Port trying to keep shipping, funding channels open

The Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District board is trying to keep channels open — the channels used for waterway traffic and the channels for government funding. Both are becoming harder to negotiate.
The high water that plagued the area through the spring and summer has gone away. But it left problems in its wake. The water deposited sediment that is causing shoaling in shipping channels.
At Monday’s board meet at the Emergency Operations Center, Coast Guard Cmdr. Heather Mattern said shoaling has become a problem in areas that include 20 Grand Point. Channels have become narrower and more shallow.
“As people have problems, please let us know,” Mattern said. “We are tracking that.”
Meanwhile, the port board has received word that $35 million it wanted for Bayou Chene maintenance dredging, which is long overdue, and for Atchafalaya dredging is not included in a recent federal supplemental appropriation.
Port Executive Director Raymond “Mac” Wade said the port moved money from Bayou Chene dredging to a $30 million chore, dredging on the Atchafalaya at Crewboat Cut. The board had been looking for the supplemental appropriation to replenish funds for the Bayou Chene work, which is unrelated to the permanent flood control project now underway on that bayou.
The board is looking for answers about what happened to the supplemental appropriation.
“Decision on best use of [Fiscal Year] 20 project funding will have to be carefully evaluated once … funding picture becomes clearer after Work Plan allocations are determined,” according to Wade’s written report to the board. “No guarantee of additional funds.”
The board also commiserated with Jon Brice of Brice Civil Construction Inc., the contractor for a $14 million-$21.8 million project designed to reduce problems with “fluff,” a liquefied mud, in the bar channel.
The trial run period needed to get the boom-equipped vessel ready to work has stretched into months.
“Every day is a promising day for us,” said Brice, the company president. “Every night I go home cussing into my pillow.”
Hopes are high the work will begin within days. And, as part of the trial period, the vessel will try to alleviate some of the shoaling problems near 20 Grand Point.
Not all the news was discouraging. Tim Connell of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the Corps’ vessel Jadwin will be available for a minimum of 10 days. Wade said the vessel can be used to help reduce shoaling in the Stoute Pass area.
And Economic Development Manager Cindy Cutrera said work is underway to gather state legislative support for a three-year, $3.75 million state capital outlay for dredging Atchafalaya River navigation channels.
State Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, qualified for re-election without opposition. State Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, won her bid for re-election Saturday. Franklin residents Raymond Harris and Vincent St. Blanc III won places in the Nov. 16 runoff to see who will succeed state Rep. Sam Jones, the Franklin Democrat who is stepping down when his current term ends in January.
Board Chairman Joeph Cain thanked Connell and Mattern, who are federal employees, for appearing at the meeting on the federal Columbus Day holiday.