Louisiana
Louisiana’s biggest ever coastal project may hit another setback. More study may be needed.
The controversial Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a massive $3 billion coastal restoration project tied up in lawsuits, may hit yet another roadblock.
A new scientific review may be in order to determine whether “forever chemicals” – PFAS compounds – pose a threat to endangered species in the Barataria Basin if the project is built. While scientists suggest the issue likely does not pose a problem, a full review would require more time, potentially further delaying the project and adding costs.
Indeed, the project may in fact lessen endangered species’ exposure to the chemicals because of water being diverted out of the river to build land, the scientists say.
Nonetheless, scientists with both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service say new research into the chemicals, combined with the rapid expansion of Environmental Protection Agency rules aimed at removing them from drinking water, is enough to trigger a rewrite of both agencies’ biological opinions that declared the diversion was safe to endangered species.
National Marine Fisheries Service request to reinitiate Endangered Species Act consultation on Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, including rep…
Already studied and analyzed for years, the diversion near Ironton would transfer up to 75,000 cubic feet per second of Mississippi River water and sediment into the Barataria Basin for about six months each year, representing about 5.6% of the river’s annual flow. It is expected to build about 21 square miles of land during its first 50 years of operation.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – known as PFAS — are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down and remain toxic for generations. PFAS have been used to make non-stick coatings on cookware and protective coatings for carpets and fabrics, in coatings for paper and cardboard food packaging, firefighting foams, ski wax, and other products. They’ve been found in water throughout the country, including the Mississippi River.
Both of those September requests, filed with the federal-state Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group that recommended BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill fine money be used to build the project, came after a January lawsuit filed by opponents of the diversion. The lawsuit cited the forever chemicals as a reason to halt construction of the project.
However, the letters submitted by the two federal agencies also said initial information indicates the chemicals are not expected to be a threat because they’re likely to drop out of Mississippi River water long before that water reaches two main areas where endangered species are found in the basin – barrier islands and the river’s southernmost Birdfoot Delta.
“These areas are projected to have slight decreases in sediment and PFAS due to the project,” said the request written by National Marine Fisheries Service marine biologist Rachel Sweeney. “Therefore, it is likely that ESA-listed species will experience no change or decreases in PFAS compound exposures due to the MBSD Project.”
“A portion of the PFAS compounds will likely behave similarly to fine sediments and be incorporated into the delta building area – an area where ESA listed species are less likely to occur,” she said.
Similar language appeared in the Fish & Wildlife Service note.
Both included a May report produced by Seattle-based Confluence Environmental Co. for NOAA and the Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group.
That report pointed out that the new EPA PFAS regulatory standards were not in place when biological opinions were created by the two federal agencies for the diversion project, and said it’s anticipated that scientific findings about the chemicals will continue to evolve, thanks to additional research already underway.
But it also said that the levels of PFAS concentrations in the river at New Orleans are between 8.1 and 11 parts per trillion, while EPA’s proposed limits for amounts that threaten aquatic life through chronic exposure are between 8,400 and 94,000 ppt, and limits for acute exposure between 3 million and 49 million ppt, depending on the PFAS compound.
Both federal agencies said they were also requesting the additional review, in part, because they have added more endangered and threatened species in the region since the initial reports were released in 2021.
The endangered species potentially at risk now include pallid sturgeon, giant Manta ray, and West Indian manatee; eastern black rail, piping plover, and red knot shorebirds; and green, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley, leatherback, and loggerhead sea turtles and the alligator snapping turtle. Both queen conch, found in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana-Texas border, and the Rice’s whale, also found in the Gulf, are both too far away from the diversion to be affected.
Both letters say that if the re-initiation of the endangered species consultation is granted, until it’s completed, the Louisiana trustees “will not make any irreversible or irretrievable commitment of resources with respect to the MBSD Project” that would preclude alternatives eventually being adopted to comply with federal law.
The trustees have the authority and funding necessary to modify the project to minimize impacts to species, the letters said, but both concluded no changes would be necessary.
The opponents who filed suit against the project in January, including Jurisich Oysters, AmeriPure Processing, Matthew Tesvich, and the Earth Island Institute, sent a letter to the federal agencies and the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority on Nov. 8 charging that because of the potential exposure from PFAS compounds and other contaminants in the river, the project violated the Endangered Species Act. It demanded all work be halted immediately.
Elizabeth Lewis, an attorney representing the opponents, said site preparation work still underway violates the Endangered Species Act because it could preclude alternatives to the project.
“By conducting these activities, CPRA appears to be ‘steamrolling’ the project before the services have had an opportunity to fully evaluate adverse project impacts and potential alternatives,” she said. “Otherwise, there would be no reason for CPRA to embark on these activities prior to lawfully concluding consultation under the ESA.”
Officials with the National Marine Fisheries Service and Fish & Wildlife Service refused to say whether the re-initiation requests were being acted upon. A spokesperson for the Fish & Wildlife Service declined comment because the request “is associated with active litigation.”
