Parish Council told spring flooding chances are low
St. Martinville – St. Martin Parish Emergency Preparedness Director Terry Guidry told the St. Martin Parish Council this past Tuesday that the risk for spring flooding throughout the Greater Mississippi River Basin is likely to be near normal or below normal.
That means that the risk for flooding in the Atchafalaya Basin and across St. Martin Parish is lower than normal this year, unless there are heavy rainfall events in the Ohio River Valley.
Guidry told the council that he attended the annual spring weather flood outlook conference in Baton Rouge a few weeks ago, conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Weather Service’s Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center.
Flood risk from snowmelt is below normal because there is not much snowpack in the upper parts of the Mississippi River tributary system. Drought conditions also are contributing to lower expected flood threats.
Minor flooding with isolated moderate flooding is possible in both the Greater Mississippi River Basin and in Louisiana Rivers, dependent on rainfall in the Ohio Valley that includes the Kentucky and Tennessee Rivers. The Ohio River and its tributaries deliver 50 percent of the water in the Mississippi River system.
Atchafalaya Basin
Atchafalaya Basinkeeper Executive Director Dean Wilson and Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association Vice President Ben Bienvenu thanked the parish council for its support in two recent lawsuits filed in federal court.
Judge Brian A. Jackson of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana ruled in favor of motions by the two nonprofit groups and others to half the East Grand Lake Project and to remove what effectively was a dam across the Pat’s Throat Bayou by the Miller Hunting Club.
The judge ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should not have issued permits for the EGL Project, and that the Corps also should not have granted a permit for the Pat’s Throat Bayou work issued after the fact.
“The whole board wants to thank y’all, and all the fishermen, really, for all the support that y’all give us,” Bienvenu said “It means a lot to us to have somebody supporting the commercial fishing industry.”
Bienvenu said that commercial fishermen buy gas, bait and other things daily, and their products go to the general public, so having the support of the parish government is important to the LCPA members.
Wilson told the council that the great flood of 1927 had much of South Louisiana underwater except for the Teche ridges in St. Martin Parish.
A similar flood now would be 30 percent worse, he said, because a failure of the levees on the west side of the Atchafalaya Basin would cause the entire parish to be underwater due to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ work that has led to so much silt building up in the basin as 30 percent of the Mississippi River’s water is diverted into the Atchafalaya.
A 1982 Corps study said that the Atchafalaya would only be able to handle 57 percent of the water it did in the 1927 flood, and siltation has built up since then.
The East Grand Lake Project would have made things even worse, Wilson said “It took parishes joining and fighting together (to win the lawsuit),” Wilson said. “You are not alone. We have three parishes that passed resolutions against the project,” Wilson said. “The fight is not over. We filed a lawsuit against the State of Louisiana asking for the same thing, because we don’t want them to modify the project and apply for it again and the whole fight starts over again. So right now we’re in court with the State of Louisiana to stop this project once and for all.
FLOODING OUTLOOK – St. Martin Parish Office of Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness Director Terry Guidry talks to the St. Martin Parish Council at its meeting this past Tuesday about the outlook for spring flooding in the parish this year based on national projections for the Mississippi River valley and the Atchafalaya Basin, which through which 30 percent of the water from the Mississippi is diverted. (Chris Landry)
Flood
“We want to thank you guys. We couldn’t have done this without your support. This kind of victories happen because the parishes are standing together and fighting back.”
Parish Councilman Chris Tauzin said that the commercial fishing industry is a viable part of the parish economy and thanked Wilson and Bienvenu and their organizations for helping try to open state Congressional representatives’ eyes to the issues siltation in the Atchafalaya Basin causes.
“It’s not only for our commercial fishermen, and our recreational fishermen, but it’s for us to be able to pass our floodwaters,” he said. “The problem is we have areas in the basin that are higher than where most of us live right here in St. Martin Parish, and if that levee was to break, we might want to go to the other side of the levee because this side would be under water.”
