"Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion could create 28 square miles of marsh in rapidly eroding Barataria Basin"
"One of the most expensive, ambitious and controversial proposals in Louisiana’s 50-year, $50 billion bid to save the southern third of the state from disappearing like a modern-day Atlantis passed a major milestone Thursday night with the release of a mostly positive assessment from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Four years in the making, the Corps' draft environmental impact statement found that the benefits of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion - chiefly, creating and sustaining 28 square miles of marshes in the rapidly eroding Barataria Basin - more than outweigh the attendant disruption to oyster, brown shrimp and saltwater fisheries, and to bottlenose dolphins.
And in the report, the Corps redefined the need for the project, from simply restoring the natural input of sediment and freshwater in the basin to also using those resources to heal injuries caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. The addition recognizes that the project’s construction price tag, now approaching $2 billion, will be fully funded from the $8 billion that BP is setting aside to compensate for damages."
Mark Schleifstein reports for the New Orleans Times-Picayune March 4, 2021.
SEE ALSO:
"Big Step Forward for $50 Billion Plan to Save Louisiana Coast" (New York Times)
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