August 14, 2024
Krotz Springs LA
As noted by Greg Ellison of US Congressman Higgin’s staff today marks the 8th anniversary of the great flood of 2016.
At a meeting at Teche Vermilion Freshwater District’s office and pumping station in Krotz Springs as many as 40+ gathered to discuss both managing freshwater and floodwaters.
Some of the attending were the following:
USACE including Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Weander Deputy District Commander USACE New Orleans District and a number of his staff including engineering and operations
TVFD including Executive Director Donald Sagrera and a number of the TVFD Board of Directors
CPRA Manager Brian Lezina and staff
LAWF Brac Salyers and staff
LWI – Louisiana Watershed Initiative Keila Bingham
Nature Conservatory Bryan Piazza and staff
Council Members from John Guilbeau and Bryan Tabor of Lafayette Parish and Chris Tauzin of St Martin Parishes
US Congressman’s Higgins Staff including Greg Ellison and John Chautin
Donald Sagrara presented TVFD operations providing freshwater to the Vermilion and Bayou Teche. He also spoke to their role in preparing for a potential flood event. There seems to now be a willingness to address lowering pool stages in Bayou Courtableau prior to a storm with a verbal agreement to lower Courtableau at 1 ft every 2 days. There was a discussion by St Martin Parish about the need for more freshwater in Bayou Amy and the lower eastern watershed. They also discussed limited functionality of the Grimmett canal in a flood due to it needing clearing and snagging and some limited dredging downstream in Bayou Fourdoche. DTV displayed this article’s title photo as a posterboard and explained the severity of the situation rendering the effectiveness of the Courtableau Floodgates as an effective flood control asset. The USACE announced that a survey of the Grimmett had been completed. CPRA asked for this survey as they have a project to clean out this waterway. CPRA’s Wes Leblanc told me they were encountering land ownership issues regarding access to execute this project. I will follow up with Wes for more detail.
DTV presented “What happened during Hurricane Barry” and several slides of evidence why water sent to the lower watershed from the northern part of the watershed needed to be highly managed allowing time to lower water levels prior to a storm threat. DTV argued that a formal plan needed to be adopted because of the number if entities that control pumps and gates in the watershed and these pumps and gates operations needed tight coordination and cooperation when a storm threatened. DTV presented the Colonel a copy of the plan DTV wrote and lobbied the Colonel at lunch to review and officially adopt the plan or a revised version. He seemed to be attentive and said he would review the plan. There was an agreement that a smaller group would meet to continue to plan for coordination
Copies of the presentation DTV presented can be found here Bayou Courtableau Site Visit Dredge the Vermilion Slides and a copy of our plan Regional Flood Management Plan – v1.4 can be found here.