Looking to the Future

Although evaluative data is yet incomplete, the Atchafalaya Sediment Diversion Project offers hope to Region Three. The project appears to be doing exactly what is needed—using the sediment-rich fresh water of the Atchafalaya to build land in the eastern portion of the region. While this project is only a beginning, what’s important is that it’s on the ground, producing results and pointing the way.

However, the 17 regional strategies developed in Coast 2050 will generate projects that will do even more. For example, the strategies call for the following major accomplishments:

• The alleviation of the backwater flooding in the Verret Subbasin caused by the Atchafalaya River — One of the keys to this strategy will be the implementation of the “Barrier Plan,” which will manage water levels north of US Highway 90 between Morgan City and Houma to prevent flooding. Currently being evaluated is a water management plan that considers, in addition to flood control, needs of the productive freshwater fishery, access to estuarine organisms such as blue crab, and the benefits to the vast forested wetland area now stressed by excessive flooding.
• Establish multipurpose control of navigation channels—The Houma Navigation Canal Lock is being designed by the Corps of Engineers as a feature of the Morganza to the Gulf Project. The lock, with the planned connecting levee system, will control tidal flooding, allow better use of Atchafalaya River water and sediment flow, and aid in maintaining a salinity regime favorable to area wetlands.
• The continuation of the efforts to move Atchafalaya water to the east and move excess water in the upper Penchant Basin to the south.
• The completion of the planning phase for a conveyance channel running parallel to Bayou LaFourche—This complex project will use sediment transported from the Mississippi River to create a new subdelta in the Timbalier Subbasin. The sediment will be moved about 70 miles from the Mississippi River via a channel that will eventually carry 200,000 cubic feet of water per second. A feasibility study is expected to start in the very near future.
• The continued restoration of the Derniere and Timbalier barrier island chains—This effort continues work that was begun in response to previous priority lists.
• The continuation of the efforts to maintain shoreline integrity and stabilize critical areas of the bay and gulf shorelines throughout the region.

Although Coast 2050 has clearly articulated strategies for the region, the critical question of how projects will be funded remains unanswered. The failure of federal legislation that would have brought millions of federal dollars for coastal restoration into Louisiana (the Conservation and Restoration Act, or CARA) will probably mean pushing back timetables and scaling back projects. In the meantime, the search for dollars continues, as does the unrelenting loss of Louisiana’s wetlands.