Meet ARBC President John Clark

Iberville Environmental Director pushes stronger flood mitigation

John Ory Dupont | Post South

John Clark says he finally sees light at the end of the tunnel. 

The combination of sorely needed cleanup of waterways and funds for a comprehensive drainage plan for several comes after years of frustration for Clark, who doubles as the Economic Development and Environmental Director for Iberville Parish Government. 

It's only one of several projects to help Iberville and its surrounding areas gain a foothold on flood mitigation.

The work seemingly covers all directions. 

Clark has worked with local leaders in neighboring parishes, as well as federal agencies, to bring flood mitigation throughout Iberville Parish. 

Clark helped spearhead long-awaited cleanup of Bayou Grosse Tete and other tributaries as part of a joint effort with officials from West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee parishes.  

He and Parish President Chris Daigle worked closely with WBR Parish President Jason Manola and Pointe Coupee Parish President Major Thibaut on a project estimated at just under $9 million through the Upper Delta Soil and Water Conservation District that will bring much-needed removal of limbs and other debris from Bayou Grosse Tete. 

The project will involve the removal of more than 350 fallen trees and storm debris along the waterways. 

The funding came in place through relief funds after Hurricane Francine, along with subsequent tornadoes that provided eligibility for federal emergency disaster funds. 

‘When that happens, federal dollars kick in, so we seized the moment,” Clark said. “We’re working together through paperwork with Army Corps of Engineers Permits, plans and specks together before we can put it out for bid, but it’s moving along quite nicely.”

It's not the only project on the drawing board for Clark. 

He is pushing for installation of a large-scale, high flow floodwater pump station in the vicinity of the Bayou Sorrel Locks.

Clark considers it “a gamechanger.”

The work stems from multiple flood events during the spring and summer of 2021 that led to record flooding throughout the areas between Bayou Sorrel and Bayou Pigeon. 

“Those areas are protected on both sides by levees,” he said. “But when water gets in, it can’t get out.” 

The area takes in waterflow from Morganza on the north end of Pointe Coupee Parish, down to False River to Iberville to Bayou Sorrel and further south to Belle River, Lake Verret, Lake Pollard and out to Bayou Buff, which leads to the Terrebonne Marsh at the Gulf Coast. 

“That’s where the water from False River and everywhere else has to go,” Clark said. “Once you get south of Bayou Sorrel, the land elevation is not much higher than five feet, above sea level, so it doesn’t take much for it to reach residential areas.”

He vividly remembers the hardships in June 2021 when water seeped over La. 75, only to have aqua dams blow out at the Bayou Sorrel Lock area.

It forced the placement of concrete barriers (also known as “jersey walls,” used by the state Department of Transportation and Development) which held water back and kept it in lower Grand River.

“It was very dramatic and where it came across the road it looked like Whitewater or like the Snake River … it was very fierce,” Clark recalled. 

Pump stations in the Bayou Sorrel area would ease the bottlenecks and pump it into the Atchafalaya Waterway System, a move Clark considers a win for four parishes — Iberville, West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee and Assumption (Pierre Part, Belle River and Stephensville).

The hardships have not been confined to the areas south of Plaquemine. 

The Great Flood of 2016 — the worst to hit Louisiana since the Flood of 1927 — brought widespread damage to Livingston, Ascension and East Baton Rouge.

While the Westbank was spared massive flooding, East Iberville was not. 

The area around Spanish Lake was inundated for 60 days or more around Spanish Lake and Bayou Paul. 

While Livington, Ascension and EBR received million in disaster relief, FEMA and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness shunned the St. Gabriel and Carville area.

It's been a fight for Iberville Parish, Clark said.

“When an area is heavily distressed, we call it a “most impacted” area, which gets priority for funding,” he said. “East Iberville had as much water — perhaps more — than East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Livingston, but for some reason it wasn’t on the FEMA and GOHSEP’s chart.”

The omission of Iberville added fuel to the fire when the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center for Women was declared a total loss. 

It forced relocation of approximately 5,000 inmates. 

“It was one of the largest correctional facilities in the southern United States, and we can’t even imagine how much it cost the state to house the inmates at other prisons — and now they’re rebuilding it,” Clark said. 

Damage was not relegated to the correctional facility.

Approximately 1.5 feet of water inundated the grounds and floors at petrochemical facilities — including Syngenta, Olin and others — between St. Gabriel and the Ascension Parish community of Geismar. 

“(FEMA) pretended it didn’t happen — and we’re talking about multibillion-dollar plants,” Clark said. “I’m constantly reminding them and I’m not afraid to stand up.

“Unfortunately, they have a starting line and we’re way behind in the line. But I think we’re making headway.”

Clark now serves on the Amite River Basin Commission — a coalition of area parishes which also includes Livingston, East Baton Rouge, Ascension and St. Helena — which gives the parishes a louder collective voice for flood mitigation. 

The members held their first meeting in May and hope to gain ground on assistance for flood mitigation.

“We’re being represented like never before,” he said. “When you’re not represented, you get left out.”