Corps devises flooding strategy (11/7)

Posted November 7, 2009 at 3:03 am
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By ELONA WESTON
AMERICAN PRESS

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has tentatively recommended a plan taken from a study on Calcasieu River flooding problems that entered its feasibility phase nearly five years ago.

Nick Sims, project manager for the Calcasieu Parish Basin Study, told police jurors Thursday that nine plans were eyed, but that “environmental issues” and “economic justifications” narrowed the choice to one.

The plans deal with flood risk management measures in southwest Lake Charles and Gravity Drainage Districts 4 and 5.

Channels or streams studied were Hippolyte Coulee, Black Bayou, Contraband, Bayou Choupique, Bayou d’Inde, Kayouchee Coulee, and three others — W-5, W-4 and W-16.

The plan the corps selected involves Black Bayou-Hippolyte Coulee. It includes the replacement of culverts on Tom Hebert, Gauthier and Corbina roads and partial replacement of an abandoned bridge north of Lincoln Road.

The project will cost about $500,000 — a figure that doesn’t include real estate and mitigation costs, Sims said.

He said Bayou d’Inde and Bayou Choupique were eliminated from the list because hazardous waste found in their vicinities. Sims said mercury, dioxin and furan were detected about eight months ago by a corps environmental team.

“The issues have to be cleaned up before we can recommend a project,” he said.

Sims said Kayouchee Coulee was eliminated because of the lack of flood stage lowering.

He said officials ultimately determined that the Black Bayou-Hippolyte project would provide the “maximum benefits” to help solve some flooding issues.

“It can lead to a very strong project,” he said.

Sims said congressional authorization for the project could be sought by February 2011, after a list of other requirements are met.

The $2.3 million study was funded in part by the panel, the city of Lake Charles, and Gravity Drainage Districts 4 and 5. They put up $1.15 million and the corps, $1.15 million.

Some police jurors on Thursday said they were dissatisfied with some aspects of the study, which they said didn’t provide all the information they thought it would.

Police jurors said they were hoping for more information on Bayou Choupique and Bayou d’Inde, but corps officials said they halted their study of the waterways when environmental issues were found.

“I think it’s the general opinion of most of us up here is, ‘I don’t know what we just spent this money on,’ ” said District 12 Police Juror Ellis Hassien.

Sims said the study didn’t take in surge conditions, and focused solely on drainage.

He said that as part of the study, survey data, hydraulic and hydrologic models, and preliminary alternative analyses for channels showing the greatest stage lowerings were also completed.

Some possible flood reduction measures outlined in the study for some of the channels, despite the plans not being selected, include dredging and the addition of pump stations and detention ponds.

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