NEW ORLEANS - Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration has officially canceled the Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion, a major coastal restoration project once planned for the east bank of the Mississippi River near Wills Point. The decision follows the earlier cancellation of the $3 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, its larger companion project, marking the end of two of Louisiana’s most ambitious efforts to rebuild wetlands by channeling river sediment into coastal basins.
Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) Chairman Gordon Dove confirmed that the state has withdrawn its permit application for the project. About $70 million had already been spent on Mid-Breton, funded in part by BP Deepwater Horizon settlement dollars.
State officials said rising cost estimates, now projected at $1.8 billion, and opposition from commercial fishers and local parishes contributed to the project’s cancellation. The CPRA plans to redirect remaining funds toward smaller, dredge-based land-building efforts and potentially a scaled-down diversion to replace the canceled Mid-Barataria project.
Environmental Backlash
While state officials argue that existing river outlets and dredging projects such as Caernarvon, Mardi Gras Pass, and Neptune Pass already provide similar benefits at a lower cost, environmental groups such as Restore the Mississippi River Delta say the decision undermines Louisiana’s long-term coastal strategy.
“The Mid-Breton decision, which follows the cancellation of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion earlier this year, marks another disappointing turn away from the state’s science-backed, bipartisan and publicly supported coastal program,” Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a coalition of national and local conservation groups, said in a statement. “Despite extensive public engagement in developing the project, the cancellation occurred without public input or explanation to the communities most impacted.”
The coalition said reconnecting the Mississippi River to surrounding wetlands would deliver sediment, freshwater, and nutrients needed to build and maintain land while complementing other restoration methods such as marsh creation and ridge rebuilding.
“We must use all the tools in the toolbox to restore our coast. The river is vital to our efforts. Canceling this project puts integral large-scale, sustainable coastal restoration years, or even decades, further out of reach,” the group said.
Like the Mid-Barataria project, Mid-Breton was included in the 2007, 2012, and 2017 Coastal Master Plans and was expected to be operational under the 2023 plan. In 2016, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation committed $90 million to its engineering and design, and a firm was selected in 2018. CPRA signed a construction manager-at-risk contract in 2019, and as recently as this summer, the agency sought legislative approval to continue funding permitting activities in its FY26 Annual Plan.
Fisheries and Local Opposition
Commercial fishing organizations and local governments have long opposed large-scale sediment diversions, particularly the Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton projects, warning that the influx of freshwater could harm oyster beds, shrimp, and crab populations that sustain local economies.
Parish governments in Plaquemines and St. Bernard passed resolutions objecting to the diversions, citing potential harm to fisheries and coastal livelihoods. In one resolution opposing the Mid-Barataria project’s draft environmental impact statement, the Plaquemines Parish Council warned that the project could cause lasting damage to wildlife and fisheries, threatening the livelihoods of parish residents and businesses.
Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser has also been a vocal critic. “When the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion was first proposed, it was presented as a silver bullet to save coastal Louisiana. At that time, the project was projected to cost $250 million. Today, the price tag has ballooned to more than $3 billion, and that does not even begin to account for the long-term environmental and economic costs this project could impose on our communities,” Nungesser wrote in a letter addressing the project’s cancellation, published by The Houma Times.
While opponents of the diversions applauded the state’s decision, environmental groups argue that abandoning the Mid-Breton project disregards decades of scientific research and public investment. “The Mid-Breton permitting process was going to provide valuable data and research about the east side of the lower Mississippi River, and the project was also a central component of the state’s Coastal Master Plan. This cancellation disregards the decades of transparency and significant effort that went into research, permitting, community engagement and modeling for the project,” said Restore the Mississippi River Delta.
