The sand dunes and quiet beach on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico near the end of Louisiana‘s Highway 1 are not a vacation mecca like their counterparts in Florida and Alabama. In some ways, it’s more important.
“Once this goes away, look at all the open waters,” said Todd Folse, 51, a scientist with the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority who has spent his life hunting and fishing in the area.
As he drove along the beach to see the large-scale restoration work there, he said not maintaining it would be disastrous.
“It won’t take long to get to the road,” he said of the threat of erosion.
The stretch of beach and marsh known as Caminada Headland isn’t just a place to get a tan and catch a few speckled trout. Restored at a cost of more than $250 million, it is a haven for birds, a boon for the ecosystem and, perhaps most relevant to many Louisianans, a protective barrier to points further inland, including the oil hub. and Port Fourchon gas.
BY DAN SWENSON | Lawyer
But there are clouds on the horizon. A large portion of the funds used to restore the promontory, located a short distance from Grand Isle, came from money related to the 2010 BP oil spill.
That funding will soon begin to decline before disappearing completely in 2032. For now, there is nothing to replace it, meaning more than half of the coastal authority’s revenue for the fiscal year that begins July 1 They will soon disappear.
It’s a dilemma state officials know all too well, but finding solutions is another matter. A delegation was in Washington last week as part of those efforts, and federal legislation has been proposed to dedicate offshore wind revenue to such projects, as well as increase Louisiana’s share of offshore oil and gas dollars.
Even if those efforts are successful, they may not be enough, especially as costs rise and the state faces potentially greater cash crunches in the coming years. Louisiana has been able to devote $8.5 billion from the spill to restoration efforts, spread over years and used for a long list of projects.
The issue may not yet be on the public’s radar. But as the state’s land loss crisis worsens and hurricanes intensify, there are few issues more important for Louisiana.
“It’s a big funding gap to fill,” said Charles Sutcliffe, who served as Gov. John Bel Edwards’ chief resilience officer and now works at the National Wildlife Federation. “There’s just a lot of things that need to happen and there’s not much time left until 2031.”
A family stays on a sunny day in Caminada Bay. Restoration of the Caminada Headlands, funded in part with funds from the BP settlement, has resulted in the creation of dunes that support vegetation. Funding for large-scale projects of this type is currently not included in the state budget. (Staff photo by John McCusker, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
STAFF PHOTO BY JOHN MCCUSKER
“I really needed that bigger investment”
Hiked Headland extends 14 miles along Elmer’s Island to Belle Pass, where the Louisiana coast meets the Gulf of Mexico.
It has experienced rapid erosion and land loss, retreating about 35 feet per year over the past century, according to the CPRA. Its further disappearance would mean further saltwater intrusion eating into the marsh behind the beach and, eventually, land loss threatening Highway 1, the only route in and out of Grand Isle.
It also serves as a buffer for storm surges moving toward Port Fourchon and other areas.
The restoration was done in phases and was completed in 2017, using nearly 9 million cubic yards of sand. The total cost of restoring both the promontory and the rear barrier was about $265 million. More than half came from BP-related funds.
That was enough to allow for a larger-scale plan, including dredging of sediment used for restoration of an area known as Ship Shoal, 27 miles offshore. It was the first time that a suitable location could be used for this type of project.
“It would have taken a lot longer,” CPRA coastal scientist Katie Freer said on the recent tour of the headland, about whether the project could have been possible without BP money. “To mobilize that kind of effort, we really needed a bigger investment.”
But as important as restoration may be, it is a small portion of a much larger coast that is vanishing beneath the tides. How to continue saving as much of the coast as possible as rising sea levels worsen Louisiana’s land loss and increasingly intense storms destroy wetlands is becoming an increasingly urgent question.
Last week’s visit to Washington was organized by the SHORES coalition, which includes local and state leaders, industry representatives, environmentalists and others from Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, according to the CPRA.
The coalition met with more than 100 different congressional offices to push for legislation that would increase revenue from offshore activities, the CPRA said in a statement. One aspect of the legislation would lift the current cap on offshore oil and gas revenue distributed to Gulf Coast states, which could bring billions to Louisiana’s coastal program, the CPRA says.
“Louisiana and CPRA will continue to pursue all possible funding sources to offset the loss of these funds and ensure we can continue to implement transformative projects that restore ecosystems and protect communities,” he said, referring to BP’s revenue.
Ornithologist Jon Wiebe stands next to a fence along the coast in Caminada. Restoration of the Caminada Headlands, funded in part with funds from the BP settlement, has resulted in the creation of dunes that support vegetation. Funding for large-scale projects of this type is currently not included in the state budget. (Staff photo by John McCusker, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
STAFF PHOTO BY JOHN MCCUSKER
‘It’s open water’
In recent years, coastal projects have also benefited from state surpluses, but the state could soon face difficult fiscal problems, particularly if a 0.45-cent sales tax is allowed to expire next year.
Even with that tax in place, coastal projects received far fewer surplus dollars this year than last: $10 million compared to $148 million. The CPRA had requested $80 million during the recent legislative session.
Political questions also loom over the state’s coastal program. Gov. Jeff Landry is considering merging the CPRA with the Department of Energy and Natural Resources, a move that coastal advocates warn could deprioritize decades of efforts to combat land loss.
More than 200 business leaders, scientists, coastal advocates and others recently signed an open letter expressing serious concerns about the Landry administration’s approach to coastal issues thus far. Gordon Dove, Landry’s appointee to chair CPRA’s board of directors, promised in response that the agency will maintain its scientific focus and that its mission will not be set aside.
Last week on the beach, it was easy to forget about politics and the lack of funds. A handful of people sunbathed or cast lines into the surf. Will everything still be here in 50 years? A century in the future?
The fight seems to get harder every day. Folse says projects like the restoration of Caminada Headland are especially meaningful to him, given that much of his life has been spent in the area hunting and fishing.
But he has noticed amazing changes over the years.
“You don’t see that many swamps,” said Folse, who is from Thibodaux but has been coming to Grand Isle since he was a child. “Where you used to fish at one time is in open water.”
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