Levee board requests help on Bayou Chene project

St. Mary Levee District leaders are requesting help from surrounding parishes to fund the Bayou Chene Flood Control Project after learning that the project will receive significantly less funding from the Restore Act than originally anticipated.
Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority officials recently informed the levee district that the authority will be able to provide $40 million in Restore Act funds for the Bayou Chene Flood Control Project, St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said. The Restore Act was created out of the BP oil spill settlement. The $40 million will not be enough to get a contract for construction of the project, Matte said.
The project includes installing a permanent flood-gate on Bayou Chene in Amelia to protect areas in St. Mary, Terrebonne, Assumption, Lower St. Martin, Lafourche and Iberville parishes from flooding. Terrebonne and Assumption parishes will receive the largest amount of protection from a land mass standpoint, Matte said.
Last week, the levee district commission approved a resolution calling on the other five parishes that benefit from the project to assist the St. Mary Levee District in securing the necessary funding to design and complete the permanent project and to assist the district in securing the necessary permits.
Terrebonne Parish contributed $500,000 toward the planning of the project, but no other parishes have participated yet, Matte said.
In 2015, the levee district updated the estimated project cost to $107.5 million. Officials had hoped the Restore Act money would fund most of the Bayou Chene project and that construction could begin in April 2017 when Restore Act funds become available.
The Bayou Chene project has to share money from a “pot” of Restore Act funds with a project on the Houma Navigation Canal and a salinity control project in Calcasieu Parish. The funds aren’t sufficient to fully fund all three projects, Matte said.
Levee district officials are trying to cut the estimated Bayou Chene project cost to roughly $70 million, Matte said. Officials are discussing possibly lowering the height of the structure and doing less work on nearby Avoca Island, he said.
CPRA leaders also told the levee district that Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, or GOMESA, funds from oil royalties the federal government collects, should be available to Louisiana starting in 2017, Matte said. The funds were dedicated to coastal uses.
“If we are going to get these GOMESA funds, we’re going to need these other parishes to step up and help us,” Matte said.
The St. Mary Levee District anticipates calling a public meeting with project partners to lay out current cost estimates, potential funding sources and other challenges to getting this project complete, Matte said.
Officials invited to participate in those discussions would include area parish representatives, CPRA officials, as well as the area’s state legislative delegation.
CPRA Spokesman Chuck Perrodin said Congress approved GOMESA funds for CPRA several years ago, and the coastal protection organization is supposed to receive the bulk of that money in 2017. CPRA leaders “are fighting and pushing to get what was promised to us by Congress,” Perrodin said.