Louisiana took a long-awaited step forward in coastal restoration and protection Tuesday with the official Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) groundbreaking for the River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp.
Supporters, government officials, and many of the people who have worked tirelessly for more than 20 years to bring the project to fruition gathered at the future location of a structure that will bring freshwater from the Mississippi River back to the swamp. Cut off from the river since the early 1920s, the project will once again reconnect the Mississippi River to the western side of Maurepas Swamp to provide seasonal influxes of freshwater, nutrients, and likely some sediment to the area east of Garyville.
The project is a maximum 2,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) diversion that will benefit about 45,000 acres of cypress-tupelo swamp by helping push back saltwater intrusion, provide nutrients to the forested swamp, and restore hydrology that will help forest regeneration through better water management. Operated to mimic seasonal flooding and low water cycles, the diversion is expected to improve habitat quality and benefit fish and wildlife in the area.
“This project isn’t just about restoring a swamp, it’s about preserving our way of life,” said Pete Dufresne, St. James Parish President.
Multiple speakers during the groundbreaking ceremony agreed that reconnecting the river has multiple benefits including providing more storm protection for nearby communities as well as advancing the state’s coastal restoration work.
“Projects like this are really the foundation of our coastal restoration efforts,” said Matthew Jewell, St. Charles Parish President and member of the CPRA board. “If you don’t have the foundation, the entire structure will collapse.”
At about 140,000 acres of cypress-tupelo swamp, Maurepas Swamp is the second largest area of forested wetland in Louisiana which used to be fed through connections to the Mississippi River. However, after the 1927 flood, the Mississippi River was leveed which cut off the seasonal high water and low water cycles of the swamp. Without this river to swamp connection, many areas of forest have been unable to regenerate due to high water levels, saltwater intrusion has turned many areas into marsh or open water, and water quality has suffered as the hydrology stagnates.
The project is estimated to cost $330 million and will be paid for through funding from the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (RESTORE Council), Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) funds, and other State funding sources. The RESTORE Council approved $14 million to support planning, engineering, and design and another $130 million for construction. The RESOTRE Council administers a portion of the 2010 oil spill settlements for ecosystem restoration, economic recovery, and tourism promotion along the Gulf coast.
As an added benefit, in 2023 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that the project would be used as mitigation for the construction of the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain levee project. The levee will extend from the Bonnet Carré Spillway to Garyville, and protect more than 60,000 residents in St. Charles, St. John, and St. James parishes.
The Louisiana Wildlife Federation joins with supporters along with local, state, and federal government agencies and local community and stakeholder groups in celebrating this landmark project and the benefits it will provide to people, habitat, fish and wildlife, and a long culture of fishing and hunting in this beautiful part of Louisiana’s coast.