March 14 , 2002

Putting their best foot forward in an effort to secure $14 billion to pay for the ravishes of coastal erosion, Department of Natural Resources Secretary Jack Caldwell and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Thomas Julich signed an agreement to begin a coast wide feasibility study for the Coast 2050 Plan.

Both agencies agreed that this is the next step in turning the large-scale Coast 2050 Plan strategies into funded projects. In testimony today before a joint hearing of the Louisiana Senate and House Natural Resources committees, DNR Assistant Secretary Randy Hanchey said, "this Comprehensive Coastwide Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study will provide the basis for Congressional funding for large-scale projects through the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). He said, "We'll take the study's findings to Congress in 2004".

The Coast 2050 Plan was completed in 1998 and has been the basis of on-going Breaux Act projects since that time. "But the Breaux Act can't do it all," Col. Julich said in his remarks to the legislative group. The current effort is directed toward a programmatic implementation of the larger ecosystem-level projects that are outside the funding scale of the Breaux Act. An example of one such project now complete is the Davis Pond River Reintroduction Project, with a construction budget of $107 million.

The Comprehensive Coastwide Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study will provide the next level of information necessary to obtain federal funding by providing project-specific details in support of the conceptual strategies. Hanchey said, "the report would ultimately form the basis for a congressional authorization request for WRDA 2004 as a programmatic allocation of funds."

In contrast to previous WRDA feasibility study efforts, this new effort will draw more heavily on the expertise of other federal and state agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and the Governor's Office of Coastal Activities will all contribute more actively in the feasibility study process.

The study will be a 50/50 cost-share between the state and the Corps totaling about $8.6 million. State coastal officials expect to have a draft of the report by July 2003.

Editors: For more information on this topic, call the DNR Public Information Officer Phyllis Darensbourg at 225-342-8955