St. John getting look at hurricane protection

BY KYLE BARNETT

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – Lake Pontchartrain Levee District will begin a feasibility study for a new levee that will ultimately keep an evacuation route open from New Orleans, as well as protect existing developments in East St. John Parish during hurricanes and tropical storms.

The levee is proposed to run from the western edge of Bonnet Carre Spillway to Reserve and will protect the East Bank of St. John Parish from a storm surge.

“What we are worried about in St. John Parish is storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas,” said Lake Pontchartrain Levee District President Steve Wilson. “If we get a good easterly wind, water covers the I-55, I-10 interchange. After 2005 we realized how important it is to keep this open for evacuation.”

Following Hurricane Katrina the interchange was impassible for two days.

The study will cost an estimated $1.6 million and may take until 2009 to complete. St. John Parish will be responsible for over $400,000 of the cost.

St. John Parish President-elect Bill Hubbard expressed his desire to move the plan forward. Hubbard said he was not happy the study could take up to two more years to complete.

“They said they have been working with this plan since 1971,” said Hubbard. “I’m just not used to working that way.”

Wilson said the end-date of 2009 was an estimate, but he hopes to finish the study before then.

“I have confidence that we will speed the study up,” said Wilson. “The key is us going out to speak with committees that have a review function. What we are trying to do is meet with them ahead of time and get them to sign off on our project. Environmental impact studies generally take 18 months. We are trying to take that down to six months.”

Wilson added that even if the study does get finished early the Corps of Engineers does not have to review it until 2009. However, the first phase of construction from the Bonnet Carre Spillway to I-55 could start as early as 2008 pending funding from the federal government.

“Mary Landrieu, David Vitter, Governer Jindal, Richard Baker, Charlie MelanconŠall of them are aware of our plan and all of them have pledged their support,” Wilson said.

The Corps of Engineers first looked into the proposed levee system after the devastation of Hurricane Betsy in 1965 caused significant flooding from Lake Pontchartrain into New Orleans, costing damage that today would be worth $12 billion.

The first tangible plan for the levee system was proposed 35 years later, in 2000.

“The Corps (of Engineers) rejected that project,” said Wilson. “The Corps came back to the parish and said if you want that project in this location you will have to put it out at all the cost.”

The original proposal in 2000 would have increased landholding and the potential for new commercial developments in the area while not taking wetlands into consideration.

Wilson said that in addition to the Corps of Engineers turning down the 2000 proposal the Pontchartrain Levee District developed a more environment friendly approach after learning a lesson on their last levee project in St. Charles Parish.

In St. Charles the Pontchartrain Levee District’s initial plan would have increased landholdings and the potential for real estate developments for local landowners. However, the new levee was challenged by local environmental groups on how it would affect the ecology of the wetlands.

The effect of a challenge so late in the planning process not only cost the Levee District time and money associated with developing a new plan, but also brought about a number of high dollar lawsuits from landowners who had planned on developing lakeside properties.

Due to the St. Charles precedent the current levee plan was developed after the Pontchartrain Levee District began working closely with the Corps of Engineers and area environmental groups.

At an estimated cost of $270 million the plan for the 17 mile-long levee includes a more permeable structure that will protect the integrity of the wetlands while at the same time protecting established development.

Until the levee is complete the only line of defense against flooding is an emergency vehicle the Levee District bought last year that can put up water dams on demand.

“That isn’t going to take care of a whole area like a permanent structure would though,” Wilson said.