Report: Levees off by inches

The new levee system evaluation report for the Wax Lake East levees shows the expected several inches to a foot or so deficiencies in certain spots on the levees, and engineers continue to work to address shortcomings along that levee stretch, St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said Thursday.
“It came in pretty much what we expected,” Matte said of the report. The original evaluation report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers delivered in February 2013 showed seven to eight-foot deficiencies for 100-year flood protection along those same levees instead of one to two dips that the May 2013 preliminary report showed.
The levee district commission met Thursday at the parish courthouse.
The report also included geotechnical analysis and structural analysis of the levees, which passed inspection, Matte said. “It leaves the only issue being the elevation,” Matte said.
The levee district wanted confirmation with the surveying work that Reid Miller of Miller Engineers has been doing on a 2,700-foot stretch of the Wax Lake East levees all to the south of Berwick and Patterson, Matte said. That project is in the permitting and design phases, he said.
The report stated that the Wax Lake East levees are considered deficient for the 1 percent, or 100-year storm, due to lack of elevation in certain sections, Matte said.
St. Mary Levee District officials are also looking at the possibility of moving a Morgan City pump station and realigning the levee along La. 70, Matte said.
The levee district commission approved amending the contract with T. Baker Smith to analyze realigning a portion of levee along La. 70 and recommend that St. Mary Parish Consolidated Drainage District No. 2 approve that amendment. Funding for the project would come from the drainage district, Matte said.
Kevin O’Gorman of T. Baker Smith said engineers submitted preliminary design plans for the portion of the Morgan City Levee Improvements Project alignment between the Atchafalaya River levee and Justa Street.
Engineers also looked at having the alignment of the levees follow La. 70 near Lake End Park and tie in to the Atchafalaya River levee and to the Cypress Gardens subdivision, O’Gorman said. That option would require a pump station to replace two of the larger pump stations in Morgan City, he said.
Engineers will work on formulating a better cost estimate to build a new pump station and elevating La. 70 back to the Atchafalaya River, O’Gorman said.
Matte said the levee district, drainage district, and Morgan City officials are reviewing the possibility of moving a pump station to Lake Palourde along the La. 70 Canal.
Levee district officials will have a pre-application meeting with different state agency officials within the next couple weeks to discuss the Morgan City Levee Improvements Project. Officials will address the Auburn levee to the mainline levee and Siracusa levee as well, Matte said.
In other business, the commission announced a June 12 meeting to renew the district millage of 5 mills.