Breaux Act Newsflash - CPRA Discusses Host of Restoration Projects at Monthly Meeting
***********************************************************************For Immediate Release: April 23, 2008
Contact: Chris Macaluso
(225) 342-3968
chris.macaluso@la.gov
CPRA Discusses Host of Restoration Projects and Morganza-to-the-Gulf
Review Panel at Monthly Meeting
BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
announced the construction of a shoreline protection project for St.
Charles Parish and the formation and members of a technical review panel
to evaluate the current alignment of a planned hurricane protection system
for the Houma area at its monthly meeting Wednesday at the Department of
Natural Resources Building.
The CPRA and St. Charles Parish signed a Memorandum of Understanding that
allows the state to advance $2.3 million from the Coastal Protection and
Restoration Fund to the parish's Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP)
fund. The advance will allow the parish and the Department of Natural
Resources to combine efforts and begin construction of a shoreline
protection project in Lake Salvadore. Because of the advance, DNR will be
able to begin processing the construction bid package as early as the end
of this month instead of having to wait until December 2008 or early 2009.
"This kind of cooperation between the CPRA and the parishes represents the
kind of innovative thinking it's going to take on our part to advance the
restoration and protection of our coast as quickly as possible," said CPRA
Chairman Garret Graves.
CIAP is a program established by the Department of the Interior that will
allot $510 million to the state over the next four years to offset the
impacts of offshore oil and gas production. The state will receive 65
percent of the funds while the 19 coastal parishes receive 35 percent.
St. Charles Parish is expecting to receive $1.5 million from CIAP this
year and will return the $2.3 million to the CPRA fund when additional CIAP
funds are released in 2009.
The CPRA then discussed the formation of a technical review panel to
evaluate Morganza-to-the Gulf, a 72-mile system of levees, locks and flood
protection gates designed to provide hurricane protection to Terrebonne
Parish and lower Lafourche Parish.
The technical review panel will determine if the current alignment will
provide the best protection possible to coastal infrastructure while
minimizing impacts to wildlife and fishery habitats. Eight scientists with
expertise in wetland ecosystems and hydrology from Louisiana and Texas
have been selected and will begin meeting in June. Recommendations about
the Morganza system are anticipated to be brought to the CPRA
approximately six months after the first meeting.
Graves said the state will move forward with developing the system and
continue working with the Army Corps of Engineers to advance its
construction while the review panel evaluates the project. The system has
been authorized by Congress since 1992 but construction has been delayed
numerous times.
"This review panel is not designed to slow the building of
Morganza-to-the-Gulf," he said. "The panel will work to make sure the
protection provided is the best possible. The state is committed to moving
forward on this project."
The authority also discussed the potential that several levee systems in
South Louisiana, including those in Lafourche Parish, will not be
certified to provide 100-year protection when new federal flood maps are
issued later this spring. Windell Curole, director of the South Lafourche
Levee District and CPRA member said the parishes have a year after new
flood elevation maps are presented by FEMA to evaluate and vote to accept
or reject the new maps. If the maps are not accepted by the parishes,
federal flood insurance would be unavailable for new structures built
behind uncertified levees and in areas deemed flood prone by the maps.
Graves said the state is asking the federal agencies for leniency and time
for the various levee districts to work to improve and raise levee systems
before new structures and possible existing structures lose eligibility
for federal flood insurance.
"These levees are being deemed uncertifiable because the standards from
the federal government have changed, not because the structures themselves
are in bad shape or aren't working," Graves said. "The governor is asking
there be an interim period between the issuing of the new flood maps and
the loss of flood insurance to allow the state to work with FEMA and the
Corps of Engineers to provide the necessary protection to avoid all of the
issues with mortgages and the loss of economic development in those
areas."
In other business, Kirk Rhinehart, administrator of the Department of
Natural Resource's Coastal Restoration Division explained the current
state of the Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act
(CWPPRA) and how the state is moving forward with efforts to build
small-scale restoration projects through the CWPPRA program.
"We're trying to take the CWPPRA Program, that has historically addressed
smaller scale projects, and use it and the projects built as a model for
the larger restoration projects that we are designing and how we can
maximize the efforts among the various restoration programs," Rhinehart
said. "We've learned a lot from CWPPRA and it has engaged a lot of people
in the effort to restore the coast."
CWPPRA funds have been used to build or develop 142 projects since 1991
with 81 projects already built at a cost of $417.76 million, 14 projects
under construction or approved and another five projects waiting for
funding. Four projects have been nominated for development this year with
$76 million in federal funds anticipated to be available to build the
projects with a 15 percent match from state funds.
The CPRA also received an update from the Corps of Engineers about current
flood levels and flow rates in the Mississippi River and the amount of
water being directed through the Old River Control Structure and the
Bonnet Carre Spillway. CPRA officials announced the formation of a science
workshop to examine the various effects opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway
has on Lake Pontchartrain and how that information can be used to build
freshwater and sediment diversion projects on the Mississippi River.
For more information about Wednesday's meeting or the CPRA's efforts to
restore and protect Coastal Louisiana, please contact Chris Macaluso at
225-342-3968 or by email at chris.macaluso@la.gov.
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