Rising river puts focus on dredging

Emergency dredging will be undertaken, beginning about April 15, to clear Stouts Pass if a dredge is available.
Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District Executive Director Raymond “Mac” Wade said the area, located near the Berwick Lock, has been a problematic area. The high water that came with the flood warning issued by the National Weather Service last weekend for the area didn’t help, either.
According to the National Weather Service’s Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, the Atchafalaya River at Morgan City was at 5.79 feet as of 7 a.m. Tuesday. It is expected to reach 5.8 feet Tuesday evening and hover at or below that mark into Saturday. Flood stage for the Atchafalaya River at Morgan City is 6 feet.
If the dredge is available to dredge the Stouts Pass area, it would only work in those areas for 20 to 30 days. That will depend on financial constraints.
According to the port’s stakeholder message issued last month, it has been allocated $10.66 million in work plan maintenance. Of that money, $5 million must be used to dredge an area which includes Stouts Pass.
“It’s terrible for the tows that are going north and coming south,” Wade said of the situation in that area. He called it the “Achilles heel” because it has required dredging twice per year to clean it out in recent years.
While they can get a dredge to come back later in the year, waiting for one for potentially the fall is too long.
“We got to get it open now, and just pray we don’t get lots of high water,” Wade said.
Fortunately, Wade said the long-range forecast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls for “normal to below normal” conditions.
In the meantime, the area will experience bumps in river levels.
“We have dodged a bullet this whole year so far,” Wade said. “We knew we were going to get some water sooner or later, but it’s better than getting it in October, November like we have the last five years. We have a little bump coming. … There’s been a lot of rain up above us, and anything falls above has to come down this way.”
He said he is unsure if the water is going to remain at 6 feet or rise slightly higher in the meantime, but long-term, things are predicted to be positive. Wade hopes that translates to river levels below 4 feet locally.
In another dredging matter, Wade said that the port is applying for funding that will be allocated for ports in President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan. Accoring to Forbes, the plan will be a two-part approach. The first part is aimed at infrastructure, Forbes said, citing the New York Times.
Wade said that money for ports will come in earmarks that they must submit to their congressmen for potential approval.
“We’re filling out things right now,” he said. “We’re asking for additional funding for the infrastructure.”
The main project they are looking to complete, if funded, is the dredging of Bayou Chene, which Wade said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates will cost just more than $30 million to entirely dredge.
“We’re asking for that,” Wade said. “If we can get something, we’ll take anything we can get because maybe we can’t do it all at one time.”
While the Chene hasn’t been “cleaned out in years” and it isn’t in bad shape, Wade said it still needs to be dredged.
He said the port also is looking at grants that have been made available for other revenue sources.