– Atchafalaya Basinkeeper Executive Director Dean Wilson and Henderson Mayor Pro Tem Jody Meche warned the St. Martin Parish Council at its May 20 Public Works Committee meeting that the proposed East Grand Lake Ecological Enhancement Project would threaten parishes adjoining the Atchafalaya Basin with future flooding issues.
The East Grand Lake project is a river diversion project that would divert water filled with sediments and pollutants from the Atchafalaya River and Bayou Sorrel through 12 cuts into the surrounding cypress swamps, according to the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper website. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the project proposed by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
A group of plaintiffs including a plaintiff group, including Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association- West, Healthy Gulf, Sierra Club and its Delta Chapter, and Waterkeeper Alliance filed a lawsuit in May of 2024 to challenge the Corps’ approval of the project.
Meche, who served on the Louisiana Crawfish Promotion and Research Board for more than 20 years and also served as vice president and president of the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association and is a former board member and current active member of the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper organization. He also represents St. Martin Parish on the Atchafalaya Basin Levee District.
Wilson and Meche showed photos of sediment buildup from similar cuts that have been dug in the past.
Meche said that the proposed project would be on the north side of East Grand Lake. But on the south side of the lake, there is essentially a manmade dam created when a canal was dug for a pipeline with the sediment piled up alongside the channel, creating a levee that is 15 feet above sea level.
Meche said he knows a lot of the fishermen, both those who fish for finfish and those who fish for crawfish, and they hunt the area, and none are in favor of the project because they know that when water goes through the proposed cuts it will run into those piles of sediment on the southern end of the lake and the water will slow down and dump sediment into the cypress bottom swamp.
That will create flooding problems as well, he said, which is his main concern. The area escaped potentially disastrous flooding in 2011, 2016 and this year, he said, but may not be so lucky as to slip through the cracks if the deep swamp bottom is filled with sediment.
“It’s about that Atchafalaya Basin continuing to be able to protect your constituents and you all and me and all of the parishes adjacent to the east and west side levee system,” he said. “We don’t need to fill these deep bottoms. We don’t need to do projects that are going to channel river sand and sediment to heighten that bottom. We have too many projects that have been done in the Atchafalaya Basin like this project. We don’t need to continue to do it to aggravate and worsen the situation.”
Wilson said that at hearings at Bayou Sorrel and Henderson, everyone who spoke about the project opposed it, but the projects are still expected to go ahead as planned.
Meche said that projects have been proposed to divert river water to drop sediments along the coast, but haven’t been approved. Instead, those projects are dumping sediment into the Atchafalaya Basin swamps.
“If we could do on all the coastal marshes, what these canals are doing in these projects they want to do in the basin, which are building landmasses in our bowl that protects us from flooding, if we could do those types of things on the coast, we’d be all right,” Meche said. “We think we figured out how to do it, we just can’t get them to fund the project to do it. We don’t need cuts putting that river water directly into our millionacre Atchafalaya Basin which its main purpose is to protect the whole midsection of the country from flooding, including us.”
The designed height of the levee along the basin is 36 feet, but adding 20 feet of water from the Mississippi at Butte La Rose, which could easily happen if flooding occurs in the Midwest, would put the water level at 39 1/2 feet, which is 3 1/2 feet higher than the highest point on the levee. Some areas of the level are lower than that. More projects like the East Grand Lake Project mean less ability for the basin to handle water overflow from the Mississippi.
“Our kids have no future,” Wilson said. “If we fill up the spillway, we don’t have a future.
“This state has done a lot wrong, but this is over the top this year. So that’s why we’re asking you guys to pass a vote on an amicus brief to support (the lawsuit) against the Corps of Engineers (moving forward with the project).”
The parish council adopted a resolution opposing the project at its May 7 meeting.
Council Chairman Chris Tauzin said the council would have to vote at its June 2 meeting on supporting an amicus brief for the lawsuit.
Public Works
The Public Works Committee discussed ordinances providing for rules and regulations for the Keystone Locks, and providing for the lease of one Caterpillar Model D3-121 GP Dozer and three Caterpillar Model D5-17VP Dozers.
The committee also considered adoption of a change order for a decrease of $84,127 for the Petroleum Parkway project by Sierra Construction LLC.
District 1 council member Hoyt Louviere suggested the parish council hold one of its meetings in Lower St. Martin Parish, after the School Board held a meeting in Stephensville on Wednesday.
Tauzin said the council had held meetings in different areas of the parish one year, including in Stephensville, and suggested committee meetings could be held there one month.
District 2 Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste updated the council on AT&T’s fiber optic internet installation and some outages that have been dealt with.
Risk
She also said there are some detours through Cade on Louisiana 92-2 while work is being done on the road.
District 3 Councilwoman Tangie Narcisse said the parish will receive some funding from the state to improve Seiber Road, which the parish shares with the city of St. Martinville. Narcisse said she asked state Reps. Blake Miguez and Marcus Bryant and state Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, who represent the parish, for help with the work and was notified last week that some appropriations will be forthcoming to fix the road. Parish President Pete Delcambre said he is awaiting official word so the project can go forward.
District 4 Councilman David Poirier asked about the status of permits for Joe Daigre Canal work, which interim parish Public Works Director Jason Castille said are still in the works with the Corps of Engineers.
Tauzin and District 6 Councilman Corey Melancon thanked Castille for work he did in helping them deal with issues before the meeting. District 9 Councilman Chris Courville commended Castille and the public works department for their work dealing with floodi ng issues.
Administrative/ Finance Committee The Administrative/ Finance Committee considered adoption of several resolutions and ordinances, including a resolution appointing St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office employee Alaina Conner as Executive Director of the Enhanced Emergency 911 Board of Commissioners for St. Martin Parish.
Conner, who has 21 years experience with the Sheriff’s Office, was recommended by Sheriff Becket Breaux.
The committee also considered adoption of a resolution granting an Industrial Tax Exemption for Processors LLC.
