NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) — Governor Jeff Landry’s administration took a major step Friday toward downsizing or killing Louisiana’s largest coastal project, the $3.1 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion in Plaquemines Parish.

In a letter to the contractor, Gordon Dove, head of the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities, ordered a 90-day suspension of all work on the project.

Mid-Barataria had been the centerpiece of Louisiana’s ambitious plans to restore its coast, an effort to channel Mississippi River sediment into the bay to mimic the river’s land-building powers.

However, critics argue that the diversion, which would take up to 75,000 cubic feet of river water each second, would devastate shrimp and oyster fisheries and other marine life, including Barataria Bay’s population of bottlenose dolphins.

“We’re still doing an evaluation,” Dove said Friday night. “We don’t want to pay for cranes sitting out there.”

The order to cease activity will allow for the removal of equipment, according to Dove.

A limited amount of construction work has been performed over the last year, but six large cranes have sat idle.

Dove said the ultimate decision on the project would be “based on a decision we can afford.”

An Environmental Impact Statement estimated that Mid-Barataria would build 21 square miles of land over 50 years. However, Governor Landry complained that the project cost had skyrocketed from an estimated $750 million to $3.1 billion over the last decade.

“It’s to a point you cannot afford to build the large diversion,” Dove said.

Funding for the project flows primarily from fines and settlements associated with the 2010 Gulf oil spill. However, Landry has argued the state would have to cover any shortfall as the project costs increase.

Dove said the downsized project could combine a few features, including a diversion of 2,500-25,000, a 23.5-mile-long land bridge stretching from Buras in Southern Plaquemines Parish to Lafourche Parish, and a long-distance sediment diversion pipe.

While critics have accused the administration of abandoning a science-driven approach to coastal restoration, Dove said the land bridge is already included in the state’s coastal master plan.

“What water can you divert that doesn’t kill the shrimp and oysters and bottlenose dolphins,” Dove said.

Supporters of the diversion have argued that the scope of Louisiana’s coastal land loss requires a large-scale project. However, Dove argued that the sediment pipeline could build 19,000 acres of land over a 12-15-year period.

The diversion was granted the required federal permits in December of 2022 after a years-long evaluation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies.

Any revision would require an environmental evaluation by the Corps, which could lead to a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement, a process that could take years.

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