{"id":9232,"date":"2018-04-19T16:42:27","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T20:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=9232"},"modified":"2025-06-10T16:55:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T20:55:44","slug":"officials-collaborate-to-speed-up-coastal-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2018\/04\/19\/officials-collaborate-to-speed-up-coastal-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"In a race against time, officials collaborate to speed up coastal restoration. Here\u2019s how."},"content":{"rendered":"

Louisiana is in the midst of a catastrophic land loss crisis. The state has already lost over 2,000 square miles of land, and it could lose as much as 4,000 square miles more if nothing is done to restore the coast.<\/p>\n

As these wetlands disappear into the Gulf of Mexico, so do the natural protections that shield New Orleans and other coastal communities from rising sea levels and increasingly violent storms.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a dilemma that\u2019s playing out in coastal communities across the United States and around the world.<\/p>\n

So it came as welcome news when state and federal regulators this month agreed to shave nearly two years<\/a> off the five-year permitting process for a diversion project that will allow the mighty Mississippi River to do its natural business of building much-needed land.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an acknowledgment that we\u2019ve no time to lose in preparing for the unavoidable impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n

The backstory<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much of Louisiana\u2019s historic land loss<\/a> came from poor management of the landscape over time, including leveeing of the Mississippi River for navigation and flood protection \u2013 which severed the tie between the river\u2019s life-giving sediments and surrounding wetlands. Today, the strongest force driving coastal land loss is sea level rise fueled by climate change.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Without bold, large-scale restoration, Louisiana’s coast will continue to disappear, putting people, wildlife, industries, and billions of dollars in economic infrastructure at risk.<\/p>\n

One of the few natural assets at a scale that can match this threat is the Mississippi River. Its land-building power is at the heart of large-scale coastal restoration efforts, particularly sediment diversions, which will reconnect the muddy Mississippi with nearby basins to sustainably rebuild protective marshes and wetlands.<\/p>\n

Reestablishing natural processes is core to Louisiana\u2019s Coastal Master Plan<\/a> \u2013 the state\u2019s 50-year, $50-billion climate adaptation strategy. Anything that can be done to speed up efforts to put the river to work building land, consistent with coastal restoration and protection goals, is great news.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what federal and state officials did by agreeing to accelerate the first of those planned diversions, known as the Mid-Barataria sediment diversion. The project will slowly build land in an area experiencing some of the most rapid erosion and will help nourish wetlands being built by pumping sediment through a pipeline from the river to restoration locations.<\/p>\n

Making our coastal communities more resilient<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

Getting projects on the ground sooner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Expediting projects like this don\u2019t happen overnight. They take considerable work and coordination among numerous federal and state agencies \u2013 which should be commended for their work.<\/p>\n

Many large, complex environmental projects involve numerous federal and state agencies, multiple and regular meetings among lead and cooperating agencies, and sometimes more than one funding stream. Improving coordination and transparency is crucial to advancing these projects from engineering and design to implementation. So is navigating a complex set of rules.<\/p>\n

In a changing climate, it\u2019s vital that federal agencies be nimble and adaptable. Applying decades-old policies that require status quo-like outcomes in a dynamic environment won\u2019t cut it. To meet the ongoing demands and increasing effects of climate change, we must be able to adapt, react, and improve course where necessary.<\/p>\n

Wins like this give me hope for the future.<\/p>\n

Because it produces efficiency without undercutting environmental protections, the collaboration that is helping expedite Louisiana\u2019s first sediment diversion should serve as a model for regulatory improvements on a host of environmental projects moving forward.<\/p>\n

When we work together, across agencies and party lines, we can do great things for people and the environment.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “When we work together, across agencies and party lines, we can do great things for people and the environment.”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It came as welcome news when state and federal regulators agreed to shave nearly two years off the five-year permitting process for the Mid-Barataria sediment diversion project in Louisiana that will allow the mighty Mississippi River to build much-needed land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1951,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107017],"tags":[37659,92579,49587,107036,6486,250,92600,92604,92602],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coasts-watersheds","tag-coastal-master-plan","tag-coastal-protection","tag-coastal-restoration","tag-community-resilience","tag-federal-policy","tag-louisiana","tag-mid-barataria","tag-mississippi-river","tag-sediment-diversion"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1951"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16013,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9232\/revisions\/16013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9232"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}