Funding for wetlands restoration pipeline OK’d in Lafourche, with conditions

The Lafourche Parish Council has agreed to help fund a long-distance sediment pipeline to help rebuild wetlands—but only if the pipeline reaches Lafourche Parish. The pipeline originally was to carry sediment through Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes before ending in the Cloverly area of Lafourche. But the project has been scaled back and current plans would end it at the Barataria Waterway, short of Lafourche. The council on Tuesday voted to appropriate $1 million to the project—if it goes through Lafourche Parish—saying it would give the money to another wetlands restoration project if it doesn’t go through Lafourche. “I am not going to give Jefferson Parish, St. Charles and Orleans protection when we are going to get nothing,” says Councilman Daniel Lorraine. Other councilmen disagreed, saying the parish should invest in the project in the hope that the pipeline will eventually reach the parish. More votes on the issue are ahead. The (Thibodaux) Daily Comet has more details here.