Controversial $3B Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project breaks ground - Greater Baton Rouge Business Report

Controversial $3B Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project breaks ground

A $3 billion attempt to mimic Mother Nature is beginning in south Louisiana today.

Massive gates will be incorporated into a section of a flood protection levee southeast of New Orleans to divert some of the Mississippi River’s sediment-laden water into a new channel that will guide it into southeast Louisiana’s Barataria Basin.

If the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project works as intended, the solids in the river water will settle out in the basin and gradually restore land that has been steadily disappearing for decades. State coastal officials call it a first-of-its-kind project they are certain will work, even as climate change-induced rising sea levels threaten the disappearing coast.

A groundbreaking ceremony with Gov. John Bel Edwards took place this morning in Plaquemines Parish, where Louisiana’s close associations with commercial seafood harvests, recreational fishing and the offshore oil industry were all on display—as is the vulnerability to land loss.

“Without question, we are confident that this project will build land within the Barataria Basin,” Bren Haase, chair of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said Tuesday.

He estimates the diversion will build anywhere from 20 square miles to 40 square miles over the next 30 to 50 years.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which permitted the project last year, projected creation of as much as 21 square miles by 2070. Subsidence—the natural sinking of land—and sea level rise will diminish the returns, so much so that a net loss of land still remains likely. But that can be seen as a factor increasing the importance of the effort.

Channeling water from the Mississippi into the basin does pose environmental and economic problems, and several groups oppose the diversion project.

Even as it granted permits for the project, the corps noted the environmental costs of introducing non-salty river water into coastal areas. Fishermen in particular are concerned about the effects on shrimp and oysters, and environmentalists are concerned about other wildlife. Read the full story.