A spokesperson for the the Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans District office, which issued the permits approving construction of the project, said it was up to the other federal agencies to notify it of any updates in their biological opinions. A spokesperson for the CPRA also said it would be up to the federal trustees to determine whether the re-initiation process would be approved.
Meanwhile, the diversion’s construction remains on hold, other than storage and other minor site work, due to a dispute between the state and Plaquemines Parish, which opposes the project. The parish has filed a lawsuit arguing the state should have obtained construction permits from it.
Gordon “Gordy” Dove, who chairs the CPRA board of directors, has said the state is in the midst of talks with the parish that include possible changes to its design, but has refused to say whether those changes include major reductions in the amount of water the diversion would move into the basin.
The Senate Transportation Committee is expected to review the status of the diversion at a Thursday morning meeting.
GOP-led states sending hundreds of additional National Guard troops to DC
Three GOP governors have pledged to send hundreds more National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to aid Trump’s federalization of the city.
Straight Arrow News
Louisiana National Guard soldiers have returned to Washington, D.C., on a second deployment as part of President Trump’s continued crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.
Trump declared a crime emergency in Washington nine months ago to trigger deployments of states’ National Guard troops to the capital.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry first sent a contingent of Louisiana soldiers to Washington in August 2025. Lt. Col. Noel Collins told USA Today Network on May 13 that all of those soldiers returned to Louisiana by the end of December.
Landry’s latest deployment of Louisiana soldiers includes about 125 who began assisting other soldiers and local police May 12.
Louisiana’s soldiers won’t make arrests, but they will patrol high-traffic areas while playing a supporting role for the D.C. National Guard and local police.
The White House has said its capital crime task force has made more than 12,000 arrests since August and seized thousands of illegal guns.
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – A new report shows Louisiana students are making some of the biggest gains in the country, with state education leaders celebrating the progress.
The newest national report card now ranks Louisiana 32nd in the nation, a jump from 49th in 2019.
“Louisiana is no longer about Louisiana simply believes, but for K-12 education, Louisiana achieves,” said state Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley.
The jump comes mainly from improved reading and math scores, making Louisiana the only state that has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Gov. Jeff Landry said the achievement comes at an opportune time for the generation to capitalize on economic developments coming to the state.
“These young men and women are going to get an opportunity we have never had. These kids get to grow up in a new Louisiana at a time when they are getting the education they need,” Landry said.
Brumley said the focus is now on attendance, more tutoring, higher teacher pay, and job readiness.
“Tutoring for every kid to get a little extra help if they need it; differentiated pay so we can target pay in a very precise way to those teachers doing great work for kids; and in the elevation in career and technical education,” Brumley said.
While leaders are celebrating, Brumley said the real work is keeping that momentum.
“Louisiana doesn’t have to be last. Indeed, we can be number one. We will continue to see great results,” Brumley said.
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Louisiana
As Louisiana’s Senate election nears, carbon capture becomes a big issue. Here’s what to know.
In a campaign that has focused more on President Donald Trump than the issues, government regulation of carbon capture and sequestration has emerged as a key fault line in Saturday’s Senate primary.
State Treasurer John Fleming has made his forceful opposition to the new process a key driver of his campaign, saying it threatens to poison waterways and strip landowners of property rights.
That has made him the target of attack ads broadcast by two outside groups associated with Gov. Jeff Landry and financed at least in part by oil and gas companies that want to inject the carbon dioxide deep in underground wells.
Fleming has counterattacked by saying that U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who has Landry’s support, actually supports the industry because her fiancée, Kevin Ainsworth, is a major lobbyist for carbon capture and sequestration companies in Baton Rouge. Letlow has called that accusation “a low blow.”
Letlow has said she favors letting local communities decide whether to allow the process.
“If a project is not safe, if it’s not transparent and if it does not have community buy-in, it should not move forward,” she said in a radio debate on May 5.
But in a separate interview, Letlow refused to be pinned down on how a community would decide to give a green light.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy on Tuesday said he agrees with Fleming that oil and gas companies should not be able to exercise eminent domain to build pipelines and storage facilities without landowners’ approval.
Cassidy also said he supports the moratorium that Landry has imposed on new carbon capture and sequestration projects. Letlow also backs that moratorium.
Cassidy said allowing parish governments to block carbon capture and sequestration projects “is an acceptable option.”
Where the race stands
Fleming and Letlow are trying to unseat Cassidy this year in the Republican election campaign. Saturday is the primary, where the top two Republican finishers, if no one wins above 50%, advance to a runoff on June 27.
All three candidates are predicting they will win one of the two spots in the June 27 runoff. Polls indicate that Letlow has the best chance.
But political analysts note that the new semi-closed primary election system and recent seismic events – including a U.S. Supreme Court decision that nullified Louisiana’s congressional map and Landry then canceling the House elections – make prognosticating Saturday’s results a challenge.
