West Bay Diversion to Remain Open
This was originally posted on the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s Coastal Currents blog.
The much-debated West Bay Diversion will remain open for at least the next 10 years. That’s the word from the CWPPRA Task Force, which reversed its own 2008 decision to close the sediment diversion at its meeting on Thursday, October 12, 2012.
The move keeps open one of the few land-building diversions off of the Mississippi River, allowing sediment in nearby wetlands to continue to accumulate. Researchers will also have the opportunity to continue studying the diversion, which has reportedly built more than 10 acres of land in 2011 alone.
Quoted by The Advocate’s Amy Wold on Thursday, Colonel Ed Fleming of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said new research suggests the diversion is providing more benefit to the surrounding wetlands than first thought. “It appears the diversion is working better than expected,” he said. “When the task force made the decision a few years ago to close this, we didn’t have all the information we have today.”
The original decision to close West Bay was based on a complicated funding scenario that concluded the diversion was not providing enough benefit to justify the expense of keeping it open.
In light of new evidence, the CWPPRA Task Force decided to allocate the money it would have spent closing the diversion to take the necessary steps to keep it open for 10 more years.
While the West Bay Diversion has been criticized over the years for flaws in its design and the expense of keeping it open, the decision to keep the diversion running is important. The 2012 Coastal Master Plan, passed by the Louisiana Legislature this summer, relies on the use of properly designed and operated sediment diversions to rebuild sections of our delta. The acres of land created by West Bay lend credence to the position that these diversions will work. The opportunity to study a working sediment diversion is valuable to researchers who have few other options for studying this restoration method in the field. If West Bay continues its recent track record of success, it will also help proponents of diversions convince policymakers, and the public, of the worthiness of sediment diversions within Louisiana’s coastal restoration strategy.