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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.
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.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Louisiana shuts down easternmost oyster harvesting areas, recalls mollusks
Crew members prepare to break up oyster clusters harvested off the Mississippi Coast. (Illan Ireland/Mississippi Free Press) The Louisiana Department of Health has closed down oyster harvesting in the area east of Lake Borgne and issued a recall for any catch taken from the area since Jan. 10. State officials say 15 people have become ill with a 'norovirus-like' illness after eating oysters from Area 3, which includes the area north of Eloi Bay, the Chandeleur Islands and surrounding marshes. The recall includes shucked, frozen, breaded, post-harvest processed and oysters on the half-shell. According to the health department, the people who became ill ate at unnamed New Orleans restaurants from Jan. 15-31. Their illnesses were not life-threatening, but two people had to be hospitalized and have since been discharged. Officials noted all oysters harvested outside Area 3 and all other Louisiana seafood statewide are safe for consumption. Norovirus is the virus that causes the 'stomach flu,' with symptoms that can include nausea, cramping, vomiting and diarrhea. Symptoms usually begin 12 to 48 hours after exposure. Some people report a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and general fatigue from norovirus. The illness is usually brief, with symptoms lasting a day or two. Contaminated oysters are not the only culprit for norovirus. Health officials said it can be contracted by eating food or drinking liquids contaminated by infected food handlers. Cooking kills the virus, but other outbreaks have occurred from eating undercooked oysters harvested from contaminated waters. The Area 3 closure is expected to be in place for at least 21 days, the health department said. Its staff has notified local oyster harvesters who work in the affected area and the Louisiana Oyster Task Force. The area will be reopened as soon as its oysters meet Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC) standards, a determination the state Office of Public Health's Molluscan Shellfish Program makes. The process of decontamination solely involves nature, as oyster waters are cleaned by the natural cycle of tides. Oysters are filter feeders and can accumulate contaminants and microorganisms, which can in turn affect people who eat raw or under-processed contaminated oysters. Anyone who suspects they have become ill from contaminated oysters is asked to contact their regional state epidemiologist or submit a report at SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
