The Bird’s Foot Delta Hydrologic Restoration Project has money for planning, but not yet for construction. Engineers have spent $2.7 million of a $6 million design allocation, while officials estimate the full project will cost $144 million to $176 million, according to Louisiana Illuminator. Louisiana’s coastal agency plans to seek additional Deepwater Horizon settlement funding by the end of 2027; construction could begin in early 2028 if funding and approvals come through, New Orleans CityBusiness reported.
Design funding is not a construction award
That distinction is built into the federal restoration process. A 2020 Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group plan notice describes engineering and design as a planning phase, with implementation considered later through another restoration plan; the initial design allocation therefore does not secure construction money for Bird’s Foot. The Federal Register notice explains the sequence. Any new settlement funding for the project would require review and approval by the federal trustees overseeing that spending, according to CityBusiness.
The proposed work would alter channels around South Pass and the Pass a Loutre navigation channel to direct more Mississippi River water and sediment toward nearby marshes. Models project at least 1,000 acres of new wetlands and a 40% increase in sediment flow to marshes east of South Pass, Louisiana Illuminator reported. Those are projected outcomes, not results already achieved.
A local project within a much larger land-loss problem
The project addresses losses specific to the southeastern Bird’s Foot Delta: more than 26,000 wetland acres have disappeared there over four decades, according to Louisiana Illuminator. The outlet also reported, citing MissDelta scientists, that less than 10% of the Mississippi River’s sediment reaches the Bird’s Foot during most of the year. For wider context, U.S. Geological Survey research documented more than 680,000 acres of land loss across the Mississippi River deltaic plain from 1932 to 1990. That is a regional historical measure, not an estimate for Bird’s Foot alone. The USGS report attributes the regional loss to a complex set of causes.
A separate Plaquemines Parish proposal illustrates why federal approval and funding cannot be assumed. Louisiana moved in July 2025 to terminate the much larger Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion after the Army Corps of Engineers suspended its permit and litigation continued; trustees reduced that project’s budget to match funds already disbursed, according to the official Gulf Spill Restoration site. Mid-Barataria was a different project, and its outcome does not establish Bird’s Foot’s permit status or prospects.
The Mid-Barataria decision does leave a possible funding avenue, not a commitment: trustees said unused funds from that project could be available for future Louisiana restoration through the planning process and with trustee approval. The official Gulf Spill Restoration notice does not say that money has been awarded to Bird’s Foot. Whether CPRA can secure a funding package—and the required federal approvals—remains unresolved.
