Conservation Groups Commend Congressional Funding of Louisiana Coastal Restoration Projects

(Washington, D.C.—May 21, 2015) Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations included critical funding for the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) Program in its Fiscal Year 2016 (FY 16) Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. The legislation comes after a request in the President’s FY 16 budget of $50,000 for LCA General Investigations and $10 million for LCA Beneficial Use of Dredged Materials (BUD Mat) Construction. The U.S. House of Representatives also included these levels of funding it its FY 16 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill.

National and local conservation groups working together on Mississippi River Delta restoration – Environmental Defense Fund, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation and Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana – released the following statement:

“We thank the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, as well as the U.S. House of Representatives, for recognizing the importance of the Mississippi River Delta and dedicating funding to the Louisiana Coastal Area Program, which will restore this nationally significant ecosystem. We would especially like to thank Senator David Vitter (R-LA), Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Congressman Cedric Richmond (D-LA) for their bipartisan leadership in shepherding this funding through Congress.

“We stand prepared to assist the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state of Louisiana and the Louisiana congressional delegation to advance LCA projects via all possible funding streams, including FY 16 appropriations. With each passing day, we lose more of the Louisiana coast that is home to millions of Americans, provides billions of dollars of economic activity and is vital wildlife habitat for thousands of species. We can make great strides on a path forward to restoring our rapidly disappearing coastline, but we must dedicate urgently needed resources to restoration projects that will build land now.”

Background:

• The state of Louisiana has demonstrated a solid commitment to LCA by including many of its projects in the state’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan.
• Not only will the LCA projects work in concert with a suite of projects to enhance coastal restoration, but the master plan also identifies other funding sources, including state dollars, to implement the entire restoration effort.
• In fact, several distinct LCA project components are already under construction and slated to be completed, relying on these varied funding streams. 
• Additionally, the state of Louisiana has, by statute, directed its federal RESTORE Act funding allocations to the constitutionally protected Coastal Restoration and Protection Fund to be spent solely on projects in the master plan.
• Seeing the need to stem the degradation of the Mississippi River Delta system, Congress committed to restore the Louisiana Coastal Area in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, and this effort remains an urgent national priority today.  
• Although the projects were authorized by Congress in the Water Resources and Development Act of 2007, Fiscal Year 2015 was the first time this program received funding.
• LCA projects will restore critical wetlands around the delta and protect Louisiana’s coastal infrastructure and natural resources.
• Louisiana has lost more than one million acres of coastal wetlands since the 1930s, and another 300 thousand acres are at risk over the next 50 years.
• This loss of vital coastal wetlands has significant implications for the ecology, society and economy of the region and the entire nation that depends on the Mississippi River Delta for shipping, navigation and other industries.