[StBernard] Borrowed trouble: Landowners find holes in Corps' clay acquisition plan

[Westley Annis]

Borrowed trouble: Landowners find holes in Corps' clay acquisition plan
by Ariella Cohen Staff Writer 
Posted: 

NEW ORLEANS - In Louisiana, the word "borrow" describes earthen clay
excavated to build levees.

As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers searches for the 150 million cubic yards
of clay - roughly 20 Superdome-sized mounds - needed to improve the region's
levees by 2011, critics say the word "borrow" belies the reality of a
soil-mining process scarring greater New Orleans with gaping 25-foot-deep
pits. 

"This is a mining without any of the rules," said Richard Robichaux, owner
of a 165-acre pasture in Labadieville, a small enclave along Bayou Lafourche
in Assumption Parish. Labadieville is listed as a potential borrow site in
an Individual Environmental Report issued by the Corps in October. 

The listing is part of the lengthy public process to determine how to
rebuild the levees. Under the federally regulated levee building process,
property can be commandeered for government-contracted levee builders in
exchange for "just compensation" negotiated by the West Jefferson Levee
District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. 

"The Corps tells me that they are doing this to try and save money. But if
that is the case, why do they not commandeer the trucking company's trucks
or the contractor's equipment and labor? This process is unfair to the
people who own land in the levee district," said Robichaux. 

Excavating the soil needed to improve the levees from one site alone would
mean digging 20 feet deep across 10 square miles of land, or up to 6,000
acres of land. That's why Robichaux's parcel is one in a long list of
potential borrow sites and providers. 

His concerns highlight a growing unease with the search for clay, the
largest such quest in the region's history. 

"They are going to destroy the parish to put levees around it," said Lewis
Barrett, a St. Bernard Parish homeowner whose 80-acre backyard at 2533 Bayou
Road is a potential borrow site. 

Mounting resistance to borrow excavation has caused one change in the
process. Tuesday the Corps added 30 days to the public comment period in
response to criticism about a lack of input from officials,
environmentalists and landowners affected by new pits on the west and east
banks. 

At a Dec. 10 public meeting at the Corps' New Orleans headquarters,
officials said they will take concerns from residents into consideration and
look outside the region for materials, too. 

"We are listening to (you) and we're trying to take your input and look at
outside-the-box solutions," said Col. Jeff Bedey, commander of the Corps'
Hurricane Protection Office. "I'm not telling you tonight that it will
happen but we're giving it one heck of a shot." 

Robichaux objects to the way the clay-rich soil is bought and sold. 

"If I had oil in the ground, the government could not come to me and say,
'We are going to mine your oil, pay you the appraised value of the land and
not the oil,'" he said. He is also negotiating a purchase price for a
separate 25-acre piece of land the state bought last year for the Lake
Cataoutache Levee Project south of New Orleans and has sold clay for
non-levee projects, including the Greater New Orleans Landfill. 

Levee officials are looking for property owners eager to sell clay at a
price the government is able to pay. 

"We have to do what's best for the whole," said Tim Doody, president of the
Southwest Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. "If we identify 4
billion cubic yards and we only need 3 billion, then people who don't want
to give up land won't have to." 

The Corps sent out solicitations asking private contractors to bid on
contracts to provide clay. If enough contractors come forward, there will be
no need to commandeer private land for borrow pits. 

DRC Emergency Service, a Mobile, Ala.-based construction firm with an office
in New Orleans, has already bought about 10,000 acres in Louisiana
containing 20 million cubic yards of clay, said Chuck Prieur, chief
estimator. 

Prieur said he has never considering excavating clay a mining process. 

"But if I think about it, I guess it is. We excavate the ground for a
specific resource and leave the land empty," Prieur said. "The justification
is clay is needed to build our levees. And if you refill the holes, you need
to find more fill which would bring the cost up and just create another
hole.".