Red tape keeps Swiftships from increasing bulkhead

A bundle of red tape separates Swiftships in Morgan City from increasing the height of the bulkhead on its property by two feet.
The top of the bulkhead is 10 feet above sea level, but the land mass where Swiftships operates is seven feet above sea level, Swiftships Chairman Calvin Leleux explained.
That bowl effect caused almost five feet of water to engulf the building in the spring floods of 2011, he said. Protection two feet higher is needed to properly protect the company, Leleux added.
To fully understand the problem, though, step back more than a decade in time.
Tim Matte, executive director of the St. Mary Levee District, said the bulkhead was built in the late 1990s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of a $10 million project designed to address water levels in the Front Street area. The project’s scope was severely underestimated, though, and all of the money was spent on Swiftships and the former Athena property, Matte said.
In the process, Matte, the former mayor of Morgan City, said the corps came to the city and wanted them to sign an agreement acting as the non-federal sponsor of the project. He said the city never did that to the best of his knowledge.
Eventually, the state Department of Transportation signed on as the non-federal sponsor.
Approximately two years ago the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority assumed coastal engineering duties from the DOTD for projects along the Louisiana Gulf Coast, something it had increasingly weighed in on since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
CPRA brings the project back full circle as it says the City of Morgan City should be the local agency responsible for the project, Matte said.
Matte said the levee district “wants to and is capable of taking over the levee system.” Their responsibility is currently extends to the mainline levee, he said.
However, the sump pumps, which Swiftships has always operated, would not fall under the purview of the levee district, he said.
Leleux said “This was the third time, in 2011, that we went under completely which means that several millions of dollars of things have to be moved out and then several millions of dollars more of damage that the flood waters do. The last time, all 25 acres flooded under almost five feet (of water).”
U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, who was in town visiting Swiftships Monday, said, “We need to get an answer from (the corps). Are they going to do something, or are they going to allow the company to just go ahead and take care of the problem?”
Leleux added, “We had to make a decision several years ago, and sometimes I really question whether we should have stayed or we should have gone somewhere else … we made the decision about five years ago that we’re going to stay, so we’re committed to Morgan City and St. Mary Parish.
“Sometimes you have to think seriously about it, being on this big river, that you’ve made the right choice. It’s a choice that’s interwoven into the Corps of Engineers and these flood waters. We sit right in amongst it all.”