Audio: Whiskey Island shows the progress and challenges of beach restoration projects

By this summer, the island will be 1,000 acres larger. But the state will have to periodically rebuild it in the coming years.

by Della Hasselle April 4, 2018 Updated November 7, 2019

This pipe starts 13 miles away, at a former island now underwater in the Gulf of Mexico, and it ends at this remote beach on Whiskey Island in Terrebone Parish. By this summer, sediment flowing from this pipe will add about 1,000 acres to the island.

Coastal scientists are almost finished rebuilding Whiskey Island, a barrier island in Terrebone Parish that has been washing away for years.

Beach restoration projects like this are a big part of Louisiana’s plan to rebuild and protect the coast. But they aren’t permanent, and some critics question their value.

This story was produced in collaboration with WWNO-FM.

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