Louisiana plans to spend $877 million in fiscal 2022 on coastal projects building more than 23 square miles of land and on advancing hurricane storm surge reduction work along the state’s southeastern and south central shoreline.
nola.com
This $877 million is a 19% reduction in spending largely because of permit delays in the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project.
The state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority will take a first look Friday at its proposed budget for fiscal 2022. It includes $633 million for continuing and new construction of restoration and levee projects, using a mix of state and federal money for projects that are being built by both levels of government. The total budget of $877 million is $203 million less than what the agency approved for fiscal 2021. It’s also $210 million less than what agency officials last year predicted would be spent in 2022.
The budget includes 66 southeast Louisiana projects that are either already under construction or on which construction will begin during the year, 35 in the south central region and nine in southwest Louisiana. The restoration portion includes 19 dredging projects that will use more than 92.4 million cubic yards of dredged material to create or nourish almost 15,000 acres, slightly more than 23 square miles, of coastal wetlands. “We have never wavered in our commitment to dredging as a major tool in our restoration and protection efforts,” said Bren Haase, the coastal authority’s executive director. “We’ll have more dredging projects underway in the upcoming fiscal year than ever before in our history.”
Next week there will be Zoom meetings with South East Louisiana’s session Wednesday at 6 P.M. The meetings link can be found at coastal.la.gov/calendar.
These projects are needed and hopefully will help protect our land and slow the degradation.
