Federal building rules worrisome for port leaders

Port of Morgan City officials and other leaders expressed concern Monday over proposed new federal building standards, which they say could have devastating effects on construction along the entire Gulf Coast.
At Monday’s Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District commission meeting, Port Economic Development Manager Cindy Cutrera said she recently participated in a conference call hosted by Greater New Orleans Inc., a regional economic development organization. The purpose of the discussion was to review and outline concerns regarding a White House executive order released Jan. 31, for new Federal Flood Risk Management Standards through FEMA.
“Those standards are basically trying to shift away from flood control and protection to risk management strategy,” Cutrera said. “It’s basically going to discourage any type of development in coastal areas.”
The new standards are intended for all federal agencies and all federally funded or approved projects, Cutrera said. GNO Inc. provided a draft of a letter citing concerns regarding the new standards, which Port of Morgan City officials will use to prepare its own letter, Cutrera said.
Whichever federal agencies have to provide permits for federally funded projects will all have to participate in the process of applying the new standards, which will cause inconsistences in how the standards are applied, Cutrera said.
“We need to send letters of objection,” Port of Morgan City Executive Director Raymond “Mac” Wade said during Monday’s meeting. The standards could “totally cripple south Louisiana,” Wade said.
The standards would affect the entire Gulf Coast and anything south of I-10, and probably affect anyone up to 20 feet above sea level, Wade said. As a result of such standards, federally funded projects would be slowed, be made more cumbersome and cost more, Wade said.
Under the new standards, a federal facility would have to be built to a higher standard, which may mean a 500-year flood standard instead of a 100-year flood standard, St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said.
“It’s all federal projects and programs. I think that’s really where the fear is,” Matte said.
Federal officials said those standards do not include the National Flood Insurance Program, which already has its own rules, Matte said. However, the fear is that once the standards become applicable across all federal agencies, eventually, officials may decide that the National Flood Insurance Program needs to have a 500-year flood protection standard instead of 100-year protection, Matte said.
“In that case, no levees in south Louisiana, would qualify as a certified levee,” Matte said. Levee district officials also plan to submit a letter of objection in regards to the new standard, Matte said.
Cutrera plans to contact other area government entities and industry leaders to make sure they are all on board to send objection letters to the federal government, she said.
Cutrera urged people to send in their comments by the April 6 deadline for public comment. Still, the National Waterways Council requested an extension to the comment period due to the magnitude of the proposed changes, Cutrera said.
Also at Tuesday’s port commission meeting, project manager Walt Adams said the construction of the port’s $11 million Government Emergency and Operations Center is going well despite the adverse weather and conditions that workers have had to deal with, he said. The center’s site is located on La. 182 near the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium.
“They continue to work every single day the sun shines, even if it’s just lightly raining. They’re out there working. So they’re not behind schedule at all,” Adams said. “They may fall back a day or so this week because of the weather that’s about to occur, but they will bring in secondary crews, if necessary, to start forming up the second floor slab.”
The project is being paid for with $7.1 million from the state, about $2.3 million in port matching funds in addition to another roughly $1.2 million the port commission approved to use for the project.
Project leaders are working to put together a budget allocation recommendation for special systems equipment, furnishings and signage among other items at the center, Adams said. The building is still expected to be completed on schedule by the last week of September, Adams said.
In other business, the commission approved up to $15,000 for Moffat & Nichol’s work to present an economic impact study to different entities and up to $15,000 for LSU Economic James Richardson’s work on that economic impact study.