A $4 billion plan to reduce flood risk in the Amite River Basin

$4B plan would reduce flooding in the Baton Rouge region | Business | theadvocate.com  

New drainage pumps to the Mississippi River. 

Clearing out sediment blockages in the lower Amite River and snags and high spots in Bayou Manchac.

Building a large, multibillion dollar reservoir somewhere in St. Helena and East Feliciana parishes or even southern Mississippi.

The Amite River Basin Commission, a Baton Rouge regional agency most tied to the long-running Comite River Diversion Canal, has aimed big with its first master plan.

It proposes nearly $4 billion in projects to tackle flooding in the Amite River Basin, a watershed that is home to more than 75% of the nearly 902,000 people in the greater Baton Rouge area.

Refashioned by the Legislature a few years ago to include the elected leaders of seven parishes drained by the Amite, the commission has developed a list of 13 projects.

Some are long-discussed, already funded and under local government direction, while others are still concepts on paper with big price tags but not the dollars to match, or court controversy, like the idea of a big upstream dam.

Thousands affected

Taken together, the projects would store, reroute or block floodwaters caused by upstream rains and backwater flooding in the river basin. The plan also would preserve existing swamps to maintain flood storage, restore the upper Amite to its more natural, winding flow after sand-and-gravel mining has straightened the route over the years, and clear sediment blockages in the lower Amite.

The 2,200-square-mile basin, which reaches into Mississippi, encompasses Louisiana's largest parish by population, East Baton Rouge, and two of the state's fastest growing, Ascension and Livingston. 

If all of the projects are completed by 2050, commission officials say the plan would cut expected annual losses from flooding by a little more than half when adjusted for inflation, from $550 million in 2025 to $265 million in 2050.

Paul Sawyer, executive director of the commission, said the nearly $4 billion figure, a small percentage of which is funded, doesn't make him "blanch at all" but reflects the reality of the problem.

He pointed out that the historic 2016 floods resulted in $10 billion in federal assistance and project funding, including the dollars to build the remaining phases of the previously stalled Comite Diversion. The economic and societal disruptions from those floods cost billions more, he said.

"The impacts are so profound that, yeah, it is expensive. We don't have an alternative, because the cost of doing nothing is even more expensive, and so if, we're willing to pay to be flooded again and again and again," Sawyer said. "That's a decision that we as a community have to make, but after 2016, I think people said, 'Enough is enough.'"

Unnamed rainstorms, in March and particularly in August 2016, devastated the Baton Rouge region, displacing tens of thousands from their homes.

The plan lays out a number of possibilities for funding, and the commission has unused taxing authority, but the plan leaves open how the commission would generate the dollars for the full plan.

The plan also anticipates handing the baton to parishes for a handful of projects they have already been pursuing in hopes of speeding up progress, officials said.

The commission received $100 million from a post-2016 flood state recovery program for four high priority projects: clearing and selective dredging of Bayou Manchac, removal of sediment from the Amite River from La. 22 south, a pumping system for the New River Canal and Spanish Lake basin in Ascension, and extension of a hurricane protection levee into St. James Parish.

Sawyer said the commission has allocated those dollars to the local parishes so they can continue to take the lead.

'Maintaining continuity'

The commission plan marks a sharp contrast from the first years after the '16 floods when a levee extension in Ascension and temporary dams along Bayou Manchac sparked political and legal fights among East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Iberville and Livingston parish officials.

Commission officials point out this plan is a collaboration of seven parish leaders and charts a course for the future after taking in the views of their constituents and learning the needs of each parish in the basin. 

"Now, the commission has a steering mechanism for flood control and conservation that will help direct current and future efforts while also maintaining continuity, even after leaderships and administrations who represent the Amite River Basin may change," said John Clark, the Iberville environment and economic director who is the commission president.

Commission officials point out that the projects work in concert with one another to counteract unintended negative consequences.

The plan proposes a revamp of an underwater dam, or weir, to restore the originally designed split of water flow between the Amite River and the Amite River Diversion Canal.

Recent studies had found that restoring the weir's original function could cause unintended flooding in Livingston, where development has occurred since the diversion was built decades ago, but the commission plan's high-priority project for Amite River dredging would counteract that impact, Sawyer explained.

"The ultimate goal is to make sure the flood risk in one area is not being impacted by another area," added Fred Raiford, East Baton Rouge city-parish drainage and transportation director. "I think that was one of the goals that we wanted to try to accomplish."

The plan's ideas also bring in other local agencies. The high-priority Bayou Manchac dredging project, for instance, proposes rerouting where Ward Creek empties into Manchac to improve water flow. The shift would happen inside BREC’s Airline Highway Community Park. 

BREC and the commission are already collaborating, officials said, as the park and recreation agency plans to use the project to modify the park and continue BREC's efforts to have parklands double as "green infrastructure."

"The collaboration with (the river commission) will transform portions of the park into active stormwater infrastructure, helping protect nearby homes and businesses from future flooding," said Reed Richard, assistant superintendent of BREC system planning. "At the same time, the project will expand public access to green space and the bayou for paddlers, offer scenic and educational experiences, and preserve vital ecological habitats."

The plan also anticipates building a Bayou Manchac floodgate and levee inside BREC's Kendalwood Conservation Area and other land preservation efforts to protect flood storage, which could lend themselves to further park partnerships. The agency didn't comment directly on those projects.

'Stunningly beautiful'

The commission is planning meetings for the public to review the plan. Despite the talk of collaboration, the plan treads into controversial ideas, but commission officials say they will have to find a path forward.

Among them, the commission is proposing a large reservoir in the upper reaches of the Amite basin because it would offer significant flood reduction for downstream communities, up to 6 to 8 feet in the Denham Springs area. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state have looked at the idea, known as the Darlington reservoir, since the 1980s. The Corps took another stab a few years ago, only to scuttle the $1.2 billion idea again in favor of home elevations and flood proofing for 3,300 structures.

The Corps' latest try at a dam proposed a "dry reservoir" that would be filled with water when risk emerged, greatly limiting land use on more than 26,000 acres only for periodic flooding. The idea failed amid fierce local opposition and Corps concerns about the risk of a catastrophic failure and the forced displacement of poor and minority residents.

State Rep. Robby Carter, D-Greensburg, a principal opponent of the Corps dam and former member of the river commission, said he hadn't seen the plan yet and didn't immediately offer a comment late last week. 

The river commission hasn't supported the Corps' home-raising alternative, however, and is pursuing the big dam idea.

The commission has put forward three alternatives that return to the creation of a big lake. The lake could double as an economic development node and potentially provide some recharge for the Southern Hills Aquifer, the region's drinking water source, the plan says.

Sawyer said the commission will have to rely on a mix of private landowners and businesses and other advocates to create local buy-in.

Past experience with the Darlington reservoir, Sawyer said, has demonstrated that government can't be the primary driver of the project, saying offering fair market value for people to move away wasn't going to persuade residents.

"And, they rightfully so said, 'Go jump in a lake,' you know, because people who live in East Feliciana and St. Helena live there on purpose. It's beautiful. I mean it is a stunningly beautiful part of the country, and people want to live there," Sawyer said. 

"And so, a project concept like this can't succeed unless not only do they approve but they are partners."