Tauzin said that the state and federal government should handle the Atchafalaya Basin the way that Florida and the U.S. government handled the Everglades in a mission to restore the Everglades.
A fraction of the money spent there could be spent in the Atchafalaya Basin, he said, which is the largest river basin in the world. Two-thirds of the nation’s water goes through the Mississippi River and 30 percent of that is diverted into the Atchafalaya, which has led to canals and natural bayous being plugged up by silt that leads to higher flooding risks.
“I want to thank you guys for what y’all do because we want our grandkids and their grandkids and everybody else to be able to enjoy the Basin and what we have,” Tauzin said. “We call ourselves the Sportsman’s Paradise. Well, we won’t have much of a paradise if we don’t take care of what we have.”
Library business
The Parish Council passed a resolution awarding the contract for the new Branch Library for the Village of Parks to apparent low bidder Chart Construction for $998,744.
The council also passed a resolution authorizing the acceptance of two computers from the St. Martin Parish Library Board of Control to be placed at the Cade Community Center for outreach and other uses.
In other business
Orchard Park Drive resident Eric Babineaux asked the council to install no parking signs along the road.
Other residents had opposed that request, brought by Councilman Vincent Alexander at a meeting earlier this year.
Babineaux said that people have been parking along the road and urinating publicly in front of his wife and children, and he asked the council for the no parking signs.
Parish Attorney Lee Durio also informed the council about the :Do Your Thing with a Wing” fundraiser for Chez Hope scheduled May 2 in Franklin.
Chez Hope’s Kelli Cantu was unable to attend the meeting so asked Durio to announce the chicken wing cookoff.
The council also sent back a request for a zoning ordinance change to the parish Planning Commission to rehear a petition to change zoning of property owned by James and Melodie Knapp at 1059 Grain Elevator Road in Arnaudville for the property to be used as an art studio.
The commission had recommended the council not approve the zoning change, but the owners had modified their plans to remedy the concerns raised by a neighbor that the caused the commission to deny the request.
The council voted to send the matter back for the commission to reconsider the new plan because if it had voted to deny the zoning change request, the owners would have to wait a year before applying for another zoning change. This allows the owners to apply for a change again with no delay and for the planning commission to make its recommendation for the council to vote on at its next monthly meeting.
The council also took no action on ruling to show cause to address nuisance property at 1641 Burton Plantation Road in St. Martinville after no motion was offered on the matter. The property had been cleaned up to the council’s satisfaction prior to the meeting so as not to be ruled a nuisance.
The council deferred action on calling for a resolution authorizing Parish President Pete Delcambre to execute a Certificate of Substantial Completion for the Roadside Stabilization and Road Repairs Project on Box Car Road after the council had approved a change order the previous month to extend the stabilization project another 180 feet along the banks of the Vermilion. The council will consider a resolution for a substantial completion certificate at its May meeting.
However, the council passed several resolutions, including ones that:
• authorized Delcambre to sign an Intergovernmental Agreement with the City of St. Martinville to remove trees and debris from the Oliver Lane and Stephanie Drive Outfall canals and the city’s Durand Subdivision;
• authorized a change order for an increase of $15,000 for the Cypress Island/ Joe Daigre Drainage System Maintenance Project Phase II by Down South Construction Services;
• authorized a change order for an increase of $677.44 for the Henderson Water Level Control Structure Repairs Project by Reliant Industrial Solutions;
• authorized Delcambre to sign a Certificate of Substantial Completion for the Henderson Water Level Control Structure Repairs Project by Reliant Industrial Solutions;
• authorized a change order for a $15,000 decrease for the Henderson Water Level Control Structure Repairs Project by Reliant Industrial Solutions;
• and appointing Brandon Miller to fill the unexpired term of Kirk Taylor on the St. Martin Parish Planning Commission, and appointing Christopher Hollier to fill the unexpired term of Jonathan Gregory on the St. Martin Parish Planning Commission.
