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Louisiana state leaders remain tightlipped about whether a nearly $3 billion project that’s been touted as a linchpin in the state’s coastal restoration efforts will move forward. However, the state is in danger of losing billions in funding from the federal government if it doesn’t see the project through, Floodlight reports.
The massive Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project is in limbo as it faces two separate legal challenges, which have pitted local leaders and fishermen against scientists and environmental advocates. Proponents of the project stress the need to restore Louisiana’s heavily damaged and steadily eroding coastline.
Gov. Jeff Landry’s office and officials with the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority did not respond to multiple emails and calls related to the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project.
The restoration funding for the Barataria Basin—approximately 1.5 million acres of wetlands southwest of New Orleans—is part of the more than $8 billion settlement the state was awarded after BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The project touches nine parishes and is scattered throughout the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
The project would essentially reconnect the sediment-carrying Mississippi River to the basin to maintain and restore land that provides protection from flooding and storm surge.
