Registered fishermen still waiting by the phone for BP
June 22, 2010
Helen LeBoeuf
June 24, 2010Hurricane protection and safety, while necessary, can come with a high price tag for Louisiana – a price tag that Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes aren’t prepared to pay this upcoming storm season.
That is where Rep. Gordon Dove’s House Bill 1090 comes into play, which is a technical bill that adds responsibilities for levees in the coastal zone to the Office of Coastal Protection & Restoration. The bill essentially states that mitigation can be done with in-house workers instead of state contractors.
“The major thing for Terrebonne is they use their own employees for integrated coastal protection projects,” Rep. Dove said. “Regulations on mitigation get so expensive.”
The bill officially states, “Any drainage or subdrainage district, gravity drainage, or gravity subdrainage district, levee board or political subdivision may contract with the Department of Public Works.”
This part of the bill is significant, according to Dove, because it provides a new set of criteria for mitigation from the state.
“It used to be that construction had to be done first, then mitigation, and now you have to have it done at the same time,” Dove said. “It can cost $35 million to build projects, then another $30 million on mitigation, and $65 million for projects is money we just don’t have budgeted.”
Windell Curole, director of South Lafourche Levee District, also has high hopes for the bill.
“It allows us to spend money efficiently and get flood protection up quickly and for a good cost,” Curole said.
According to Reggie Dupre, director of the Terrebonne Parish Levee Board, the bill is the fourth in a series of measures that began after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
“What we’re most interested in is looking at the feasibility of buying equipment that allows us to do mitigation,” Dupre said. “It gives us another language.”
Having the flexibility to use in-house resources, Dove agrees with both Curole and Dupre that hurricane protection will be handled more efficiently.
“We don’t have to expedite everything and be at the mercy of someone who is doing the mitigation,” he said.
The bill has already gone through the state House and Senate, and is going to the governor’s desk for a signature. It should be signed within the next two or three weeks, according to Dove.
