AUTHORIZATION
This study is authorized through Resolutions of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate Committees on Public Works, 19 April 1967 and 19 October 1967:

"RESOLVED BY THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS OF THE UNITED STATES that the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors created under Section 3 of the River and Harbor Act approved June 13, 1902, be, and is hereby requested to review the reports of the Chief of Engineers on the Mermentau River and Tributaries and Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and connecting waters, Louisiana, published as Senate Document Numbered 231, Seventy-ninth Congress, on the Bayou Teche, Teche-Vermilion Waterway and Vermilion River, Louisiana, published as Senate Document Numbered 93, Seventy-seventh Congress, on the Calcasieu River salt water barrier, Louisiana, published as House Document Numbered 582, Eighty-seventh Congress, and on Bayous Terrebonne, Petit Caillou, Grand Caillou, DuLarge, and connecting channels, Louisiana, and the Atchafalaya River, Morgan City to the Gulf of Mexico, published as House Document Numbered 583, Eighty-seventh Congress, and other pertinent reports including that on Bayou Lafourche and Lafourche-Jump Waterway, Louisiana, published as House Document Numbered 112, Eighty-sixth Congress, with a view to determining the advisability of improvements or modifications to existing improvements in the coastal area of Louisiana in the interest of hurricane protection, prevention of saltwater intrusion, preservation of fish and wildlife, prevention of erosion, and related water resource purposes."

FADING FAST
Over the years, natural and man-made changes produced cumulative effects that caused adverse impacts on estuary and estuarine-dependent fish and wildlife resources. The changes resulted in saltwater intrusion, vegetative change, loss of habitat, loss of land to open water, reduction in nutrients, erosion, and deterioration water quality. Each of these factors causes or intensifies the other. The collective impact on fish and wildlife resources affects the productivity of these resources, the commercial harvest and sporting opportunities in the study area. Therefore, any attempt to address one factor influences all others.

The rate of coastal land loss in Louisiana has reached catastrophic proportions. The reasons for wetland loss are complex and vary across the state. Since the scale of the problem was recognized and quantified in the 1970s, much has been learned about the factors that cause marshes to change to open water, and those that result in barrier island fragmentation and submergence. The effects of natural processes like subsidence and storms, combined with human actions of large and small scale, produced a system on the verge of collapse. System collapse threatens the continued productivity of Louisiana’s bountiful coastal ecosystems, the economic viability of its industries, and the safety of its residents. If current loss rates continue, even taking into account current restoration efforts, then by the year 2050 coastal Louisiana will lose more than 342,000 additional acres of coastal marshes, swamps and islands. The loss could be greater, especially if worst-case scenario projections of sea-level rise are realized. Loss of acreage translates to loss of the various functions and values associated with the wetlands, namely: commercial harvests of fisheries, furbearers and alligators; recreational fishing and hunting, and ecotourism; habitats for threatened and endangered species; water quality improvement; navigation corridors and port facilities; flood control, including buffering hurricane storm surges; and the intangible value of land settled centuries ago and passed down through generations. The public use value of this loss is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars by 2050, but the losses associated with culture and heritage are immeasurable.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Authorization was granted in May 1999 by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters for the LCA Feasibility Study, based on the Louisiana Coastal Area Authority of 1967. The LCA Feasibility Study is based on the Coast 2050 Plan, which contains long-range, large-scale ecosystem restoration strategies to preserve and protect coastal Louisiana. The LCA study is expected to progress over a 10-year period, at an estimated cost of $35 million. A projected estimate to construct and implement Coast 2050 Plan strategies is $14 billion.

In 1998, The state of Louisiana and the federal agencies charged with restoring and protecting Louisiana’s valuable coastal wetlands adopted a new coastal restoration plan entitled Coast 2050: Toward a Sustainable Coastal Louisiana. The underlying principles of the new plan, commonly called Coast 2050, are to restore and/or mimic the natural processes that built and maintained coastal Louisiana. The plan subdivides Louisiana’s coastal zone into four regions with a total of nine hydrologic basins.

Currently, two major feasibility studies are underway to develop projects to restore coastal Louisiana. The recently initiated Comprehensive Coastwide Ecosystem Restoration Study will develop projects from regional strategies across the coast and prepare a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. An ongoing study in Barataria Basin will develop projects for marsh creation and barrier shoreline restoration to feasibility level, and develop a basin-wide hydrologic and hydrodynamic model.

WHAT THE NEW ORLEANS DISTRICT IS DOING NOW
The New Orleans District is currently preparing the draft feasibility report for the Wetland Creation and Restoration (WCR) component of the LCA Feasibility Study focusing on the Barataria Basin. The Barrier Shoreline (BS) component will be pursued in WRDA 2004. The BS feasibility study efforts are currently underway, and the draft BS feasibility report is scheduled for public submission to higher authority for review and approval in September 2003.

At this time, the New Orleans District anticipates Fiscal Year 2003 activities to include (1) completion of the wetland creation & restoration Barataria Basin component of the LCA Feasibility Study, (2) completion of the barrier shoreline restoration, Barataria Basin component of LCA Basin Feasibility Study, (3) completion of the Comprehensive Coastwide Ecosystem Restoration Study.

Coastal Louisiana Master Presentation

 LCA Principals Presentation

 Text for Technical Presentation

 Additional Slides for Technical Presentation