Latest news with #CoalitiontoRestoreCoastalLouisiana
American Press
18-07-2025
- Politics
- American Press
Louisiana cancels $3B coastal restoration project
The beachfront in Cameron Parish has been pounded by number of tropical storms and hurricanes in recent years, including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, and Gustav. (Coast Protection and Restoration Authority) Louisiana officially canceled a $3 billion coastal restoration funded by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement money, state and federal agencies confirmed Thursday. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project had been intended to rebuild upward of 20 square miles of land in southeast Louisiana to combat sea level rise and erosion on the Gulf Coast. The money must be used on coastal restoration and it was not immediately clear if the $618 million the state has already spent will have to be returned, as federal trustees warned last year. Conservation groups and other supporters of the project stressed it was an ambitious, science-based approach to mitigating the worst effects of a vanishing coastline in a state where a football field of land is lost every 100 minutes. The project would have diverted sediment-laden water from the Mississippi River to restore wetlands disappearing due to a range of factors including climate-change induced sea level rise and a vast river levee system that choked off natural land regeneration. 'The science has not changed, nor has the need for urgent action,' said Kim Reyher, executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. 'What has changed is the political landscape.' While the project had largely received bipartisan support and was championed by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry became a vocal opponent after taking office last year. He recoiled at the price and amplified concerns that the massive influx of freshwater would destroy fisheries that local communities rely on for their livelihoods. Landry has said the project would 'break' Louisiana's culture of shrimp and oyster harvesting and compared it to government efforts a century ago to punish schoolchildren for speaking Cajun French. 'We fought this battle a long time, but Gov. Landry is the reason we won this battle,' said Mitch Jurisich, chair of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, who was suing the state over the project's environmental impacts. 'He really turned the tide.' The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group, a coalition of federal agencies overseeing settlement funds from the 2010 Gulf oil spill, said in a Thursday statement that the Mid-Barataria project is 'no longer viable' for a range of reasons including litigation and the suspension of a federal permit after the state issued a stop-work order on the project. A spokesperson for Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority confirmed to The Associated Press that the state is canceling the project.
Hamilton Spectator
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Louisiana cancels $3 billion coastal restoration project funded by oil spill settlement
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana on Thursday canceled a $3 billion repair of disappearing Gulf coastline, funded by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement, scrapping what conservationists called an urgent response to climate change but Gov. Jeff Landry viewed as a threat to the state's way of life. Despite years of studies and reviews, the project at the center of Louisiana's coastal protection plans grew increasingly imperiled after Landry, a Republican, took office last year. Its collapse means that the state could lose out on more than $1.5 billion in unspent funds and may even have to repay the $618 million it already used to begin building. The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group, a mix of federal agencies overseeing the settlement funds, said that 'unused project funds will be available for future Deepwater Horizon restoration activities' but would require review and approval. A plan to rebuild disappearing land The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project aimed to rebuild upward of 20 square miles (32 kilometers) of land over a 50-year period in southeast Louisiana to combat sea level rise and erosion on the Gulf Coast. When construction stalled last year because of lawsuits, trustees warned that the state would have to return the hundreds of millions of dollars it had already spent if the project did not move forward. Former Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican who once led the state's coastal restoration agency, said that killing the project was 'a boneheaded decision' not rooted in science. 'It is going to result in one of the largest setbacks for our coast and the protection of our communities in decades,' Graves said. 'I don't know what chiropractor or palm reader they got advice from on this, but — baffling that someone thought this was a good idea.' Project supporters stressed that it would have provided a data-driven, large-scale solution to mitigate the worst effects of an eroding coastline in a state where a football field of land is lost every 100 minutes and more than 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) of land have vanished over the past century, according to the U.S. Geological Survey . The project, which broke ground in 2023, would have diverted sediment-laden water from the Mississippi River to restore wetlands disappearing because of a range of factors including climate-change-induced sea level rise and a vast river levee system that choked off natural land regeneration from sediment deposits. 'The science has not changed, nor has the need for urgent action,' said Kim Reyher, executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. 