NAME OF APPLICANT: Terrebonne Levee Conservation District, c/o: GIS Engineering, LLC, 2503 Petroleum Drive, Suite 110, Houma, Louisiana 70363.
LOCATION OF WORK: Located in Terrebonne Parish, located along La. Highway 182, Bayou Black and Geraldine Road, near the communities of Houma and Gibson, Louisiana, (lat. 29.590575, long. -90.8309972), as shown within the attached drawings. (Hydrologic Unit Code 8090301, Barataria Watershed)
The work described below was partially completed prior to obtaining a Department of the Army permit and was in violation of Section 301 of the Clean Water Act. All legal issues concerning the unauthorized work have since been deferred.
CHARACTER OF WORK: This proposal is for the construction of four flood protection levees called; Reaches 1, 2, 3, and Geraldine Road levee. On May 10, 2011, the Corps received an emergency request from the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government (TPCG) for an emergency authorization to construct three flood protection levees known as Reaches 2, 3, and the Geraldine Road Levee. The emergency request was due to the anticipated opening of the Morganza Spillway on May 15, 2011. TPCG noted that verbal authorization was provided by the Corps on May 11, 2011 to perform emergency levee construction along Hwy 182 and along Geraldine Road. On December 30, 2016, TPCG began construction of the Reach 1 flood protection levee in the same general area due to a projected Mississippi River high water flooding event. This newly constructed levee extended from the existing verbally authorized levees along Hwy 182 from Bayou Black towards Houma.
On August 8, 2018, the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District (TLCD) submitted a revised permit application that included all three previously constructed levees (Reach 1, 2 & 3) and the proposed Geraldine Road Levee. TLCD completed wetland delineations for all four levees and submitted that data to the Corps on March 10, 2020. Reaches 1, 2, 3, and Geraldine Road are described in detail in the following drawings. The project includes a total of 52.42 acres of direct impacts to jurisdictional Bottomland Hardwoods wetlands and 21.38 acres of direct impacts to jurisdictional Cypress Tupelo wetlands. The applicant has proposed a project related plan which they expect the benefits will offset project related impacts, and that consists of a water management design that would reduce flooding/water levels affecting residences in the area and would additionally be managed in a way that would maintain beneficial water levels conducive to wetland habitat regeneration of degrading habitats within the levee system. A copy of this plan is attached to this Public Notice.
The applicant may be required to fully or partially restore the site to pre-project conditions if issuance of a permit is determined to be contrary to the public interest.