Project’s next authorization likely in 2014

The Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District has around $150 million in funds to build the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection levee system, but the total cost for the district to build Morganza will be $220 million, Levee District Executive Director Reggie Dupre said at a Bayou Industrial Group meeting in Thibodaux Monday.

Congress authorized the construction of the 72-mile Morganza system in 2007 over the veto of then-President George W. Bush, but the Army Corps of Engineers asserted three months later that the cost of the levees had risen far higher than the first estimate.

Morganza’s original price tag was $600 to $700 million, said the Morganza Action Coalition’s Stevie Smith, who also spoke at the BIG meeting. The current cost estimate for the federal government to build Morganza is $2.5 billion to $8 billion, he said.

Dupre said Congress may not authorize Morganza again until 2014.

In response, the Terrebonne Levee District is building what Dupre termed “Morganza Junior,” 10-foot levees following the federal alignment, which would eventually be raised to 25 feet by the federal government.

“We have a dual purpose,” Dupre said. “Follow the federal government’s two-and-a-half billion to eight billion (dollar plan). But we’re not waiting. We’re doing the $220 million project on our own.”

But the district is $70 million short of funds to build the first lift of Morganza.

Dupre is hoping for state capital outlays and congressional appropriations to make up the difference. He said he was less enthusiastic about bonding out some of the funds.

The district could ask Terrebonne Parish voters for a tax increase to pay for Morganza, but that would not happen for two years at least, he said.

The district already takes in revenue from a quarter-cent sales tax dedicated to Morganza, which has raised $30 million.

Dupre said the district has received $90 million in state funding to build the first lift and $8 million from the 2009 state budget surplus funds.

Terrebonne Parish is spending around $80 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds to build up parish drainage levees. Most will serve as backup levees for the Morganza system because of restrictions on spending CDBG money on federal projects.

The parish received the CDBG funds for recovery efforts from hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008.

Dupre said 10 miles of Morganza levee are planned to be built in Lafourche Parish, running to Bayou Lafourche at Larose. Lafourche Parish will spend $3 million in CDBG funds to build levees as part of the Morganza system, Dupre said.

“We haven’t done a good job of telling people in Lafourche that Morganza is one of their primary lines of defense,” he said.

Dupre ran down the status of several reaches comprising the Morganza levees:

• Reach J-1 near Isle de Jean Charles is complete.

• Reach J-2 near Montegut and Pointe-Aux-Chenes is on state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries land and permits are needed.

• Reach J-3 near Pointe-Aux-Chenes is a parish drainage levee that will be built up; water has overtopped it.

• Reach I running from the Humble Canal to the Bush Canal was built in 1994 by the levee district and has not failed or been overtopped. “It’s still one of the best levees,” Dupre said.

• Construction on reach H-2 near the Placid Canal will go out to bid in early 2010.

• Work on Reach H-3 near Bayou Petit Caillou is almost under way.

Floodgates on the Bush Canal and on Bayou Grand Caillou will be barge gates, which require a longer time to shut than sector gates but are cheaper to construct.

“We’re sacrificing convenience for protection,” Dupre said.

A $38 million barge floodgate on the Houma Navigation Canal will serve until the federal government builds a lock complex, he said.

Outside of Morganza, Dupre said Terrebonne Parish took over construction from the levee district of the $2.8 million ring levee around Chabert Medical Center.

The parish is also working on the extension of Thompson Road in Houma, which will provide a barrier to flooding.

The north shore of Lake Boudreaux is being strengthened as well, he said.

Smith said efforts made by the Morganza Action Coalition were key to overturning Bush’s veto of the 2007 Water Resources Development Act bill, which authorized Morganza.

“MAC has been successful at the state level with getting dollars,” he said. “In the last three years the state has been flush with cash because of the surplus. We ended up with a significant portion.”

“The local project will cost $220 million,” he said, “but the project still requires hundreds of millions after that.”