'What has changed is the political landscape.' The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group last year had noted that 'no other single restoration project has been planned and studied as extensively over the past decades.' A perceived threat to Louisiana culture While the project had largely received bipartisan support and was championed by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, his successor has been a vocal opponent. Landry recoiled at the rising price tag and amplified concerns that the massive influx of freshwater would devastate local fisheries. Landry has said the project would 'break' Louisiana's culture of shrimp and oyster harvesting and compared it to government efforts a century ago to punish schoolchildren for speaking Cajun French. 'We fought this battle a long time, but Gov. Landry is the reason we won this battle,' said Mitch Jurisich, who chairs the Louisiana Oyster Task Force and sued the state over the project's environmental impacts, including likely killing thousands of bottlenose dolphins due to the onslaught of freshwater. Landry said in a statement that the project is 'no longer financially or practically viable,' noting that the cost has doubled since 2016. 'This level of spending is unsustainable,' Landry said. The project also 'threatens Louisiana's seafood industry, our coastal culture, and the livelihoods of our fishermen — people who have sustained our state for generations.' The project's budget had included more than $400 million for mitigating the costs to local communities, including to help the oyster industry build new oyster beds. Project proponents said that the rapid loss of coast meant communities would be displaced anyway if the state failed to take action to protect them. 'You either move oysters or move people, and there's only one answer to that question,' Graves said. State seeks a smaller, cheaper solution Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, the lead agency overseeing the project, said in a statement that the project was 'no longer viable at this time based on a totality of the circumstances' including costs, litigation and a federal permit suspended earlier this year after the state halted work on the project. Chairman Gordon 'Gordy' Dove said that 'our commitment to coastal restoration has not wavered' and that the state plans to pursue a smaller-scale diversion nearby. Dove told lawmakers earlier this year that the state could save at least $1 billion with a different plan to channel river water into the Gulf Coast at a rate 5 to 30 times less than the Mid-Barataria project's 75,000 cubic feet per second. Conservation groups bristled at the change in plans. The Mid-Barataria project's termination marked 'a complete abandonment of science-driven decision-making and public transparency,' Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement, adding that the state was 'throwing away' money intended to protect its coastal residents and economy. The coalition said alternative measures proposed by the state, such as the smaller-scale diversion or rebuilding land by dredging, were insufficient to meaningfully combat land loss and did not undergo the same level of scientific vetting as the Mid-Barataria project. 'A stopgap project with no data is not a solution,' the coalition said. 'We need diversion designs backed by science — not politics.' ___ Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
San Francisco Chronicle
17-07-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Louisiana cancels $3B repair coastal restoration funded by Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana officially canceled a $3 billion coastal restoration funded by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement money, state and federal agencies confirmed Thursday. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project had been intended to rebuild upward of 20 square miles (32 kilometers) of land in southeast Louisiana to combat sea level rise and erosion on the Gulf Coast. The money must be used on coastal restoration and it was not immediately clear if the $618 million the state has already spent will have to be returned, as federal trustees warned last year. Conservation groups and other supporters of the project stressed it was an ambitious, science-based approach to mitigating the worst effects of a vanishing coastline in a state where a football field of land is lost every 100 minutes. The project would have diverted sediment-laden water from the Mississippi River to restore wetlands disappearing due to a range of factors including climate-change induced sea level rise and a vast river levee system that choked off natural land regeneration. 'The science has not changed, nor has the need for urgent action,' said Kim Reyher, executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. 'What has changed is the political landscape.' While the project had largely received bipartisan support and was championed by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry became a vocal opponent after taking office last year. He recoiled at the price and amplified concerns that the massive influx of freshwater would destroy fisheries that local communities rely on for their livelihoods. Landry has said the project would 'break' Louisiana's culture of shrimp and oyster harvesting and compared it to government efforts a century ago to punish schoolchildren for speaking Cajun French. 'We fought this battle a long time, but Gov. Landry is the reason we won this battle," said Mitch Jurisich, chair of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, who was suing the state over the project's environmental impacts. 'He really turned the tide.' The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group, a coalition of federal agencies overseeing settlement funds from the 2010 Gulf oil spill, said in a Thursday statement that the Mid-Barataria project is 'no longer viable' for a range of reasons including litigation and the suspension of a federal permit after the state issued a stop-work order on the project. A spokesperson for Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority confirmed to The Associated Press that the state is canceling the project.
