India, Oct. 8 -- Imagine rebuilding a coastal shoreline by bringing back the river that helped form it. That idea underpinned the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a project emphasized by the U.S. Department of the Interior in September 2022, when Louisiana restoration trustees released the final restoration plan. Rather than keeping the Mississippi River separated from the Barataria Basin, the proposal called for reconnecting the river to the estuary through a controlled diversion.

The plan called for a controlled release of river water and sediment into the Barataria Basin. The sediment was expected to help build or sustain an estimated 13,000-plus acres of wetlands, or about 20 square miles, roughly the size of Breton National Wildlif...