Avoyelles Police Jury endorses regional watershed proposal

With a philosophy that solving local drainage problems may involve fixing issues located some distance south of here, the Avoyelles Parish Police Jury adopted a resolution to join forces with its Acadiana neighbors to seek grants to address frequent flooding.

Harry Schoeffler and Brent Logan, both of the Lafayette area, made a presentation focusing on the Courtableau-Teche-Vermilion (CTV) watershed.

After hearing the lengthy presentation -- which was the second time that day for some jurors -- the Police Jury adopted a resolution asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study/review plans to repair the floodgate at Bayou des Glaises in Bordelonville.

The jury also endorsed a proposal to ask the Corps to construct additional flood control gates at the Bayou Courtableu Control Structure to discharge water into Bayou Amy
Watershed Initiative

Logan said the Louisiana Watershed Initiative is a statewide campaign to improve drainage in the state.

Last August, Gov. John Bel Edwards said major floods in 2016 “forced us to rethink how our state approaches floodplain management and acknowledge that the status quo is no longer an option.”

He launched the Louisiana Watershed Initiative as a “model for how best-in-class science, engineering and objective decision-making at a watershed level will form the basis of flood risk management across our state in the years and decades to come.”

There is $1.2 billion of Community Development Block Grant funds available for projects, Logan said, but those projects need to have regional impact.

Approximately $100 million in planning grants will be awarded in Round 1 of the initiative. About $40 million of that will be awarded to the regions while $60 million will be dedicated to statewide planning.

Logan said it is imperative that parishes join forces to present a united front in choosing and championing these projects to secure grant funding.

Problems in the southern parishes also affect Bayou Rapides, Boeuf, Cocodrie and Bayou des Glaises drainage, they noted.

“If it can’t drain at the bottom, it backs up to here,” Logan said.

WATER FLOWS SOUTH

The law of nature is that water flows south.

Over the years, more of the water from Rapides Parish and Avoyelles Parish has been flowing into Bayou Courtableu, Bayou Teche and the Vermilion River.

For example, they said, the Red River Navigation Project raised the level of Red River to a point that Bayou Rapides cannot empty into the river as it once did.

That water now takes a course into the CTV watershed.

Logan said the loss of the Bordelonville floodgate means Bayou des Glaises drains through the Diversion Canal in Moreauville into the West Atchafalaya Floodway and into Courtableau.

“Because of these two items, nearly 100 percent of the water from the northern part of the watershed now drains into Bayou Courtableu,” Logan said.

In addition to repairing the Bordelonville floodgates, Logan and Shoeffler said there is also a proposal to construct a 3.8-mile canal from the abandoned Bayou Des Glaises floodgate to the Atchafalaya River.

That would get water out of that bayou quicker and less expensively than dredging the whole length of Bayou des Glaises to achieve the same purpose.

Juror Henry Moreau, who represents the Simmesport-Bordelonville area, said that issue needs more study because it could potentially reduce the water level of the bayou in front of homes and camps, which would upset the property owners.

Police Jury President Charles Jones said officials in the affected parishes will need “to figure out some work-arounds and not focus on any obstructions” to mounting a cooperative effort to address the major drainage issues affecting this region and the state.