Matte updates Rotarians on levee board projects

Tim Matte, executive director of the St. Mary Levee District, updated Franklin Rotarians Wednesday on current and prospective levee district projects underway in the parish.
Matte first explained the roles of the levee district in conjunction with local drainage districts.
“Our primary responsibility is to keep flood water and storm surge from entering into the system,” he said. “We share the total flood protection responsibilities with drainage districts. The drainage districts’ responsibility is going to be to manage, either on a gravity or a pumping basis, getting the water from rainfall out of the systems. Because once you levee things off, you are creating basins that you cannot naturally drain.
“There is some shared responsibility in that the levee systems and flood protection projects do get constructed with pumping stations, and so we have some shared responsibilities there.”
Matte went on to discuss two particular projects in the west side of the parish.
First, he spoke of the Bayou Teche Closure at Charenton Canal.
He said that when storm surge flows up the Charenton Canal, it floods the Bayou Teche, which in turn breaches its banks.
There is to be installed at the intersection of the Teche and the Charenton Canal a floating barge floodgate to stop the storm surge from intruding on inland property, and will tie-in to a levee accessible from La. 87.
The project is reported to prospectively protect 3,000 structures; prevent damages totaling $98,000,000 in residential, commercial and public structures; and protect $1,000,000 in agriculture.
With a grant from a statewide flood control program, along with bonded funds, the levee district has secured in good faith the project’s total cost of $12,000,000.
Work has begun, according to Matte, and will take place all at once, instead of in phases.
The second project Matte touched on was the Yokely Levee Extension project.
He described Yokely levee as “the federal levee that ends at Industrial Road, at the Charenton Canal, at the South side.”
Matte said the project intends to take earth from high ground, and tie together an existing gap in the levee to the high ground.
This project, like the Teche closure project is designed to stop storm surge from coming up the Charenton Canal, but this time, near the Metal Shark Boats site, to keep the surge from flooding that site and the land beyond, even prospectively down into Franklin itself.
The Yokely is projected to protect 13,489 people in 4,742 households, as well as prevent damages totaling $42,000,000 in residential, commercial and public structures.
Matte also touched on last October’s levee slide, saying that it needed action from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as they are obligated to handle what he called, “big maintenance,” on the levee systems, but they said they would not be able to take any more action other than tarping the affected area until the surrounding water levels go down.
He closed by expressing that the second phase of the Bayou Chene project in Morgan City is being advertised now, and is expected to go out to bid as early as April.
For more information on the St. Mary Levee District, visit www.smld.org.