Three Democrats are vying in their own primary to face the Republican Senate nominee in November. They are Nick Albares, a policy analyst in New Orleans; Gary Crockett, a business owner in New Orleans; and Jamie Davis, a soybean, cotton and corn farmer in northeast Louisiana.
Albares said on Tuesday that he sides with Fleming and Cassidy in not allowing companies to use eminent domain to build carbon capture and sequestration projects on private land.
Davis called for “binding consent from the people who live there, not a public comment period that gets ignored” before any injection wells are permitted.
Crockett said, “I’m totally against it.”
Trump dominates election
Trump has been a dominant topic in the campaign because each of the three Republicans is claiming to be the candidate best aligned with the president. Letlow has his endorsement.
The three Democrats have been scathing in their criticism of Trump.
In a weekly call with reporters Tuesday, Cassidy announced $150 million in additional federal money to build a replacement bridge on Interstate 10 over the Calcasieu River in Lake Charles.
In making the announcement, Cassidy slipped in a story about how he was riding on the ancient bridge with Trump in the presidential limousine nicknamed “the Beast” to an event in Hackberry in Cameron Parish in 2019. As they reached the top, Cassidy said, Trump wondered aloud, “Is this bridge going to hold us”?
Cassidy said the new bridge would be able to hold the Beast and is an example of how he delivers for Louisiana. He said the money came from the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act, a President Joe Biden-initiative that he supported, unlike the rest of Louisiana’s Republican delegation.
Fleming, meanwhile, speaking to a Republican luncheon Tuesday in Baton Rouge, highlighted a nine-page referral to the Department of Justice by a nonprofit group that accuses Letlow of filing false campaign finance reports to the Federal Elections Commission.
The Coolidge Reagan Foundation alleged that the Letlow Victory Fund raised money for two months without reporting it and then tried to conceal this later.
The foundation said it has filed previous complaints against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
“With the FEC, you have to be very careful with your paperwork,” Fleming told the crowd at the Ronald Reagan Newsmaker Luncheon.
Letlow’s campaign dismissed the allegation.
“Bill Cassidy voted to convict President Trump (on impeachment charges in 2021) and has spent over $10 million attacking Julia Letlow,” Letlow’s campaign said in a statement. “Now, in an attempt to distract from President Trump’s endorsement of Letlow, Cassidy’s allies are desperately trying to dress up routine FEC paperwork questions because they can’t defend Cassidy’s record. The Letlow campaign takes compliance seriously and has filed all required reports with the FEC.”
In recent days, Letlow has said that the defeat last week of five state senators opposed by Trump in Indiana bodes well for her campaign, since Trump wants to end Cassidy’s Senate career.
Outspent by Cassidy and Letlow, Fleming has said he is running a grassroots campaign. One example of that, he said in an interview, is that a majority of the members of the Republican State Central Committee have requested that the committee endorse him.
Derek Babcock, the party chair, didn’t respond to a text Tuesday asking how the party’s executive committee – which actually issues the endorsement – will respond.
Attack ads target Fleming
Landry has inserted himself into the campaign by raising money for two groups associated with him – the Accountability Project and MAGA Energy – to attack Fleming. Both groups are organized in a way that doesn’t require them to disclose their donors and are headed by two of his key campaign associates, Jay Connaughton and Jason Hebert.
Landry held an event at the Governor’s Mansion on April 20 with about 15 carbon capture and sequestration executives, said someone who attended the meeting but spoke on condition of anonymity. Landry warned the group that a Fleming victory would harm their industry. The executives then heard a pitch to raise $1.5 million to defeat Fleming, according to the source.
In a brief interview, Landry acknowledged holding the meeting but wouldn’t discuss it.
Fleming repeats his opposition to carbon capture and sequestration at every opportunity, telling the Reagan luncheon, “It’s just not good for Louisiana.”
In other appearances, Fleming has said the technology is unproven and dangerous, saying in a radio interview last month, “It’s stuffing toxic carbon dioxide in the ground and using your taxpayer money and stealing your land through private domain for profiteering.”
For a month, the Accountability Project and MAGA Energy have been attacking Fleming.
The Accountability Project has broadcast ads accusing Fleming of being a supporter of allowing illegal aliens across the Mexican border. Fleming called that a lie while speaking at the Reagan luncheon, saying he supports tough border restrictions.
MAGA Energy accuses Fleming of having voted for pro-carbon capture and sequestration bills while he served in the House. That, too, is a lie, Fleming told the Reagan crowd.
In a new line of attack, the Accountability Project is attempting to undermine a key part of Fleming’s pro-Trump biography by saying that Fleming never served as Trump’s deputy chief of staff during his final 10 months as president in first term.
In campaign appearances, Fleming has said his office was 10 steps from the Oval Office in the West Wing, and he told the Reagan luncheon that the accusation was “an absolute lie.”
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