New River pump station is Ascension's priority at ARBC meeting

 See original post at Pelican Post

New River pumps into Mississippi is Ascension’s top priority at Amite River Basin meeting

Amite River Basin Drainage & Water Conservation District (ARBC) convened its monthly meeting at Ascension’s Council Chamber on Tuesday.  Six of the seven participating parishes were represented, with different project priorities all vying for precious funding from whatever source might be available.  Parish President Clint Cointment argued for prioritization of the proposal to pump water from New River into the Mississippi as much of the discussion focused on a Bayou Manchac Flood Risk Reduction project.

The Louisiana Watershed Initiative is extending the deadline to submit pre-applications for Round 2 project funding to May 31. The extended deadline will allow more time to help applicants submit their project pre-applications.

Round 2 is part of LWI’s Local and Regional Projects grant program, which distributes project funding in three rounds. For more information and the pre-application survey, click here. For questions, contact watershed@la.gov or the watershed coordinator for your region.

"Manchac cannot be the only solution,” Ascension’s President asserted.  “You have to have another outlet…to get water out of Manchac.  (The project) allows us to pump New River down, then accept water from Spanish Lake which ultimately ends up in Manchac.  Spanish Lake and Bluff Swamp contribute to Manchac, and this project would allow these to recede.”

Cointment explained that a pump station on New River at the Mississippi River levee, combined with a diversion structure at Hwy 74, would benefit five downstream parishes.  In effect, the basin served by Marvin Braud Pumping Station would be “split in half, water west of the City of Gonzales into the Mississippi alleviates St. James and Livingston.”  It would also obviate the necessity of temporary structures, like the aqua-dam employed by Iberville in 2021’s major event.

“There has to be another solution and I believe this is it.  We just need the upfront funding to go ahead,” Cointment advised, adding that Ascension Parish is willing to undertake the responsibility for Operations and Maintenance of the pumps.  “It would also protect the Hwy 30 corridor (which provides jobs and great economic benefit to the entire region).”

The “only proposal that removes water from the Amite River Basin, a compelling argument though the project would be more costly than others proposed by five representatives of Iberville, East Baton Rouge, Livingston, East Feliciana, and St. James.  St. Helena Parish’s board member was not present and has yet to submit its priority project.

Iberville and East Baton Rouge favor a Bayou Manchac Regional Flood Risk Reduction Project, Ascension’s No. 2 priority according to President Cointment.  It would entail debris removal and some silt removal from Bayou Manchac according to ARBC’s elected chair, John Clark who is the appointee of Iberville Parish President Mitch Ourso.  EBR designee, Fred Raiford, favored the Manchac proposal, noting that retention areas are in the process of being constructed to alleviate some of Manchac’s burden.

Improvements to Manchac would, according to Livingston designee Mark Harrell, render the existing burden on his parish even more onerous.  Livingston favors a sediment removal project on the Amite River from Port Vincent to Lake Maurepas.

“(The Manchac Project) dumps water on us,” stressed Harrell, Livingston’s CAO/OHSEP Director.  “We’ll take the water, but give us a way to get it on out to the lake.”

Livingston’s “No. 1 project by far,” Amite River sediment removal might also offset the impact of improvements to the Diversion Canal weir being contemplated by Pontchartrain Levee District.  

• East Feliciana “fully supports what East Baton Rouge is doing while prioritizing debris removal from the upper branches of the Comite River.

• St. James’ priority is a hydrological structure, pump and levee system.

• St. Helena was not represented, though other members summarized past projects that could have received 90% funding but the parish could not come up with required 10% matching funds.