St. Bernard Parish Government has just announced that four largescale coastal restoration projects have advanced in the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) funding process.
Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser’s criticisms of the state’s plans to build sediment diversions on the Mississippi River to rebuild land and nourish existing wetlands are wrongheaded and absurd, Chip Kline, coastal adviser to Gov. John Bel Edwards and chairman of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said Monday.
Speaking at a Baton Rouge Press Club luncheon, Kline defended the state’s contention that the Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton Sediment Diversions are key to the long-term sustainability of the state’s coastal wetlands.
Nungesser, a Republican and a likely candidate for governor in 2023, has been stumping against the large sediment diversions and the freshwater they will push into the West Bank Barataria Basin and east bank Breton Basin, which he says will destroy fisheries and kill bottlenose dolphins. In both speeches and newspaper columns during the past few months, Nungesser has said the $2.8 billion proposed for the two projects would be better spent directly
A recent study on one of those projects says it would decimate the dolphin population in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay, but the projects could affect fisheries in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well.