American Press
16-06-2025
- General
- American Press
Volunteers plant new marsh grass to re-establish healthy habitat in Cameron
1/8 Swipe or click to see more Mickey McMillin said he's always had an interest in volunteering — particularly for Ducks Unlimited. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 2/8 Swipe or click to see more Yana Allen, a member of the Louisiana Master Naturalist Chapter who volunteered to plant mash grass in Cameron Parish, said the state "has my heart and soul." (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 3/8 Swipe or click to see more Melissa Fusilier was scrolling on Facebook and saw something about 'Protecting the Coastline.' She said she clicked on it, saw the event, and decided to take the day off of work to volunteer planting. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 4/8 Swipe or click to see more Gardner Goodall, native plants program manager for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, plants spartina alterniflora in an area of degraded marsh east of Calcasieu Lake. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 5/8 Swipe or click to see more A volunteer plants marsh grass in an area impacted by the Cameron-Creole Freshwater Introduction project. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 6/8 Swipe or click to see more A team of 60 volunteers plant marsh grass in an area impacted by the Cameron-Creole Freshwater Introduction project. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 7/8 Swipe or click to see more A team of 60 volunteers plant marsh grass in an area impacted by the Cameron-Creole Freshwater Introduction project. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 8/8 Swipe or click to see more The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana has planted more than one million plants and grasses since 1988 and returned more than 15 million pounds of shell to the water to create living shorelines. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana recently partnered with Phillips 66 to plant 10,000 plugs of marsh grasses in Cameron Parish. The nonprofit organization recruited as many as 60 members to plant the spartina alterniflora in an area of degraded marsh east of Calcasieu Lake. 'This marsh was heavily degraded during Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta in 2020 and today we're putting some plugs back into the ground to re-establish some healthy marsh that'll be really important for nursery habitat, for fish, birds and wildlife and also storm surge protection,' Gardner Goodall, native plants program manager at CRCL, said. Goodall spent the weekend in the marsh helping to plant the grasses. In order to plant the grass, the volunteers took stems or plugs of grass and stuck it into the mud. Goodall said the top of the mud feels softer, but the deeper you get it becomes more like clay. The firmer the mud gets is where the grass was to be planted. 'The idea is that all these roots will spread into the ground and will fill in the missing spots in the marsh,' he said. Once it's in the mud you give it a little pull at the top to make sure it's in the mud well planted, he said. 'It's really nice to be out here with some sportsman that really can appreciate the value of this habitat and are working so closely and intimately with the landscape. I was learning last night at the camp about all the different types of ducks that come here from all over the world, from Mexico to Canada, to use these abundant wetlands for refuge,' Goodall said. This project will help protect communities and industry alike in Southwest Louisiana, and it's an easy, fun opportunity for people to get involved in protecting the coast, Goodall said. The grasses were planted in an area impacted by the Cameron-Creole Freshwater Introduction project. The freshwater diversion, completed in 2022, has reduced salinity levels in the watershed and improved the overall health of the marsh. 'The project allows for freshwater to come back into this area and have more flow through here,' Goodall explained. Some of the volunteers consisted of members from the Louisiana Master Naturalist Chapter out of Lake Charles, Phillips 66, Royal Engineering and a couple of volunteers who saw the event on Facebook. Yana Allen, a member of the Louisiana Master Naturalist Chapter, saw the event on Facebook and thought it was a great opportunity. 'I've lived in a lot of states and I have to say out of all of them, Louisiana has my heart and soul,' Allen said. Melissa Fusilier was scrolling on Facebook and saw something about 'Protecting the Coastline.' She said she clicked on it, saw the event, and decided to take the day off of work to volunteer planting. 