[StBernard] Louisiana House committee approves $725 million budget for 2015 coastal plan, over protests from St. Bernard, Plaquemines

[Westley Annis]

Louisiana House committee approves $725 million budget for 2015 coastal
plan, over protests from St. Bernard, Plaquemines
Print Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Mark Schleifstein,
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on April 14, 2014 at 12:48 PM, updated April 14, 2014 at 12:49 PM


A Louisiana legislative committee Monday approved $725 million for a fiscal
year 2015 coastal plan that includes $477 million for constructions of
levees and coastal restoration projects. The vote came over the objections
of officials and fishing community representatives from St. Bernard and
Plaquemines parishes, who want to block state efforts to build sediment and
freshwater diversions they contend will disrupt commercial and recreational
fisheries.

Members of the House Transportation, Highways, and Public Works Committee
voted 12-3 in favor of the plan's budget. The only members voting against
the budget were Reps. Christopher Leopold, R-Belle Chasse; Barbara Norton,
D-Shreveport; and Steve Pylant, R-Winnsboro. Leopold represents Plaquemines
Parish and parts of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans.

The annual plan acts as the budget for the state’s Comprehensive Master
Plan for a Sustainable Coast, which is a $50 billion, 50-year plan for
hurricane protection and coastal restoration efforts. 

Included in this year's budget is $40.4 million for engineering and design
of a proposed Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, $13.6 million for early
planning of several other lower Mississippi River sediment diversions and
$4.9 million for a project that would increase the flow of Atchafalaya River
water into the Terrebonne Basin. 

Money for those three projects comes from the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, which received it from BP and Transocean under federal criminal
and civil plea agreements stemming from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster
and oil spill.

The diversions will be designed to take advantage of sediment-rich river
water during major flood years to slowly rebuild wetlands in open water
areas, and to nourish existing and new wetlands built under other projects. 

But commercial fishers, including oyster harvesters and shrimpers, contend
the large amount of freshwater released through the diversions will kill
existing oyster beds and disrupt shrimping and other fisheries for both
commercial and recreational fishers.

Speaking before the committee voted Monday, Louisiana Oyster Task Force
Chairman John Tesvich said there remain serious questions about the ability
of major sediment diversions to build land, and about their effects on
fisheries.

Appearing with other representatives of the fishing community, he pointed
out that both Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes have passed resolutions
urging that diversion projects be halted until it can be shown the projects
won't disrupt the commercial and recreational fishing industry, which
represents $300 million a year in revenue.

He asked that the committee require the Coastal Protection and Restoration
Authority to remove the $40 million dedicated to the Mid-Barataria project
from the plan until studies are completed on their effects. That could take
another year or two.

CPRA Chairman Jerome Zeringue, however, said the studies will be completed
even as the engineering work financed in the 2015 budget is being done. He
pointed out that the state's Master Plan continues to rely more heavily on
the wetland creation method preferred by the fishermen -- using pipelines to
move sediment from the Mississippi River or elsewhere to open water
locations to build wetlands without also releasing large amounts of water.
About $20 billion of the master plan's 50-year money is dedicated to those
projects, compared to about $4 billion for diversions.

The committee voted to forward the plan to House floor without changes.