Despite opposition, Mid-Barataria Wetlands rebuilding critical for future of oyster industry, says expert

13th May 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

In recent weeks, the Pontchartrain Conservancy has highlighted the incredible success that freshwater diversions (and the accompanying silt) from the Mississippi River have had restoring land where miles of open water laid 20 years ago.

More than 800 acres of wetlands have rebuilt themselves just beyond Mardi Gras Pass (near the Breton Sound) with such strength that a veritable forest of trees covers land that used to be open gulf, naturally occurring. Just past the Caernarvon diversion on the East Bank of Plaquemines Parish, 1,100 acres have emerged from the waters covered with thousands of cypress trees (though the creation of this forest did have a little help with its initial plantings from the Conservancy.)

These successes in rebuilding wetlands may prove only the beginning as the long-anticipated Mid-Barataria diversion will open in the next 24 months, promising to rebuild hundreds of miles of Louisiana coastline over the next 70 years. However, this large freshwater diversion has its opponents, particularly oyster fishermen and the aquaculture industry, who argue that the diversions from a break in the Mississippi River will destroy their fishing grounds, thereby killing an entire industry.

Simone Maloz, campaign director for Restore the Mississippi Delta, told The Louisiana Weekly that while she understands those fears, the desperate need to rebuild Louisiana’s coastline – which loses a football-field of land every 90 minutes – is too critical. As she explained, “Louisiana has experienced a tremendous amount of loss. It started the very moment that we cut off the river from the wetlands, and there’s been so many – so many – things that have come along with that. We’ve learned a lot of really, really important lessons in, I would say, the past 20 years or so. Obviously, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were a real turning point in our state where we said ‘We can no longer do business the same way.’ That’s when we created a new state authority [The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA)]. But most importantly, we started out with this comprehensive plan to look at our coasts, and to be able to put solutions in place. To be able to, you know, stem some of that land loss.”

“What we do know,“ Maloz continued, referencing Mardi Gras Pass and Caernarvon, “from both of those examples is that when you reconnect to the river, you can rebuild wetlands. And that’s the entire basis of the Mid-Barataria sediment diversion.”

Still, only after billions of dollars were awarded to the state from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement that the concept of allowing massive amounts of freshwater and silt on the West Bank to rebuild wetlands could even be funded, and she noted, it still took six years to get permits and approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to commence the project. Nevertheless, despite the program being heavily studied, Maloz admitted that the upcoming Mid-Barataria diversion has sparked serious opposition in Baton Rouge from oyster fishermen and their allies in the new Landry administration. She argued, though, that many of the fears are overblown, and the future of aquaculture is bright. “It’s not like every diversion has wiped out our oysters,” Maloz noted. “Some of them helped it.”

However, not fixing our coast might have catastrophic future consequences for the industry, she cautioned. “Sealing the river the way they’ve done it, because of the levees 250 years ago, they didn’t realize the devastating impact of that has hurt the ecosystem more than anything. We’re trying to restore that ecosystem.”

As a result of coastal loss, she maintained, “The oyster fishermen have had a couple of slow years. Because of that, when it all comes together [and wetlands are restored], they’re going to have bumper crops. So they ought to be thinking about that.”

Equally, Maloz added that plans exist to “move the oyster fishermen to other freshwater areas for oysters and help them, to provide seed funds that help them get going while we’re building back bigger oyster fields for them along the coast.”

“There are so many different species and habitats that have been affected by landloss, and that potentially could be impacted both positively and negatively because of something like the Mid-Barataria sediment. But that was extensively reviewed. Hundreds of people worked on these permits and these plans. They received thousands of comments. There were dozens of public meetings, all along the way. Thousands of pages of documents were produced. So it’s really critical for folks to know that this just didn’t happen overnight. This just didn’t happen on a whim and because of those impacts, they did allocate some dollars to mitigate for that.”

She emphasized, “There are almost $400 million in mitigation projects built into this plan [to help oyster fishermen to deal with the disruption]. And that is doesn’t even include something that a term that we use – which is called ‘stewardship.’”

The future for the oyster industry will be brighter in the long-term because of the future preservation of their potential harvesting grounds, Maloz declared. “You know, we understand the evolution of oysters. We understand the importance of the industry, and really it goes back to this whole conversation about balancing all of these needs. It is about the balance of freshwater and saltwater. It’s about balancing navigation with ecosystem needs. It’s about balancing this species and that species.”

Louisiana has, she observed, “been making monster investments in coastal Louisiana. We, for the past several years, have been putting a billion dollars into our coast from one end to the other – and all in an effort to build the New Orleans levee system or rebuild barrier islands. And we know that we cannot take our foot off the gas pedal.”

“We have this wonderful science-based master plan that has so much review that’s built into it. We have projects that have [had] public input,” yet Maloz concluded, “Somebody said once, ‘There is no status quo in Louisiana,’ and that certainly means coastal Louisiana. So we do not talk enough about that; Not just building projects, not just Mid-Barataria, but what a future looks like if we do nothing.”

This article originally published in the May 13, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.