A major coastal restoration project in Plaquemines Parish has been halted just months after ground was broken. According to the Plaquemines Parish President's Office, the Mid-Barataria Diversion Project has been halted, and the parish has filed a lawsuit against Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to immediately stop all work. The project aimed to use freshwater and sediment to help restore and maintain land and faced years of pushback from the seafood industry, as well as some state lawmakers, before breaking ground in August 2023. Proponents of the project said that it would add up to 26,000 acres of wetland to the state marshes within 50 years.According to a statement issued by Parish President Keith Hinkley, the parish believes CPRA failed to get necessary permits required by the National Flood Insurance Program's federal regulations and local ordinances, noting that documents that showed whether or not the project would raise flood levels in the parish were not provided. In his statement, Hinkley said that dangers from the project are too extreme to be ignored and work should not continue until valid permits are issued. Read Hinkley's full statement here: "Today, in an effort to protect Plaquemines Parish families and local businesses, Plaquemines Parish Government filed a lawsuit against Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to immediately stop all work on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project. "Furthermore, pursuant to the Code of Federal Regulations and Parish Ordinances regarding flood plain management, we have halted all permitting and issued “Stop Work Orders” related to this project and are requesting all federal and state agencies responsible for MBSD to immediately suspend or revoke all permits for this project until all flood management laws and regulations are followed, and a valid permit is issued. "The reasons for these actions are simple. Working with FEMA through a federal audit, it was determined that CPRA failed to get the necessary permits as required by the National Flood Insurance Program’s federal regulations and local ordinances. After repeated requests, CPRA failed to provide the Parish’s Chief Building Official and Flood Plain Manager “calculations, models and analysis” needed to determine whether or not the project will raise base flood levels by more than a foot. Without this information, Plaquemines Parish Government officials are concerned that this project will put our homes and businesses at risk to increased danger from hurricane storm surge, hurricane flooding and even rain events. Without robust enforcement and application of the these very important laws, it may also jeopardize our citizen’s ability to participate in the National Flood Insurance Program or at a minimum, yet still unacceptable, increase flood insurance rates, which as every citizen in Louisiana already knows is unaffordable. Neither of these options are acceptable."In response to the Parish’s FEMA Audit, more than a month ago, our Chief Building Official asked the CPRA and the Corps to provide us with any and all flood modeling data required by federal and parish laws that could help determine what if any mitigation measures are needed to protect the Parish and its participation in the National Flood Insurance Program. CPRA has yet to provide the necessary data. And, our request that the United States Army Corp of Engineers suspend or revoke the permit is “still under review.” "The danger this project poses to our community is too extreme to be ignored. We again ask the CPRA and the Corps to provide us with any modeling or data required by the Parish and FEMA to mitigate this issue. Let’s hope we receive the necessary data so Plaquemines Parish Government can discern what negative impacts this project may have on our community."