Coastal plan draws opposition
Published 8:36 am Thursday, April 9, 2015
The revised Southwest Coastal Study released by the Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans District is “not a good plan” for Southwest Louisiana’s coastal parishes, the head of the Chenier Plain Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said Wednesday.
Nedra Davis, the authority’s executive director, urged residents to attend one of the three planned meetings to discuss the study. The first meeting is set for April 14 at Abbeville High School, 1305 Wildcat Drive; the second is April 15 at the Lake Charles Civic Center; and the third is April 16 at the Cameron Parish Police Jury building, 119 Smith Circle. All meetings start at 6 p.m.
“The public has to come out and object to this,” she said. “If they don’t, we’re going to be stuck.”
The Corps issued the “Revised Integrated Draft Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement” last month, and it includes a 45-day public comment period. The last report was released in December 2013.
Davis said officials and landowners from Calcasieu, Cameron and Vermilion parishes have already met to voice their views on the revised study, with some who “want the plan to be scrapped.”
One of the bigger issues in the report, Davis said, is the “involuntary participation clause,” which would require certain structures to either be elevated or acquired by a non-federal sponsor. The criteria include structures that are designated as “severe repetitive loss,” are located in a FEMA-established “regulatory floodway,” or could pose “a threat or danger to public safety” if not repaired and later impacted by hurricane-like conditions.
Davis said parish officials are “beside themselves,” and that the Corps added the clause to the report at the last minute, something the CPRA approved. “The (CPRA) doesn’t have any implementation rules set up yet,” she said of the clause.
Some of the projects listed in the report were either scaled down or had errors, according to Davis. She said the projects listed in the 2013 report had “20 pages of planned formulation,” while the updated plan had just two.
“The problem we see with this is, if the (Corps and CPRA) put the plan forward and it’s approved, they say it’s not the end-all, be-all,” Davis said. “But what we see with parishes and projects that are not in the (state’s) master plan and you go for funding elsewhere, they can’t be funded.”
The plan includes nine marsh restoration measures, one hydrology/salinity control measure in Cameron, five shoreline protection/stabilization measures and 35 chenier reforestation measures. The initial cost for the projects is $987,738,000.
Another issue, Davis said, is that the data the CPRA and the Corps collected for the report are outdated.
“They did surveys and drive-bys,” she said. “This was done in 2010. A lot of structures have already been elevated through Road Home or (Hazard Mitigation Grant Program).”
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Online: www.mvn.usace.army.mil.
Holly Beach in Cameron Parish. (American Press Archives)