'I'm an outdoors woman. I love to fish and hunt and it's just my part of giving back. I've loved Louisiana, I've lived here my whole life and I'm happy to be here,' Fusilier said. Mickey McMillin is a retired plumbing contractor who said he's always had an interest in volunteering — particularly for Ducks Unlimited. McMillin said Louisiana is a duck-hunting state and more ducks are killed in Cameron Parish than the whole Atlantic Flyway. 'By doing this planting today and restoring the marsh back to something that the birds can use and if the birds are here then the hunters will be here, which brings people here,' McMillin said. A mile of marsh is expected to stop a foot of storm surge. 'It's protecting our culture, and it's also creating a line of defense for inland communities, so it's like a win-win for everybody to restore this marsh area,' Donna Betzer, developmental director for CRCL, said. Goodall said it was inspiring to work with people who are so passionate about the state and were 'willing to get knee deep in the marsh to help, as well.' 'What we do here is great and important, but it's really about changing people's minds at the end of the day to think about the importance of coastal restoration projects on a large scale and the funding needed for those,' he said. Coastal wetlands are a natural compound of hurricane protection in the state, helping to weaken storms and absorb storm surge. The state has had about 2,000 square miles of wetlands disappear into open water in less than a century. 'This is good for storm surge protection, hurricane rehabilitation, and also for our hunters and fisherman that live out here in Southwest Louisiana — it's a full life cycle project,' Megan Hartman, regional public affairs director for Phillips 66, said. CRCL has planted more than one million plants and grasses since 1988 and returned more than 15 million pounds of shell to the water to create living shorelines. The organization also trains college students through its Future Coastal Leaders program and educates professionals through the Coastal Leadership Institute.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
NFL takes action on critical issue impacting one of its host cities: 'It's important'
Louisiana is experiencing a drastic loss to its wetlands, but the NFL is trying to help. According to Forbes, during Super Bowl week, the league's environmental organization, NFL Green, takes up a local environmental project where the Super Bowl is being held. Since Super Bowl LIX was held in New Orleans, NFL Green decided to create a living shoreline with oyster shells in Leeville, 90 minutes away. Forbes noted a startling fact: The state is "losing one football field's worth of wetlands into open water every 100 minutes." It added, "This is among the fastest rates of land loss in the world." Hurricanes, sediment loss, and rising sea levels cause this land loss. Rising temperatures also worsen the problem by intensifying storms, increasing rainfall, and storm surges. NFL Green partnered with the non-profit Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, local community and government volunteers, and veterans. With a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, project organizers collected 59 tons of oyster shells from local restaurants in honor of Super Bowl 59. They sterilized them and then put them into aquaculture-grade mesh nylon bags by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. The organizers then made the oysters into an oyster reef. The oyster reef is valuable for the local community because it can protect them against storm surges and slow erosion. It also creates a habitat for wildlife, including new oysters. Do you think we use too much plastic in America? Definitely Only some people Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Since land loss and erosion are critical issues in Louisiana, NFL Green believed this project was right for Super Bowl LIX. NFL Green director Susan Groh said, "It's important to go into a community and listen to what they need." Valuable work is being done to help coastal communities like the one in Louisiana. You can donate to climate causes that conduct projects like this to help them continue their work. Projects like this oyster reef project can significantly impact the community. Danielle Brigida, senior director of wildlife communications and strategy at the World Wildlife Fund, said, "Reef restoration projects end up benefiting local working waterfronts, natural biodiversity, and our oceans." Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
