Tierra Resources is working with Entergy Corporation, Comite Resources, and The Climate Trust to apply the wetland restoration carbon offset methodology to a pilot project known as the Luling Oxidation Pond Wetlands Assimilation System. The privately-owned project site is located approximately twenty miles west of New Orleans in St. Charles Parish, and will redirect treated municipal wastewater into an adjacent 1200-acre wetland property to restore the hydrology of the wetland and boost plant and soil productivity. The treated wastewater will enhance the ecological health of the wetland as well as increase the area’s carbon sequestration capacity.
The wetland restoration project site is a characteristic coastal cypress swamp whose sustainability is threatened by wetland subsidence (regional sinking) and saltwater intrusion. The freshwater and nutrients contained in the municipal effluent help facilitate wetland restoration by providing much-needed nutrients and by displacing saltwater. As the restored wetlands grow, the plants capture atmospheric CO2 through the natural photosynthesis process, resulting in permanent storage of carbon. The realistic net carbon sequestration (difference between baseline and project) is expected to be about 10,000 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year for the 1200-acre project. Carbon credits from the project may be issued once the field measurement and monitoring is complete and audited by an independent verifier. Carbon credits may be available from this project as early as 2017.
The Luling Cypress Wetlands Pilot Project will be the first in the nation to demonstrate the true costs and benefits of commercial wetland restoration and carbon offset projects. The goals of the pilot project are to: 1) apply the American Carbon Registry Restoration of Degraded Deltaic Wetlands of the Mississippi Delta methodology; 2) determine the most cost-effective monitoring regime; 3) produce commercially viable carbon credits; 4) demonstrate public-private partnerships that leverage carbon finance; and 5) prove the commercial viability of wetland carbon credits.
View the Luling Cypress Wetland Fact Sheet for more information on the Luling Cypress Wetland Pilot Project.
