Environmental News Network (ENN) reports that the first project in the state's history designed to mine sediments from the Mississippi River and transport them by pipeline to rebuild eroding coastal wetlands has been announced by Governor Bobby Jindal.

The US$28.3 million project, known as The Mississippi River Sediment Delivery System at Bayou Dupont, will build and restore nearly 500 acres of marsh in Lower Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes using sediment from the Mississippi River.

Governor Jindal told ENN: "The Bayou Dupont Project breaks new ground for coastal restoration in our state because it is the first time we have carried out a project to transport sediments from the Mississippi River through a pipeline to build wetlands outside the river's levees."

"This project is a great example of the ways the state and Environmental Protection Agency are pushing to use available sediments in the Mississippi River to build land rather than dredging them and dumping them in a wasteful way," Jindal said.

"The path forward in rebuilding our coast is capturing and using sediment transported in our waterways to rebuild and strengthen our coasts."

ENN said the wetlands being restored have been destroyed by hurricanes and saltwater intrusion.

Louisiana has about 40 per cent of the wetlands in the US and experiences 90 per cent of the coastal wetlands loss in the entire lower 48 states.