Something went right

Every now and then the coastal science is not as depressing as it could be.

There aren't many state projects that come in under budget and over-deliver, but the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is touting one that should have every resident excited about large-scale sediment diversions that will be installed in Plaquemines Parish in the next decade.

Thirty years ago, in 1986, the state implemented the Louisiana Crevasse Project by cutting three crevasses in natural levees on Pass a Loutre Wildlife Management Area. The state had budgeted $300,000 for the project, but the contractors spent only $88,000 of that allotment.

The project was funded with state revenues through the Coastal Environment Protection Trust Fund, but no one knew at the time exactly how successful it would be, according to a department news release.

In their wildest dreams, they wouldn't have predicted this. The crevasses were expected to produce land for 10 to 20 years, but are still delivering positive gains today and are now expected to be land-builders for at least the next decade. To date, the cuts have built 760 acres of marsh at a cost of only $115 per acre.