle Pearl River Wildlife Management Area boat launch and the Pass a Loutre campgrounds.
Another public hearing on the annual plan will be held Thursday at the Houma Civic Center, meeting room 3, 346 Civic Center Boulevard in Houma. That meeting begins with a 5:30 p.m. open house, followed by the public hearing at 6 p.m.
The authority also is holding two hearing on the Atchafalaya Basin Program annual plan, which will be submitted to the Legislature with the coastal annual plan. The hearings will be on Feb. 5 at the Bayou Sorrel Branch Library, 33415 Highway 75 in Plaquemine; and the Henderson Recreational Center, 1015 Park Drive, next to the Henderson City Hall. Both also begin with 5:30 p.m. open houses, followed at 6 p.m. with the hearings.
Public comments on the plan are being accepted through March 9. They can be submitted by email to coastal@la.gov, or by mail to CPRA, 150 Terrace Ave., Baton Rouge, LA 70802.
Source: nola
