The Mississippi, America’s river, is in flood. Over one million cubic feet per second are flowing between our levees – an impressive sight. But shed a tear at the waste. That muddy floodwater carries the very sediment and resources that could be restoring our rapidly disappearing coast. Instead, every day the equivalent of about 41,000 dump-truck loads slips past us, discharged too far downstream to do us any good. 

We know that a delta needs a river to sustain it. Our forebears decided to cut our delta off from the Mississippi River, by containing the entire river within a levee system. They knew that the delta would starve and eventually die. They seemed willing to live with that. 

They can be forgiven for not knowing the delta’s ecological and economic value. They could not know that our abundant seafood is dependent on this marsh, or how critical our coast would become as the rest of the continent was transformed by agriculture, forestry, industry and urban growth. They did not know that wetlands buffer communities from storm surge. And they had no inkling that our land was sinking as fast as it was, and could not have foreseen that sea level would start rising.

But we now know these things, and anyone can see the obvious solution: restore the river’s connection to its nearby wetlands. But we can’t just blow up the levees. So, we have spent the last 25 years, through four governors, two Republicans and two Democrats, working out those devilish details for how that could best be done, with maximum benefit and minimum harm. 

Louisiana assembled the best scientists from an array of fields; and then met with businesses, federal, state and local government agency personnel, community organizations and many, many citizens, over more than two decades to work through the thorny problems. After all of that, we collectively devised a plan to capture a significant fraction of the sediment now wasted as it rolls toward the sea: the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. 

And then, miraculously, it all fell into place.  State and federal agencies charged with investing the Deepwater Horizon disaster funds chose the Mid-Barataria Diversion as the best way to repair the damage directly inflicted on Barataria by the spill, and after an exhaustive process that relied on world-class science and public comment – all done in full transparency – the project received enough federal money, and the Corps of Engineers issued a permit to build. 

Then along came Gov. Jeff Landry. After billions of non-state dollars were dedicated in contracts; workers hired; materials and real estate acquired and construction begun, with $600 million invested to date, our governor sided with parochial interests to kill the diversion. The governor’s deal was made in secret, against the will of Louisianians: unbiased and objective poll after poll indicate more than 80% public support, with majorities in all of the directly affected parishes, including Plaquemines, where the diversion is located. 

The Governor and his appointed Coastal Chairman Gordon Dove want to revert to the days when restoration decisions were political handshakes in back rooms. Since 2005, Louisiana has emerged as an admired world leader in hurricane risk reduction and restoration prioritization, for building a coastal program rooted in science and public input, devoid of political interference in the aftermath of our devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 

But the governor and chairman are again politicizing our coastal program and levee boards. Embarrassed by the exposure they might receive from selling out, they desperately point fingers of blame, searching for a scapegoat. They want to pin it on the Corps, forcing the Corps to suspend the permit by sinking to a new low: they claimed that their own professional staff, admired around the world, had engaged in misconduct during the Corps permit application process.

I worked in government in the Barataria Basin for 30 years, then spent 10+ years advocating for restoration as a watchdog, trying to make sure government agencies were not squandering our money with politically cherry-picked projects. In more than 40 years, I have met few people as competent, professional, dedicated, and honest as those at the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, who worked to design the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, and then jump through the hurdles it took to get the funding and the permit.

As far as I can tell, Dove has not yet demonstrated his competence to sharpen their pencils, much less his authority to question their professionalism, integrity or the fruits of their work.

We are in desperate times, Louisiana. Decades of progress—and billions in non-state dollars funding a solution to our land loss crisis – is under attack by our own leaders.  I call upon the Louisiana Legislature to act, and order the governor to proceed with the single most important restoration project in Louisiana history. 

If Landry succeeds, he won’t just bury a restoration project. He’ll bury decades of scientific consensus, years of bipartisan commitment and the credibility of Louisiana’s entire coastal program.

David Muth was a 30-year employee of the National Park Service at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, and spent more than a decade advocating for delta restoration with the National Wildlife Federation. He is retired, but continues to work with his former colleagues in the Restore the Mississippi River Delta Campaign.