Uncertainty looms over plan to save coastal Louisiana
Federal leaders and Gov. Jeff Landry clash over the state’s projected spending for the $3 billion project

Published by WWNO
There’s still a lot of mixed messaging around whether Louisiana will move forward with a nearly $3 billion project that environmental advocates and experts have said is essential to repairing the state’s eroding coastline.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry in December said there are “legitimate issues of concerns” tied to the project that are “impossible to ignore.” They include multiple legal challenges, rapidly escalating construction costs and negative impacts on local wildlife and fishing industry.
But the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s 2026 annual plan includes approximately $1.5 billion for construction costs through 2028 for the controversial Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project. The project is funded by the $8 billion-plus settlement Louisiana got from oil giant BP following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The project broke ground in 2023. It’s designed to reintroduce freshwater and sediment from the Mississippi River into the basin, rebuilding up to 30,000 acres of coastal wetlands over 50 years.
The 150-page proposed spending plan seems to indicate the state intends to follow through with the heavily debated project. Four federal agencies — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency — have warned Louisiana is in danger of having to repay the $2.26 billion earmarked for the project if the state did not commit to seeing the project through. The agencies oversee allocation of the Deepwater Horizon settlement.
In a letter to federal authorities, Landry noted his concerns are shared by the five state-level agencies that share authority with the federal government overseeing the use of the BP oil settlement funds — CPRA, the Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office.
Landry said the federal trustees don’t speak for the state agencies but that everyone involved remains committed to finding an “amicable resolution” that would allow the project to move forward. He called for more analysis to ensure the project would not have negative impacts to the ecosystem.
In their short response, the four federal trustees noted the project has been extensively studied with “over 13,000 pages of analysis that was compiled primarily by Louisiana scientists and resource managers with the input of thousands of Louisiana citizens.”

Environmental advocates worry Landry’s stance could sour lawmakers on the project. After the round of public meetings, the plan must be approved in both houses of the GOP-run state Legislature before it hits the governor’s desk.
“There are a lot of working parts to this,” said Gordon “Gordy” Dove, chairman of the CPRA. “(The plan) is subject to change before we consider approving it in April. Right now, we have no definitive solution, but we’re trying to work with all the stakeholders to get to one.”
Restore the Mississippi River Delta — a coalition of the Environmental Defense Fund, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and Pontchartrain Conservancy — notes the contradiction between Landry’s statements and the coastal agency’s plan.
“By releasing this draft plan, CPRA sets an expectation with the public … that the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project will receive full construction funding over the next three fiscal years,” said Simone Maloz, campaign director for the coalition.
The proposal will be presented to the public in a series of meetings starting Jan. 28.
Comments may be submitted about the plan until March 22, either at one of the three public hearings or via email at coastal@la.gov.
Said Maloz: “After a year of uncertainty and delay, it is crucially important to see the state make this public commitment to advance this foundational project, which has been at the heart of every Coastal Master Plan since 2007.”
Louisiana has lost an estimated 5,700 acres of wetlands annually between 1974 and 1990 because of sea level rise and saltwater intrusion caused by human-built levee systems and climate-fueled hurricanes and flooding.
The issues with the project started three months after it broke ground when construction was halted because Plaquemines Parish sued the state alleging the project would increase flooding and flood insurance rates for its residents.
Another lawsuit followed in 2024, in which commercial fisher groups and environmental conservationists accused the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of permitting the project before properly assessing the negative impacts on sediment and water quality in the basin. The lawsuit also accuses the agencies of downplaying the impacts on endangered aquatic species, including sea turtles and bottle-nosed dolphins.
The lawsuits have put the project in limbo.
Landry said the prolonged legal battles will likely jack up construction costs, noting that funding is capped at $2.26 billion under the BP settlement agreement.
“The projected escalation costs are estimated between 15% to 27% per year,” Landry wrote to the federal agencies. He said the state likely won’t have the money for flood mitigation or design changes that might be needed to address the litany of concerns and legal challenges.
His letter also notes that lower water volume because of droughts across the Mississippi River Basin over the last three years have increased the chances of saltwater intrusion into local drinking water aquifers. Landry said more analysis is needed on how the project might impact these saltwater wedges.

Modeling for the project, Landry wrote, was limited to terrain and saltwater wedges up to 2018.
“So they didn’t include the recent saltwater wedges in 2022, 2023 and 2024, which have been historic, and scientists are racing for the reasons,” Landry said. “We are questioning (the project’s) benefits in its current form.”
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