Construction has begun on a critical project aimed at rejuvenating Louisiana's Maurepas Swamp, with the goal of reversing environmental damage caused over the past century. The Mississippi River Reintroduction plan will channel fresh river water into the swamp, helping to restore its delicate ecosystem.

Located near Gramercy, Louisiana, the Maurepas Swamp might appear at first glance to be a thriving natural wonder. But those who know the swamp well are seeing troubling signs of decline.

“It looks beautiful when you first come to it, but it’s slowly dying off,” said Nathan Deroche, a local camp owner and lifelong fisherman. “It’s getting more unhealthy. I see trees are dying for no reason now, that were usually healthy when I was younger.”

A century ago, levees were built along the Mississippi River to prevent flooding, but this development cut off the swamp from fresh water, nutrients, and oxygen—leading to severe ecological damage.

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“A swamp takes a really long time to die,” noted Alisha Renfro, a scientist with the National Wildlife Federation. According to Renfro, a once-vibrant canopy of trees has thinned, and parts of the swamp have turned into marshland or open water.

In response to this growing crisis, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) has launched the Mississippi River Reintroduction to Maurepas Swamp Project. The plan involves constructing a 5½-mile channel that will funnel 2,000 cubic feet per second of river water into the swamp, with construction already underway.

Unlike larger diversions further down the Mississippi, the Maurepas Swamp project has not encountered much controversy.

“Everyone’s for it, and we’re just waiting for them to get started and activate the program,” Deroche said.

Project managers believe the diversion is small enough and positioned far enough from surrounding bodies of water to avoid significant negative effects.

“This is focused on the swamp,” said Brad Miller, CPRA’s project manager. “The swamp’s going to get all the benefits of the nutrients and it’ll be a blip on the radar screen in Lake Pontchartrain.”

While the project will cost over $300 million, the funding was made possible through a partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps is also working on the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain Risk Reduction Project, an 18-mile system designed to protect the river parishes from hurricanes. By law, the Corps must offset any environmental damage caused by this construction.

“This is the best of both worlds,” Miller explained. “They need mitigation, and we need to pay for part of West Shore.”

The diversion project is expected to be completed by 2028.