OPINION

Schoeffler: What needs to be done about our waterways

Guest columnist

The flood of 2016 is presenting us with an opportunity to address flood issues beyond the levee system between the West Guide Levee of the Atchafalaya, the Red River system to the north and the Mermentau to the west.

Waters in that system are carried by the Bar Pit Canal along the levee, Bayou Cocodrie Drainage Canal along Hwy I-49 converging Bayou Courtableau, which historically drained into the Atchafalaya River between Krotz Springs and Bute La Rose. The gage reading at Bayou Courtableau August 18, 2016 was 29.65 feet; at the same time the gage reading at Melville was 11,02 feet and Butte La Rose 8.07 feet. The flooding in that region and areas below it would be significantly reduced if the historical waterway of the Courtableau was still connected to the Atchafalaya River.

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The Bayou Courtableau flood now drains through three waterways to reach the Gulf of Mexico, all of which have minimal capacity compared to the Atchafalaya River. They are:

  • The Borrow Pit Canal along the levee, which was never designed to carry flood water has many restrictions on its path to the Lake Fausse Point – Lake Dauterive Swamp
  • The Bayou Teche from Port Barre to Baldwin, LA  is restricted by the Key Stone Lock and Dam.
  • A Branch of the Teche, the Vermilion Bayou, takes a 70-mile path from Arnaudville to Vermilion Bay and has limited capacity. During floods, high water it flows north into the Cypress Island Swamp that stores part of it floodwaters, but also has limited capacity. This swamp is about 20,000 acres and its floor is about 7 feet in elevation. The water level as on Aug. 18 was 14.9 feet. 

The issues we should be considering now are:

  • A flood control gate in the Keystone Dam
  • Improving the flood carrying capacity of the Borrow Canal.
  • Finding a way to evacuate Bayou Courtableau flood water into the Atchafayala River at times that river stages allow.  Noting that the present small release into Henderson needs to be enlarged and improved.
  • Connecting the Cypress Island Swamp into the lower 200 square miles of the Lake Fausse Point/Dauterive Swamp via the Bayou Teche and the Loreauville Canal.   
  • The Teche Vermilion District is designed to deal with low water stages, providing water for navigation, water quality and minimizing salinity. Could this excellent water management team be a part of managing the flood, even to using their facility at Krotz Springs to evacuate a flood into the Atchafalaya River.  

Floods on the Teche, Borrow Canal and the Vermilion would be significantly reduced by emptying those waterways into Lake Fausse Point and/or the Atchafalaya River.  

This is an important issue that effects many parishes, families, businesses, agriculture and should have been addressed some 80 plus years ago when the levees were built.  We request that an engineering study be conducted to address these above issues. 

— Harold Schoeffler is chair of the Acadian Group Sierra Club.

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