Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion canceled

PLAQUEMINES PARISH, La. (WGNO) — The Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion project, the second-largest sediment diversion project in Louisiana, has been cancelled.

It was second only to the Mid-Barataria Project, which was canceled on July 17. Mid-Breton was located on the east side of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, while Mid-Barataria was on the west side of the river.

Mid-Breton aimed to restore the coastline by diverting the sediment flowing in the Mississippi river to the nearby basin. The project would have cut a notch in the levee to allow sediment water to pour out of the river and into the basin. This was projected to create new land over time.

Gordon Dove, Chairman of the Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority, said the project was cancelled because it was too expensive and would have damaged the environment with polluted river water.

Dove said the project had ballooned from $800 million to $1.8 billion and was likely to cost even more. It was being funded with money from the BP Oil Spill Settlement.

“It wasn’t economically sensible to do it and engineering-wise it didn’t make any sense, so we pulled it,” Dove said.

Dove argued that polluted water from the Mississippi river would have gone into the estuary, causing negative impacts on the shrimp and dolphin populations in that area.

Dove explained that there are a host of other projects the CPRA is overseeing that will protect and buildup the coastline, such as land bridges and barrier islands. He argued that all of CPRA’s projects together are estimated to build 50,000 acres of land.

Lauren Bourg, director of the Mississippi River Delta Program at the National Audubon Society, disagrees with the cancellation of the project. She said it was projected to build 16,000 acres of new land in the first 50 years of operation. She added that both Mid-Breton and Mid-Barataria have been in the coastal master plan since its inception in 2007 and were cornerstones of the plan.

“The project was essential to the long-term health of our coast,” Bourg said.

Bourg said Mid-Breton was one of the most important projects in the master plan. She said any new projects to replace Mid-Breton and Mid-Barataria won’t be implemented for decades. She went on to say that there was money set aside from the BP oil spill settlement that was able to fund the project.

She said that an environmental impact study was being done that would have shown the impacts of the project on local industries and the environment, so the state could mitigate other effects of the project. She added that other aspects of the coastal master plan, such as land bridges and barrier islands, don’t do enough on their own to rebuild the coastline. She argued the sediment diversions are vital to the health of the coast.

“Those ecosystems are changing regardless of whether those sediment diversions come to life,” Bourg said.

Bourg said the changing coastline will ultimately end up hurting fishermen, adding that saltwater intrusion in these areas will drive out many species of freshwater fish.

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