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Morganza to the Gulf gained inclusion in the bipartisan, bicameral Water Resources Reform and Development Act as accepted last week by a Congressional conference committee.
Should the legislation receive a stamp from the full Congress and President Barack Obama’s signature, the $13 billion project to protect Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes from flooding would be granted federal authorization, opening it to potential appropriations and aiding locals in their ongoing quest to build a scaled-down version of the project for immediate protection.
“This is a major hurricane and flood protection bill that will provide safety for Louisianians,” said David Vitter, the Senate’s lead Republican negotiator on the conference committee. “It’s easily one of the most important bills for Louisiana we’ll pass this year. We have the opportunity to reform the Corps of Engineers, streamline flood protection projects, finally get Morganza moving, and improve our waterways and infrastructure all in one bill. This is a huge benefit to the entire nation that is estimated to create up to 500,000 new jobs.”
Paperwork on the reconciled WRRDA should be finalized this week, which would allow the legislation to go before the chambers of congress, according to a press assistant for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Designed as 98 miles of levee, 19 floodgates, a lock in the Houma Navigational Canal and other flood control structures, Morganza would stretch from U.S. Highway 90 in Gibson to La. Highway 1 in Lockport. The mammoth project calls for levee and structural elevations at 18 feet and levee widths from 282 to 725 feet.
Though Morganza has twice been authorized – in 2000 and 2007 – it subsequently lost those authorizations, as the corps missed a post-authorization change report deadline and as post-Katrina federal levee standards caused the price tag to skyrocket.
The federal government has spent in excess of $70 million to study the project but has yet to allocate any construction money. Authorization does not guarantee federal appropriations, though it does make a project eligible to tap into federal funding sources.
In signing off on the project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concluded the projects’ benefits would outweigh the costs by a $1.40 to $1 ratio. Advocates tout it would protect 200,000 residents as well as industrial and infrastructure interests.
The projected cost to the federal government including inflation is $8.4 billion, or 65 percent of the total cost. The state and local share is estimated at $4.5 billion, which would be more than $200 million per year over a 20-year period.
“While today is a victory, our work is not over until this project is built and the people of Lafourche and Terrebonne have the flood protection they need and deserve,” U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said. “I hope the same spirit of bipartisanship that helped craft the final version of the bill continues through the appropriations process to provide the significant funding necessary to take Morganza from the drawing board to construction site.”
Authorization would streamline the ongoing permitting process for local/state-funded work on individual reaches and credit expended funds – about $265 million for completed or ongoing construction – toward the required local/state cost share. Lori LeBlanc, managing consultant for the business-backed Morganza Action Coalition, said the local share could grow to $500-$800 million within the next seven years.
Terrebonne voters committed in 2012 to paying a half-cent sales tax for 28 years with revenues dedicated to Morganza’s footprint. The tax is expected to raise more than $300 million over its life span, and a portion of anticipated proceeds was bonded to generate $98 million in immediate funds.
The Houma Navigation Canal gate, better known as the Bubba Dove Flood Control Structure, is shown in a picture from the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District after it was sunk to install the pivot pile.
