THIBODAUX, La. (AP) — Lafourche Parish will contribute $1 million to the cost of building a pipeline designed to send river sediment into disappearing coastal marshes.

The Lafourche Parish Council had blocked the expenditure for months because current financing has the pipeline falling short of Lafourche’s wetlands.

But The Daily Comet (http://bit.ly/RqDNnW ) reports that the council voted to set aside money for the project after an Oct. 23 meeting.

The parish’s contribution comes from federal money that must be spent on coastal protection or restoration projects.

The pipeline was originally conceived to carry sediment from the Mississippi River to build wetlands in Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes and into south of Lafourche’s Delta Farm area. But rising costs currently have the $65 million project halted at the Barataria Waterway in Plaquemines Parish. State and local officials who support the project express optimism that it eventually will stretch to Lafourche.

Parish President Charlotte Randolph has in the past referred to the parish’s contribution as a gamble but now says it is more of an investment.

Randolph and Parish Coastal Zone Manager Archie Chiasson III hope penalties levied on BP for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill or some other source of coastal restoration money can result in the project eventually making it to Lafourche.

Robert Routon, with the state Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration, said the project would go on without Lafourche’s contribution but he also said that the intent is for the pipeline to come all the way to Lafourche Parish.