Clashes arise over the economic effects of Louisiana’s $3 billion-dollar coastal restoration project
NEW ORLEANS — Supporters of a nearly $3 billion project to restore part of southeastern Louisiana rapidly disappearing coastline published a study on Tuesday touting the expected economic benefits of the construction, despite the project facing opposition and lawsuits from communities who fear it will severely damage the environment and their livelihoods.
The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project in August last year. But construction was halted due to legal disputesand since June the project has only partially resumed.
According to a new report, the project is expected to cost the state about $1.6 billion over the five-year construction period. study funded by Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of environmental organizations. During the construction phase, the project expects to create an average of 3,095 jobs in five Louisiana parishes, mostly in construction and with significantly higher wages than local averages, the study found.
“This project will create more wetlands than any other single restoration project in the world, and it will bring a tremendous amount of new revenue, jobs and income to coastal Louisiana,” Simone Maloz, campaign director for Restore the Mississippi River Delta, said at a news conference Tuesday announcing the study’s findings. “It’s exactly the scale of the project we need to address the very serious challenge we face.”
The study found that construction would generate a total of $308.2 million in payroll revenue, $65.4 million in tax revenue and an average of 540 jobs over five years for Plaquemines Parish, where the project is being built.
But Mitch Jurisich, a third-generation oyster farmer and parish council representative, dismissed the idea that the project would help his community’s economy more than it would hurt in the long run, describing the study as “political propaganda.”
His oyster company is among several plaintiffs, including an environmental group, who have filed a lawsuit to stop the project, which they say will harm water quality, endanger birds and marine life, and kill thousands of bottlenose dolphins in the Barataria Basin.
The project, which went through years of review processes before being approved, will divert freshwater from the Mississippi River to carry sediment into the basin’s brackish and saline marshes.
The aim is to regenerate land in a state where the Gulf of Mexico is swallowing the equivalent of a football field of land every 100 minutes as sea levels rise due to climate change, environmental groups estimate.
Barataria and the adjacent Breton Basin have collectively lost an estimated 700 square miles of land. The Mississippi River leveeing is considered one of the major forces that has disrupted the natural, regenerative buildup of sediment. The diversion project is expected to between 20 and 40 square miles of new land in the next five decades.
Jurisich, who also chairs the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, said he worries the project will irreparably damage the oyster, fishing and tourism industries. His parish is home to 70 percent of all commercial landings for oysters, crabs, finfish and shrimp. According to the Oyster Task Force, the oyster industry alone generates about $317 million annually and provides nearly 4,000 direct jobs.
“This project is going to destroy our way of life,” Jurisich said. “What’s left? A skeleton of a local community that can’t support local businesses because they can’t support themselves.”
The study did not analyze the economic benefits of the project once it goes into operation. But it does say that a total of $378 million has been set aside by the project to mitigate the impact on communities, including building bulkheads, raising docks and homes, and offering buyouts for residents who want to relocate. About $54 million of that budget is set aside for building new oyster beds and expanding old ones, along with equipment improvements and marketing for the seafood industry.
While opponents of the project argue for less drastic measures to address land loss in the watershed, such as rebuilding barrier islands, Maloz argues that the project should be viewed as part of a broader and necessary effort to address the scale of the state’s increasing land loss.
The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and Plaquemines Parish issued a joint statement in June saying they are “working toward a mutually agreeable path forward for the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion.”