Recently, the Army Corps of Engineers released a final environmental impact statement that will help to expedite a $2 billion project to fight coastal land loss with a sediment diversion project that will divert sediment from the Mississippi River to Barataria Basin, according to this article from nola.com.

The Army Corps of Engineers’ final environmental impact statement included a detailed study on Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. This study will help to determine when federal and state permits will be awarded for the project. Once those permits are awarded, they could come as early as December, which would give final approval to the project, which has been called quite “monumental” by Louisiana officials.

Chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, Chip Kline, commented on the progress made toward this substantial project by saying, “this is a monumental moment for the state and the state’s coastal program. It has been told to us by members of the Biden administration that this is the largest coastal restoration project in the country, and the largest of its type anywhere in the world.” Kline also commented on the project moving forward in light of the recently released report by saying that it has put Louisiana on the “two-yard line,” indicating that the project’s construction could begin in early 2023.

The $2 billion project, which will be funded by settlements related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, will prove to provide significant reductions in future storm surge flooding for residents of the New Orleans West Bank. These storm surge reductions will come from the creation of approximately 21 square miles of new land through the year 2070.

Despite this good news in terms of storm surge reductions for New Orleans residents, this project will also significantly impact the area in terms of bringing “significant damaging effects to commercial finfish, oyster and shrimp catches, and some additional flooding risk to communities just south of the diversion location on the west bank of the Mississippi in Plaquemines Parish.”

Environmental deficits notwithstanding, Louisiana state officials still see this substantial diversion project as “the most needed capstone of” the state’s 50-year Coastal Master Plan, as this project represents a significant reduction in the sheer amount of wetlands that are expected to be “sacrificed to subsidence and human-fueled sea level rise along this part of the state’s coastline through the end of the century.” The diversion project will entail the sending of as much as 7 million tons of sediment into the Barataria Basin each year, which is a process that practically mimics the original creation of southern Louisiana.

According to the 12,757-page main report and appendices recently released by the Army Corps of Engineers, the diversion would carry 5-7 million tons of sediment into the basin annually. The report says that this annual carrying of sediment “would have permanent, major, beneficial impacts on land building,” as it would essentially create new land. It’s projected that in its first 10 years, the diversion project would create approximately 10 square miles of new land in the basin and an additional 27 square miles of new land would be created over the next 50 years after that. Although the amount of land created over the first 50 years would be offset by expected wetland losses from sea level rise and subsidence elsewhere in the basin, the final result would still amount to an aggregate increase of 21 square miles in new land area.

Lastly, it was cited by Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority that the diversion project would create 12,000 direct and indirect jobs in southeast Louisiana with most of them being housed in Plaquemines, St. Bernard,Jefferson and Orleans parishes.

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