More trouble for Louisiana's largest coastal project after Army Corps pulls permit

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has suspended a permit for the stalled Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project, citing the current uncertainty surrounding the plan and claiming Louisiana officials "deliberately withheld" information during the project's initial evaluation process.

In a letter sent Friday to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, Corps officials said the withheld information and other factors require a reevaluation of the permit for the massive project, a centerpiece of the state's $50 billion Coastal Master Plan.

The Corps has ordered any ongoing work authorized by the permit to cease within 10 days. The state had already issued a 90-day pause on work related to the project on April 4 to prevent a further escalation in cost as Gov. Jeff Landry's administration seeks and alternative plan.

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"This suspension is based on the state's actions (including failures to act or to obtain compromise), its public statements and positions, the new information and potentially changed circumstances since permit issuance," Army Corps Col. Cullen Jones wrote in the latest letter, addressed to CPRA Chairman Gordon Dove.

Landry on Saturday criticized his predecessor John Bel Edwards' administration, who handled the initial permit process when it was issued in 2022.

"They failed to tell the public that the Mid-Barataria project would have cost taxpayers over $50 million a year in dredging, increased the hypoxia-destroying our fishing around our great jewel of Grand Isle, and impact the drinking water of Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and Orleans parishes," Landry said on X.

Edwards in turn defended his administration, calling Landry's accusations "flat out wrong." Edwards noted the letter lists several other reasons for halting work on the diversion project, "most notably — that the Landry administration stopped work on it and refused to handle the operations required."

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Among the issues detailed by the Corps are unresolved negotiations between the state and Plaquemines Parish, where the project broke ground in 2023, and Landry's decision earlier this month to halt construction.

The diversion project as originally planned would funnel up to 75,000 cubic feet per second of water and sediment from the Mississippi River into the Barataria Basin to rebuild lost wetlands. It was projected to build 21 square miles of land over 50 years and was issued a permit for construction by the Army Corps after an exhaustive environmental study.

But Landry's administration has argued that the $3 billion plan is too expensive, including the dredging maintenance that would be required to achieve the project's goal of building new land.

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