EPA's Region 6 Office
Serving: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and 66 Tribal Nations
Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection & Restoration
Welcome to Region 6 EPA's Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) web site.
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EPA envisions restoration of Louisiana's coastal wetland ecosystems through strategic, "natural" reintroduction of river water, barrier island/shoreline restoration, and application of innovative technologies such as pipeline delivery of new sediment. |
| Restoring the Coast, Protecting the People |
Approximately 40% of the coastal wetlands of the lower forty-eight states are located in Louisiana. Unfortunately, this fragile environment is disappearing at an alarming rate. Louisiana has lost up to 40 square miles of marsh per year for the last several decades. To date, Louisiana has already lost enough coastal land area equal to the size of Delaware. This loss is at an average of an acre every 38 minutes. If the current rate of loss is not slowed by the year 2040, an additional 800,000 acres of wetlands will disappear, and the Louisiana shoreline will advance inland as much as 33 miles in some areas.
EPA is responding to this crisis be working with our State, Federal and local partners to implement restoration projects that will promote coastal protection at a landscape scale and on projects that will reduce the vulnerability of coastal habitats to the effects of subsidence, erosion, sea level rise, and storm surge.
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