Judge affirms Bayou Chene project permit

A district judge has ruled to affirm a permit issued for the Bayou Chene Flood Control Project after a landowner challenged the permit’s validity in a November 2015 lawsuit.
Judge Paul deMahy of the 16th Judicial District Court ruled Friday against Avoca LLC’s petition for review of a Bayou Chene project permit that the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources had already approved, thus affirming the DNR permit, St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said in an email.
Avoca had filed a lawsuit against DNR requesting the department rescind the Bayou Chene project permit DNR issued in September 2015.
Avoca LLC owns land on Avoca Island, which is located near the future home of a flood protection structure on Bayou Chene in Amelia. The Daily Review could not reach an Avoca representative this morning for comment on deMahy’s ruling.
The lawsuit said that DNR didn’t have the information needed to evaluate the project’s impacts and failed to record evidence regarding the project design.
The estimated $107.5 million project involves installing a floodgate to protect areas in St. Mary, Lower St. Martin, Terrebonne, Assumption, Lafourche and Iberville parishes from flooding. Officials plan to close the floodgate when the Atchafalaya River reaches 7 feet in Morgan City and is forecasted to continue rising.
In May, Avoca came out with a report that determined that the Bayou Chene permanent structure “will result in the degradation of 371 acres of coastal wetlands” on Avoca Island in addition to the area beneath the footprint of the structure.
To determine the Bayou Chene project’s impact to the island, Avoca used modeling to figure out how many acres the project would have affected in 2008, 2009 and 2011 and took the average of those three years.
In 2011, the levee district installed a temporary flood protection structure on Bayou Chene when the river rose to 10.35 feet in Morgan City. Avoca stated that the 2011 event caused 529 acres of impacts to the island.
The 2008 and 2009 models were based on hypothetical closures as no structure was in place during those years.
A temporary structure was also installed in January due to high water in the Atchafalaya River. The river crested at 8.2 feet in Morgan City earlier this year.
Levee district leaders disagreed with Avoca’s assessment that there will be any indirect impacts to Avoca Island in regard to the Bayou Chene Flood Control Project. The district stated that the island floods naturally when the river rises and that the Bayou Chene structure wouldn’t add to that flooding.
Levee district officials have yet to receive two permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the project. The process to try to get one of the permits has been particularly difficult, Matte said.
That permit is required because project leaders want to change the authorized width of the opening on Bayou Chene for vessel traffic to go through from 400 feet to 250 feet. The levee district has received letters of support from local businesses for a 250-foot opening. Using the smaller opening will cost significantly less money than the 400-foot opening.
Officials hope to have all the necessary permits and design work on the project finished by April 2017 when Restore Act funds from the BP oil spill settlement become available for use.