State asks Trump to speed coastal permits

State officials are asking President Donald Trump to address one of the biggest problems slowing Louisiana's efforts to protect its coastal communities from inundation.

“Our biggest challenge has been the environmental review and permitting processes, which although based on strong policy, are often implemented inefficiently resulting in significant delay, unpredictable decisions and limited accountability,” said Johnny Bradberry, the state's chief coastal administrator.

The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority sent Trump a document Friday outlining the problems and reiterating the top five projects in its plan to save the coast, including the Houma Navigation Canal Lock Complex.

Gov. John Bel Edwards asked Trump in March to put the $384 million lock, which aims to protect Houma and other inland communities from Gulf of Mexico storm surges, and the four other projects on a fast track that will speed environmental reviews and permitting. Trump asked the state for the so-called "white paper" after receiving Edwards' letter. 

In the paper, the state coastal board makes a case that federal agencies are under increased demand for environmental reviews and permits as a result of rebuilding efforts in the wake of the 2010 Gulf oil spill. 

The state also suggests the Trump administration create a single “one-stop shop” to coordinate permitting and other decisions by the multiple federal agencies involved with restoring Louisiana's eroding wetlands and protecting against hurricanes. The paper suggests the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, the federal board that oversees how fines from the from the BP oil spill are spent, could serve such a role. Another option is to create a new board made up of representatives from each agency involved that would focus solely on Gulf Coast restoration projects.

What's needed is “front-end coordination through centralized, executive-level leadership," said Michael Ellis, the state coastal board's executive director. The agency or board would need clear authority to direct everyone involved and guide projects from planning through completion.

Wetlands advocates, as well as state and local politicians, have long decried a permitting and environmental review process they say is excessively cumbersome and lengthy. They say time is critical as the state implements its newly approved version of the $50 billion, 50-year coastal master plan, which would spend hundreds of millions of dollars on projects in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. Under the best-case scenario, the plan says, sinking land, eroding marshes and rising seas will inundate much of the two parishes, leaving the Gulf up against levees and raising questions about their ability to protect against flooding.

Delays in creating wetlands in open water with sediment dredged from elsewhere could balloon costs by 200 percent to 600 percent, according to a study released late last year by The Water Institute of the Gulf, the Restore the Mississippi River Coalition and Coast Builders Coalition. That’s because of additional wetlands erosion, increased construction costs and inflation during the delays. Dredging projects comprise about $18 billion of the $25 billion in restoration that was proposed in the master plan's 2012 version. Delays could add $5 billion or more to the total.

Trump has promised to streamline environmental reviews as part of his $1 trillion infrastructure improvement program.

Wetlands advocates have expressed hope that an executive order Trump signed Jan. 24 that seeks to speed environmental reviews and approvals for “high-priority infrastructure projects” will apply to coastal work. 

In a speech June 9 in Washington, Trump said his infrastructure initiative will include "massive permit reform," calling the current system an antiquated, overly expensive "bureaucratic maze." He said said his administration is creating a council that will serve as a single point of contact for states and others seeking to perform infrastructure work. The board will coordinate permitting with all agencies and give much quicker answers that will give project managers approval or rejection from the entire federal bureaucracy.

“My administration is committed to ending these terrible delays once and for all," The Hill, a Washington media outlet, quoted him as saying during the speech at U.S. Transportation Department headquarters. "The excruciating wait time for permitting has inflicted enormous financial pain on cities and states — and has blocked many important projects from ever getting off the ground.”

-- Executive Editor Keith Magill can be reached at 857-2201 or keith.magill@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @CourierEditor.