Wax Lake levees nearing certification

St. Mary Levee District officials are working to complete the process to certify the Wax Lake East levees for flood protection in the coming months, which would avoid potential flood insurance premium increases for local home owners.
Levee district officials have submitted all survey work on the southern reach of the Wax Lake East levees to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said Thursday.
The levee district commis-sion held its monthly meeting at the Port of Morgan City.
Matte hopes to be able to have the Corps’ analysis of the levee surveys done by the end of December so the levee district can submit the work to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to certify the levees, he said. FEMA would then start the process of certifying the levees in February.
In June, Reid Miller of Miller Engineers reported that he had finished raising sections of a 2,700-foot stretch of the levees by 1 to 2 feet with the goal of certifying the stretch for 100-year flood protection for flood insurance purposes.
In 2013, the Corps found that the Wax Lake East levees were no longer provi-sionally accredited for flood protection, though the most recent FEMA flood maps showed the levees were accredited, Matte said.
The Wax Lake East levees protect both Berwick and Patterson, though the defi-ciencies the Corps identified in 2013 mainly affected Berwick.
Once FEMA labels the Wax Lake East levees as certified for flood protection, Berwick will be able to adopt its 2008 flood maps. Berwick has been going by the 1996 maps for flood protection. FEMA hasn’t yet enforced the 2008 maps.
Berwick only had minor changes from the 1996 to 2008 maps, whereas Morgan City had much more signifi-cant increases in the required levee heights for certification.
Morgan City is also doing several projects to raise its levees to comply with FEMA’s flood protection standards.
Several weeks ago, St. Mary Levee District officials met with the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Res-toration Authority team that is designing a project to increase the Atchafalaya River flow to eastern Terrebonne Parish, Matte said.
That project entails using a bypass around the Bayou Boeuf lock to send more Atchafalaya River flow down the Intracoastal Waterway, Matte said.
The ultimate goal is to have that water go into the Terrebonne marsh by opening some of the bayous that connect to the Intracoastal Waterway and to take more freshwater into the marsh and push some of the saltwater out, Matte said.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of interaction there with the Bayou Chene project as we’ve pointed out to them, and they’ve confirmed in their modeling,” Matte said. “In some circumstances, without a closure on Bayou Chene, you would lose most of your water down the Chene.”
The Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project involves installing a permanent structure on Bayou Chene in the Amelia area, near the former McDermott yard, with a barge that can be sunk in the event of a flood to stop flood waters from traveling through Bayou Chene. The structure is expected to have a 250-foot opening for vessel traffic to pass through except when the structure is in use for flood protection.
Final design of the project is scheduled to finish in February 2017.
The structure will protect St. Mary, Terrebonne, Lafourche, lower St. Martin and Assumption parishes from flooding.
Also during Thursday’s meeting, levee district offi-cials authorized a petition of intervention supporting the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources decision to grant a permit to the St. Mary Levee District for the Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project.
Avoca Inc., which operates on Avoca Island near the proposed flood protection structure on Bayou Chene, filed a petition for review in 16th Judicial District in regard to Avoca’s disagreement with the Department of Natural Resources’ decision to grant the permit.
In other business, the commission
—Adopted the 2015 amended budget and 2016 budget.
—Approved negotiating with city of Morgan City for the city’s request for the levee district to fund the purchase of a tractor.