Restore the Mississippi River Delta Supporters,
As we reflect on 2024, we want to thank you for championing the coast. Restoring Louisiana’s disappearing coast takes bold action and tremendous effort. We couldn't accomplish our work without your support.
Much of our energy and yours this year has been devoted to keeping Louisiana’s largest ecosystem restoration project back on track and we wanted to end the year with one last email. Here is our latest update on the status of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion – the cornerstone project of our state’s science-based Coastal Master Plan. (Click here to read the previous update.)
In October, the federal members of the Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group (TIG) sent a letter to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) in which they reinforced their support of the Mid-Barataria Sediment diversion as designed, permitted and funded, and asked the state to also make clear its continued commitment to the project, or alternatively, to return the project’s funding. After almost two months of silence, Governor Landry, Governor’s Office Coastal Assistant Gordy Dove and CPRA Executive Director Glenn Ledet finally replied to that letter earlier this month (found here).
- In this formal response, Governor Landry doubled down on misinformation, repeating falsehoods that threaten the future of Louisiana’s most vital coastal restoration project. Below are factual assertions to set the record straight on MBSD: The extensive, world-class science behind MBSD remains sound: The Environmental Impact Statement of the Mid Barataria Sediment is thousands of pages long and involved hundreds of experts spending thousands of hours researching and reviewing a variety of topics including navigation, sediment, water quality and even noise and traffic impacts and the benefits were found to outweigh the negative consequences. Here is a great resource debunking several of the science-myths perpetuated recently.
- MBSD is funded with federal funds that cannot be simply redirected: The money used to implement the MBSD project is not truly state funding. It is funding that originates from the 2016 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Consent Decree, a binding legal document between the U.S. Department of Justice, the five Gulf Coast States, and BP that spells out how penalty monies are spent, including mechanisms for oversight and enforcement.
- Alternatives to MBSD were evaluated, leading to the ultimate selection of the current project as it was designed, permitted and funded: Pursuing an alternative project to MBSD would require significant funding, time and other resources, potentially delaying other planned protection projects. Some of the suggested alternatives, such as dredging, were evaluated and rejected as part of the extensive review process and others would need to be designed, permitted and funded and could be years away from implementation. Setting money and time aside, MBSD uniquely restores the estuary in a sustainable way over a longer duration, a result dredging alone cannot achieve.
- The cost for MBSD is contractually set with a Guaranteed Maximum Price, but delays caused by the Landry administration are outside of that contract and increasing costs: While cost estimates for the MBSD project evolved over the decades of study, the final cost was firmly established just before construction began. CPRA entered into a Construction Management at Risk (CMAR) agreement with the primary contractor and over 95 subcontractors to deliver the project at a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) of $1,824,140,814—a fixed cost. CMAR is a widely used contracting method that fosters early collaboration among involved parties, enabling better cost control, improved scheduling and enhanced constructability. The only additional cost escalations can be attributed to the stop work order issued by the Plaquemines Parish Government in early 2024.
- Further delays to MBSD risk severe damage to the State’s business reputation and the politicization of coastal issues: A cancellation of the project would result in foundational and reputational consequences for the state and its world-renowned business climate and coastal program, and financial expense to the State for contractor fines, penalties, possible litigation and the potential payback of funds to the federal government. Because MBSD is built into the entire 2023 Coastal Master Plan, a future without this project means the decisions facing families, businesses and leaders in Plaquemines Parish, the Barataria Basin and beyond will be made without accurate, science-based information about their future.
The Governor’s stance on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion marks a dangerous shift away from science, transparency and the public good—the very principles that have made Louisiana’s coastal program one of the best in the world. Failing to build the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion as designed, permitted and funded will leave our citizens and businesses even more vulnerable to a loss of culture, future storms and floods.
As we reflect on a challenging year, we’re reminded of the importance of working together. We look forward to continuing our efforts with you in the year ahead.
Simone Maloz, Restore the Mississippi River Delta
Kristi Trail, Pontchartrain Conservancy
Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation
Lauren Bourg, National Audubon Society
Will McDow, Environmental Defense Fund
|
