Levee district balances mission with Corps’ demands

Determined to have upgrades to the South Lafourche ring levee system as quickly as possible, levee district officials recently met with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reach a compromise on work currently under way.

South Lafourche Levee District executive director Windell Curole said the Corps is “satisfied” with the work, although it would have preferred that the project had been approved before work began.

The settlement worked out with the Corps will create “a few reasonable delays,” Curole said, but work is still proceeding faster than it did prior to the 2005 hurricane season.

The Corps “certified” the ring levee surrounding South Lafourche in 1989, signaling to other federal agencies n namely the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) n that area homes and businesses qualified for lower construction elevation heights and cheaper flood insurance premiums.

However, like many other things in south Louisiana in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane season, things have changed. At least they’ve attempted to, anyway.

After hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the coast, the South Lafourche Levee District aggressively worked to raise the ring levee back to its design level and higher elevations to protect businesses and residences within its confines. The district sought n and received n voter approval of a one-cent sales tax hike to fund the project. Work is ongoing to upgrade and improve the system.

However, the district’s aggressive attempt to ensure South Lafourche is protected from storms in the fast-approaching hurricane season have flown in the face of the Corps’ sluggish project approval process. To keep work on track, the district has been performing work not yet OK’d by the Corps.

In recent months, Corps officials have sent correspondence to district officials threatening to “decertify” the ring levee if work on the system is not first approved by the Corps of Engineers.

Curole defends the work completed so far, and said the Corps has been kept “in the loop” on everything the district is doing.

“Since its inception, the levee district has followed Corps guidelines and they have been a good partner in building the quality system we now have,” he said. “However, in light of Katrina and Rita, time is of the essence in improving our system and we can’t wait for the Corps. We have to take steps now to protect the people who are paying for this work.”

South Lafourche Levee District officials contend that the Corps is kept up to date on the work and that engineers are free to scrutinize the project at any time.

“If they (Corps) find anything not up to standard, we will work with them to bring it up to whatever standard they seek,” said Curole. “We just don’t have the time right now to wait on them to approve work before we do it.”

It typically takes the Corps several months to years to approve levee improvements, he said. Projects must go through numerous processes to determine proper procedures for each stage of the levee work.