Full Funding of Study Keeps Work on Track
NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh of the Mississippi Valley Division approved an agreement to modify the Feasibility Cost Share Agreement on June 29, 2009. On July 6, 2009, the Corps and the nonfederal sponsors, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana and the Lafourche Basin Levee District executed the agreement.
The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority will assume all responsibilities formerly assigned to the Louisiana Department of Transportation under the original cost share agreement. The Lafourche Basin Levee District will remain partner to the cost share agreement. A revised project management plan, including changes in total study costs, has been developed to account for increased costs associated with the scope of work.
The Donaldsonville to the Gulf of Mexico feasibility study area includes the Barataria Basin on the east bank of Bayou Lafourche and the west bank of the Mississippi River extending southeast to Barataria Bay. The low lying communities of Barataria, Crown Point, and Lafitte are components of the 2,423 square mile study area. The study area also spans across nine parishes, which include Ascension, Assumption, St. James, St. John the Baptist, Lafourche, St. Charles, Orleans, Jefferson, and Plaquemines. In addition, communities along the Mississippi River’s west bank, the Bayou Lafourche ridge, and developments along the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway are also within the study area.
The purpose of the study is to identify management measures that will reduce flood risk from hurricane storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico and major storm events including heavy rainfall. The project will also identify measures that may potentially provide natural environmental benefits to the study area.
Since 1985, the study area has been declared a federal disaster due to widespread flooding ten times. This includes major flooding resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008.
Executing this agreement is a monumental milestone in the efforts to providing structural, environmental, and agricultural damage risk reduction for the study area. The draft feasibility study and the draft environmental impact statement are scheduled to be completed in 2010.
“This project will provide the missing link in identifying a risk reduction measure for southeast Louisiana and will close the gap between Morganza to the Gulf and West Bank & Vicinity projects. In addition, the study has the potential to provide a measure of risk reduction for as many as nine parishes.” said Senior Project Manager Durund Elzey. “The study is fully funded and we are positioned to expeditiously identify a justifiable and implementable risk reduction measure. We will continue to engage all stakeholders throughout the study process.”