Waters stilled by storm debris

When Paul Francis moved to the Castle Garden North Subdivision in Dulac over two decades ago, flooding was not an issue.

“I could sit on my porch and watch the water drift away to the drainage ditch in the backyard,” he said.

Now Francis and his neighbors say the drainage ditch that runs along the subdivision is so clogged with debris, every time it rains, their properties fill with water.

Francis and nearby residents said they have been complaining to parish officials, including their local representative, Parish Councilman Clayton Voisin, since before Hurricane Rita in 2005 to clear the ditch, but to no avail.

During Hurricane Ike in September 2008, residents said they received 10 more inches of flooding from that storm than Rita.

They contend that parish officials refused to clean the ditches under claims that the parish does not have right of way to go onto their properties and clean the waterway.

However, several residents produced neighborhood maps that indicate the parish has several rights of way adjacent to their property, including Francis’.

“I give up about 60 feet of my own property to the parish for them to maintain the drainage,” said Jimmie Fedele, a 21-year resident of Castle Garden North Subdivision “Now they have a right of way because I gave them permission to go on my land all the way through the back and clean it. That was a month-and-a-half, two months ago.”

Perry Blanchard, drainage department operations manager in Terrebonne Parish, said he would work with other parish officials to resolve residents’ complaints.

“If it’s a navigable waterway, it’s not the government’s responsibility,” he said. “If we have rights of way, then it’s something we should definitely address. I’d have to research it before I could tell you why it hasn’t been done.”

Voisin indicated that the parish may not have the rights of way to maintain the entire canal, but only certain sections.

“Running north to south, that canal drains two to three miles of distance,” he said. “I think the parish has rights of way on the south end where some of the blockage has occurred. Whether we have rights for the other end of that canal is questionable.”

In the subdivision, properties slant away from the roadway so that water flows in the drainage canal in back, Blanchard explained. When cleared, the canal flows into a larger drainage canal. Eventually, it flows into Bayou Prevost, which connects Bayou Grand Caillou and the Houma Navigational Canal.

In the meantime, residents have been doing whatever they can to alleviate the blockage around their own properties.

Dwayne Bergeron, a 10-year resident of Castle Garden North, uses an airboat and a mud boat to remove debris. Bergeron, ironically, works for Chemspray, which had a contract with the parish last year to maintain drainage ditches, cut grass and apply herbicide for water lilies at the pump canals.

Francis, who used to work for the parish cutting the grass along roadside ditches, often relies on his lawnmower to clear the edge of the ditch on his property.

“There’s no purpose in just doing it near our property,” Bergeron said. “You’re not helping the whole neighborhood. You can’t just drain this for one person. You have to drain this for everybody.”

Most of properties also do not have a ditch in the front yards, so residents are digging their own.

“I paid a little boy to dig my ditch in front my yard, but what good is it going to do when everything else is stopped up,” asked Joe Dardar, a 20-year resident of Castle Garden North.

In November, the parish council awarded contracts to TolTest Inc. of Ohio and Peake Construction of Slidell to remove storm-related debris from the drainage system.

According to Blanchard, those contracts are for the roadside canals and ditches, not for ones like the ones in the Castle Garden North subdivision.

“All the large ditches have been identified, measured for the slope of the ditch and are being handled by contractors,” Blanchard said. “Lots of (the drainage areas) have not been touched for years and years for whatever reason. We have a maintenance contract that addresses every one of those ditches at least once a month. If they come across restrictions, it’s reported and we remove it.”

Even if the parish has the right of way to clear the canal in the subdivision, Blanchard said the drainage department would only do the initial cleaning. It would have to hire a contractor to maintain it.

“If I have a 30-foot canal with a 50-foot right of way, then I can put a track there and clear my path ahead of me and clean the canal at the same time,” he said. “Then under those conditions, I would give it to a contractor to maintain it continuously after that.”

Castle Garden North Subdivision residents Paul Francis (left) and Dwayne Bergeron stand next to a pole marker indicating the parish’s right of way adjacent to Francis’ property. The Dulac residents argue that the parish has been slow in clearing area ditches, creating a lingering flood hazard when it rains. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF