Bayou Chene project gets $100 million boost

Since the 2011 flood fight, when the Atchafalaya River reached 10.5 feet in Morgan City, area leaders have pushed to install a permanent flood control structure on Bayou Chene that would protect at least five parishes from flooding. On Tuesday, local officials announced a major step in making that project a reality.
The Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project, which will protect St. Mary and many surrounding parishes, is set to receive settlement money from the 2010 BP oil spill to fund the estimated $107.5 million project.
Legislators and other government officials held a news conference Tuesday at the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium to discuss the project’s future.
In July, the public learned that Louisiana would receive $6.8 billion in Restore Act funds, which came out of the 2010 BP oil spill settlement, St. Mary Levee District Commission President Bill Hidalgo said. Hidalgo also serves on the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board.
On Aug. 19, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority received notification that the Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project will receive money from one of the “buckets” of money in the Restore Act, Hidalgo said.
The project has “region wide benefits,” and will prevent riverine, backwater, storm water and storm surge flooding associated with hurricanes in St. Mary, Terrebonne, Lafourche, lower St. Martin and Assumption parishes, authority Chairman Chip Kline said.
The 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.
Bayou Chene is directly connected to the Atchafalaya River.
The current plans for the project include a 250-foot gate, which vessels can travel through except when the barge is sunk and structure closed, St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said.
When the Atchafalaya River reaches 7 feet and is forecasted to continue to rise, officials would plan to close the floodgate on the Bayou Chene permanent structure, Matte said.
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the authority has worked to be “proactive” in implementing projects to protect “people’s livelihoods.”
The Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project is all about being proactive to provide flood protection, Kline said.
Since 2012, the Bayou Chene project has been in the authority’s state master plan and a top priority for the authority, Kline said.
During Tuesday’s news conference, state Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, referred to early 2011, when the region first discovered the sort of flood the area could experience from floodwater coming from up north.
In April 2011, at a public meeting in Morgan City, officials first mentioned the “flood fight” the area would have to go through, Allain said.
“What I remember about that meeting was the severity of what we were looking at,” Allain said.
People from all across the region were fearful of what devastating effects the flood water could have, Allain said.
In 1973, the region had experienced a similar flood, during which officials sank a barge in Bayou Chene to block the flood waters, he said. But at that time, Bayou Chene was only 200 feet wide.
By 2011, Bayou Chene had grown to over 1,000 feet wide, Allain said. That year, when flood waters threatened St. Mary, Terrebonne and other parishes, the St. Mary Levee District worked to install a temporary structure and sink a barge on Bayou Chene, which kept the area from “potentially catastrophic flooding,” Kline said.
Allain saw first-hand the difference installing that temporary barge with steel sheet pile made in preventing the flooding of five parishes, he said.
“It was the most incredible thing I saw. It absolutely worked. Everything held, and the waters were held back,” Allain said.
Allain, Kline and others praised Hidalgo, Matte (who was Morgan City mayor in 2011), and other levee district officials for their efforts to protect the region from a flood.
In August 2011, the temporary barge was finally removed after three months in place when the waters receded, Allain said.
Local legislators and leaders decided that they would do everything possible to make sure a permanent flood protection structure got built on Bayou Chene, Allain said.
The first money expected to be available to begin the Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project will be in January 2017, and Matte believes the St. Mary Levee District can have design of the project finished by that time, he said.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com