As part of its annual process, the Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration (CWPPRA) Technical Committee met in early December and selected four Project Priority List (PPL) 27 candidate projects to recommend to the Task Force for Phase I Engineering and Design. The Technical Committee also selected two projects to recommend to the Task Force for Phase II authorization and Increment 1 funding, including the
Caminada Headland Back Barrier Marsh Restoration (BA-171) which received the most votes.
In ROR's letter of support for the project, it was noted:
CWPPRA has been an important funding source for coastal Louisiana, and ROR is keenly interested in maximizing and leveraging all dollars made available to restore and protect coastal Louisiana. In this case, BA-171 Caminada Back Barrier Marsh, is requesting the second-lowest dollar amount of funding of projects looking for Phase II authorization, and is also leveraging the over $200 Million already spent on the Caminada Headlands projects.
BA-171 will sustain critical projects in the area, provide an essential protective buffers to Port Fourchon, and promote and protect important native vegetation and migratory species.
There are more steps in the funding approval process. The Task Force may approve these recommended projects for Phase I and Phase II funding when th
ey meet on January 25, 2018 at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 7400 Leake Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Additionally, at the December CPRA meeting, it was announced Lafourche Parish was also awarded a project
through the St
ate's ina
ugural parish matching program under the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act of 2012 (RESTORE Act). CPRA set aside up to $100 million over a 15-year period from its RESTORE Act Spill Impact Component funds to establish this program.
Lafourche was awarded $412,722 for Engineering and Design of the Grand Bayou Freshwater Reintroduction Project in Lafourche Parish. This long standing project concept was detailed in the parish's
own multi-year implementation plan submitted to the US Treasury as part of the RESTORE process.
ROR wrote in their letter of support:
For Grand Bayou, we s
upport the objective of increasing freshwater flow to the surrounding marshes by dredging Grand Bayou. This project is in the Master Plan (03a.HR.100), and the parish has already allocated money to begin preliminary design and engineering with its RESTORE dollars. Furthermore, this is already an area of interest via the local levee districts, providing additional protection benefits.
The CPRA's parish matching program investment will nearly double the amount of funds the parishes will receive over that same time period under the RESTORE Act Direct Component. This program is designed to help parishes leverage project funding to design and/or construct projects that might otherwise not be initiated or completed and to accelerate the timeline on projects that might otherwise have to wait to be fully funded out of a parish's RESTORE Act funds.