Levee board targets flood insurance

Now that the St. Mary Levee District has raised the Wax Lake East levees, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had previously deemed insufficient for 100-year flood protection, levee district officials hope to now move toward certifying them for flood insurance purposes.
On Thursday, Reid Miller of Miller Engineers reported that the Wax Lake East Levee Improvements project is complete, and the levee board approved substantial completion for the project, which entailed raising sections of a 2,700-foot stretch of levee by one to two feet. Those levees protect the Berwick and Patterson areas.
Once the corps deems the levees sufficient for flood protection, FEMA will be able to redo its flood maps for that area, declaring the levees certified for flood insurance purposes. Therefore, the Town of Berwick could go ahead and adopt the 2008 Digital Flood Insurance Rate maps it had not yet adopted.
Levee district officials are going to request the Corps of Engineers redo its Levee System Evaluation Report on the Wax Lake East levees so they can be accredited for flood protection, Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said.
Because the corps already did stability analysis on that levee stretch and only determined the levees deficient in elevation, documentation that shows the elevation is now adequate on that stretch should allow the corps to accredit the Wax Lake East levees, Matte said.
That data would then be submitted to FEMA to produce new flood protection maps for that area, Matte said.
Also at Thursday’ meeting, engineer Jeff Pena of CB&I said levee district officials learned within the past month that the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources will allow the district to go mitigation banks for the roughly 24 acres affected land on Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project,
The estimated $80 million project includes a permanent structure that will block Bayou Chene so that flood waters cannot travel from Bayou Chene through Bayou Boeuf to Lake Palourde.
After the levee district takes care of the mitigation requests, the DNR is supposed to award the district a permit, which will then allow officials to work on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit, Pena said.
“We see a significant advantage to being able to actually put our hands on a DNR permit,” Matte said. The Corps of Engineers will likely require the district to provide additional mitigation, Matte said.
The board authorized Levee District Commission President Bill Hidalgo to negotiate about $370,000 worth of mitigation bank credit purchases on the Bayou Chene project.
Hidalgo said moving toward purchasing the mitigation credits is “a big step” in the Bayou Chene project.
Levee district officials also want to see if the mitigation credits could be refunded or transferred to another project, if necessary, both of which the mitigation banks have been receptive to, Matte said.
The levee district had $1.25 million budgeted for the Bayou Chene project for this fiscal year, Matte said. Though the district has spent money on permitting issues, the district has money in the budget to purchase the mitigation credits and still have money left over to spend on preliminary design phase if the project gets to that stage, Matte said.
The commission also authorized Hidalgo to engage Marquis Management Group LLC to conduct a navigation report relating to the Bayou Chene project permitting process to answer questions posed by corps officials.
During the meeting, Miller reported that the Hanson Canal floodgate is operational and work continues on the Yellow Bayou flood control structure and pump station. Equipment is on site at Yellow Bayou that can provide protection for hurricane season, Miller said.
In other business, the commission
—Approved declaring Hesco baskets surplus equipment on Hanson Canal and Yellow Bayou.
—Approved a change order for the Wax Lake East Levee Project in the amount of $18,960.34.
—Authorized providing sheet pile to the City of Morgan City, St. Mary Parish Consolidated Gravity Drainage District 2 and St. Mary Parish Government.