Clashes erupt over economic impact of $3 billion Louisiana coastal restoration project

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Backers of a nearly $3 billion project to restore part of southeastern Louisiana’s rapidly disappearing coast released a study Tuesday touting the expected economic benefits of the project, even as it faces resistance and lawsuits from communities who fear the environment and their livelihoods will be severely affected.

The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project started in August last year. However, construction was halted due to legal disputes, and since June, the project has only partially resumed work.

The project is expected to spend about $1.6 billion in the state over its five-year construction period, according to a new study funded by Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of environmental groups. During the construction phase, the project is expected to generate an average of 3,095 jobs in five Louisiana parishes, mostly in construction and paying significantly higher wages than average local salaries, the study said.

“This project will bring more wetlands than any other single restoration project in the world and will bring a tremendous amount of new wages, jobs and revenue to coastal Louisiana,” Simone Maloz, director of the Restore the Mississippi River Delta campaign, said at a Tuesday news conference announcing the study. “This is exactly the scale of the project we need to address the very serious challenge we face.”

The study estimated that in Plaquemines Parish, where the project is located, 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.

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, calling the study “political propaganda.”

His oyster company is one of several plaintiffs, including an environmental group, who are calling for the project to be halted because they say it will alter water quality, threaten birds and marine life and kill thousands of bottlenose dolphins in the Barataria River Basin.

The project, which followed a multi-year evaluation before it was approved, involves diverting freshwater from the Mississippi River to move sediment to brackish and saltwater marshes in the basin.

The goal is to regenerate land in a state where the Gulf of Mexico is swallowing an area the size of a football field every 100 minutes as sea levels rise due to climate change, according to estimates by environmental groups.

Barataria and the adjacent Breton Basin have collectively lost about 700 square miles of land. The Mississippi River levee is seen as one of the major forces that has disrupted the natural, regenerative sediment buildup. The diversion project is expected to add 20 to 40 square miles of new land over the next five decades.

Jurisich, who is also chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, said he fears the project will irreversibly harm the oyster industry, fishing and tourism. His parish is home to 70 percent of all commercial landings of oysters, crabs, finfish and shrimp. Statewide, the oyster industry alone earns about $317 million annually and provides nearly 4,000 direct jobs, according to the Oyster Task Force.

“This project will destroy our way of life,” Jurisich said. “What will be 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 begins operating. However, it did find that the project has allocated a total of $378 million to mitigate impacts on the community, including building bulkheads, raising docks and homes, and offering buyouts to residents who want to move. About $54 million of that budget has been allocated to building new oyster beds and expanding old ones, as well as equipment improvements and marketing for the seafood industry.

While opponents of the project are calling for less invasive solutions to address land loss in the basin, such as restoring barrier islands, Maloz says the project should be viewed as part of a broader and necessary effort to address the state’s growing land loss.

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and Plaquemines Parish issued a joint statement in June saying they were “working to develop a mutually acceptable path forward for the diversion of mid-Baratar sediment.”