Coastal Plan, Politics Move Ahead — Mid-Barataria, Science Left Behind
NEW ORLEANS (June 4, 2025) — This week, the Louisiana Legislature approved the state’s FY26 Annual Plan for Coastal Protection and Restoration. Heralded as a nearly $2 billion investment for coastal investments, the actual total is closer to $1.4 billion because two major projects included in the plan have been cancelled due to political interference, a disregard for science and public trust: the Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton Sediment Diversions.
Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of four national and local conservation groups working to advance meaningful, large-scale restoration across south Louisiana, released the following statement:
“The approval process for this year’s Annual Plan represents a troubling departure from the transparency and science-based planning that has defined Louisiana’s coastal program for nearly two decades. The plan includes over half a billion dollars for the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project—yet the Landry Administration has effectively cancelled the project without amending the plan, abiding by state or federal processes to modify or terminate projects, or informing the public of the costs, timelines, benefits or impacts of what comes next.”
The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion (Mid Barataria) is the cornerstone project of Louisiana’s $50 billion Coastal Master Plan, designed to restore the collapsing Barataria Basin by reconnecting the Mississippi River to its wetlands. It has been backed by years of environmental review, permitting and public support—including 13,000 pages of analysis prepared to obtain the permit, 55,000 public comments, and multiple letters of support from local fishermen, sportsmen, businesses, civic and faith leaders urging the Governor to resume construction as planned.
More than $560 million in oil spill settlement funds have already been spent on Mid-Barataria, with the state requesting an additional $200 million from its federal partners since the suspension of the permit. Its cancellation not only undermines the integrity of Louisiana’s nationally recognized coastal program, but risks wasting funds intended to restore injuries from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Meanwhile, unvetted alternatives like a smaller diversion near Myrtle Grove—which lack current scientific review or sufficient demonstrated benefit and are certainly years away from implementation—are suggested by the State in place of Mid-Barataria. And in another blow to coastal restoration and science-based decision-making, CPRA leadership announced that the Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion is also being shelved, killing both the project and Louisiana’s decades-long commitment to large-scale sediment diversions as a restoration tool.
“For the first time since our founding in 2007, Restore the Mississippi River Delta cannot support the process to develop this year’s Annual Plan—not because of what it promises on paper, but because of how it was shaped: through a politicized process that sidelined science, transparency, and cornerstone projects. We have been advocates for this coastal program since its inception and we will continue to champion the good projects in the plan because they are critical to the future people, wildlife and the economy of coastal Louisiana. But the process surrounding this year’s plan weakens that very foundation and wastes hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when there is no room for delay. There is too much at stake—too much land loss, too many lives and livelihoods on the line—for Louisiana’s coastal program to be reduced to politics and spin,” the coalition added. “We urge the Legislature, the public and our federal partners to demand answers and accountability. The people of Louisiana deserve a coastal program that works—one grounded in science, transparency and long-term resilience. The breakdown of the established process behind this year’s Annual Plan—and the resulting significant inaccuracies in the plan itself –fails that test.”