Louisiana to spend $1.5 billion on coastal projects next fiscal year under new plan

Louisiana will spend $1.54 billion on coastal projects over the next fiscal year under a plan approved Wednesday that solidifies a controversial shift away from large-scale river diversions, a major change in strategy pursued by Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration.

The plan approved unanimously by the board of the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority now goes to the state Legislature. Lawmakers must give it an up-or-down vote, with no ability to change individual projects, and it is typically overwhelmingly approved.

It lays out project spending for fiscal year 2027, which begins in July, and is separate from the CPRA’s operational budget. Funding for projects comes from a combination of state and federal money, along with proceeds related to fines and settlements from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

This year’s plan also includes $28 million from settlements with energy companies sued by Louisiana parishes over pollution and damage to the coastline. Most of that money is allocated for coastal restoration and shoreline protection efforts in Cameron Parish, in the state’s far southwest.

The coastal authority’s projects range from levee building to marsh creation and ecosystem restoration, with the aim of protecting the state from intensifying storms while addressing Louisiana’s land loss crisis to as great an extent as possible. The state has lost around 2,000 square miles of land over the past century, about the size of Delaware, and sea level rise is projected to worsen the problem.

The authority’s mission has traditionally received broad support from across the political spectrum, though debate over two large-scale river diversions aimed at restoring lost wetlands in recent years proved to be a high-profile exception.

Landry’s administration has abandoned those plans in favor of a strategy that prioritizes restoring eroding barrier islands and rebuilding “land bridges” along vulnerable areas of Louisiana’s coastline, though actual construction on much of that approach remains far off.

The change has been lauded by commercial fishermen and their parish leaders who strongly opposed the diversions, but harshly criticized by a range of scientists and coastal advocates who saw them as key to a broader strategy of salvaging parts of the coastline.

‘Really moving forward’

But while debate over the now-canceled Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton Sediment Diversions has been front and center, the new annual plan includes a total of 143 active projects across the state’s coast. Of the $1.54 billion in total spending, proceeds linked to the BP spill account for about 27%, or $416 million.

“I think it is a reflection of the continued work that CPRA has been investing in for the past decade,” said Michael Hare, executive director of the coastal authority. “And I think it’s unfortunate that a lot of people focus on ‘a project’ in ‘a place,’ and then forget to recognize the 143 active projects across the entire coast.”

CPRA Chairman Gordon Dove said “this is really moving forward, from pump stations to the levee systems, to coastal restoration, to marsh recreation, to land bridges to barrier islands…”

The plan approved by the board represents an increase over the $1.27 billion draft initially presented in December. That is due to the addition of coastal settlement dollars as well as a handful of projects being accelerated sooner than anticipated, said Hare.

Larger projects include continued work on the Morganza to the Gulf levee system for Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes as well as the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain levee system for St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes. It also includes funding toward restoring the disappearing Chandeleur Islands, among a long list of other projects.

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Some coastal advocates noted the benefits that will occur from the annual plan, but lamented the diversions’ cancelations and pressed the Landry administration to provide details of workable, large-scale alternatives.

“Many of the investments in this year’s annual plan will help sustain communities, wildlife habitat and a working coast economy, and we are encouraged to see them move forward,” Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of national and local coastal advocacy organizations, said in a statement.

“However, the plan still falls short of what Louisianans deserve — a vision that matches the scale of the challenge, meaningful efforts to reconnect the river and restore natural processes, and regional restoration projects that deliver real benefits well into the future.”

‘Meaningful projects’

The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, the state’s oldest coastal advocacy group and which also supported the diversions, said the new plan “represents meaningful projects across our coast, from Cameron Parish to St. Bernard.”

“We hope that the state continues to look for ways to leverage Louisiana’s economic boom to form fruitful public-private partnerships and to make beneficial use of dredged material,” said CRCL government affairs director Ethan Melancon.

The large-scale land bridges prioritized by the Landry administration would be built with dredged sediment in the Terrebonne, Barataria and Breton basins. Much of that could potentially be paid for with BP funding formerly set aside for the diversions, though significant work remains to evaluate the plans and gain approval from trustees overseeing the money.

Those favoring the diversions note that land-building projects using dredged material work better when infusions of sediment from the river maintain them. That’s because such rebuilding projects eventually erode and subside like the rest of the coast.

But commercial shrimpers and oyster farmers forcefully opposed the diversions because the fresh water that would accompany them would have forced them to move or go out of business.

The cost of the Mid-Barataria diversion, at more than $3 billion, was also criticized by Landry, who argued it was too much to spend on one project alone. More than $600 million had already been spent on it before it was canceled.

Those favoring the project said it matched the scale of Louisiana’s land-loss crisis and that the BP funds provided a unique opportunity to build it.