Ensuring Project Quality

After a project is built, the task force must ensure that it is operating efficiently. To meet this need, the LDNR works with the Breaux Act Task Force to monitor all constructed projects. Environmental monitoring usually begins at the project site before construction in order to establish baseline conditions. Over the 20 year monitoring period for each project, the LDNR collects data on hydrography, vegetation, sedimentation, and soil properties.

The Breaux Act Program requires evaluations not just of individual project results, but also of the program’s ability to restore entire hydrologic basins and ecosystems. In order to meet these requirements, the Breaux Act Task Force formally adopted the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) in August 2003. CRMS is designed to provide a pool of sites to serve as monitoring reference areas. Even more important, the system allows examination of project results at both the watershed level and at smaller, regional levels. By allowing micro and macro analyses, CRMS will support rigorous examinations of how constructed projects create, restore, and protect Louisiana’s coastal wetlands.

All Breaux Act projects operate in a rapidly changing environment. To accommodate both the dynamic nature of the coast and emerging program goals, the Task Force continues to build new levels of flexibility into its evaluation procedures. The Task Force has adopted an adaptive management philosophy that is embedded in the framework of the Breaux Act. The Adaptive Management Review involves both a comprehensive review process and mechanisms for revising new project designs and objectives as data about constructed project results are received. The first adaptive management review was conducted in 2002 and resulted in a series of 35 recommendations for improved operations in all aspects of the Breaux Act Program. These recommendations are being implemented by the Breaux Act member agencies. Annual status reports will be developed to ensure continued upgrades in project quality.

Occasionally, the conditions at a project site change radically, particular project design goals are found to be unattainable, or project costs increase unexpectedly. When these unforeseen circumstances occur, the Breaux Act Task Force may decide to deauthorize the project and reallocate unused funds. Deauthorized projects provide valuable lessons learned, and are an expected result of the program’s emphasis on field testing new restoration techniques.

Louisiana’s Vanishing Wetlands
The Breaux Act