[StBernard] Federal Funding for Hurricane and Flood Protection in Southeast Louisiana

[Westley Annis]

Dear  Friend,


	

I  wanted to share some good news with you about more than $30 million in
new federal funding that  will soon be heading to  southeast Louisiana to
improve our hurricane and flood protection.

	

This  week I secured $23 million  in federal funding for the Louisiana
Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration  project.

	

The LCA project plays  a vital role in preserving our state's vanishing
coastline.  The LCA project funding will help complete  the Barataria Basin
Shoreline feasibility study and continue work on the  beneficial use of the
dredged materials program and the Bayou Lafourche, Myrtle  Grove and Chenier
plain feasibility studies.  Funds will also help initiate  the MRGO
ecosystem restoration feasibility study.

	

We must preserve  these coastal areas and wetlands that support a truly
unique ecosystem and  provide natural hurricane and flood protection for our
state.

	

I also secured $3 million in funding to finish the  Army Corps of Engineers'
Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration  study.  Specifically, this
LACPR funding will go toward developing a full  range of flood control,
coastal restoration and storm damage reduction measures  for south
Louisiana.

	

This report has been  too long in coming.  And this funding should be more
than enough for the  Corps to finish the study and accelerate their work so
that we have a much  higher level of protection in place.

	

For the operation and maintenance of the Bonnet  Carre Spillway I secured
$3.5 million.   This funding will also be used for natural resource
management within the  spillway, structure maintenance and raising of guide
levees.

	

And $425,000 in federal funding will soon be here to help improve hurricane
protection along the west shore of  Lake Pontchartrain.  This funding will
go toward a study to determine the  economic feasibility of providing
increased levels of hurricane protection to  residents living in St.
Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James Parishes.   The potential for
the catastrophic loss of life and property damage continues  to increase as
land within the West Shore study area is converted from  agriculture use to
residential and industrial use.  The study area is an  extremely
fast-growing residential area and has a low level of hurricane  protection.

	

In St. Charles  Parish, I secured $391,000 for the parish's  urban flood
control to investigate methods to reduce flood damages caused by  rainfall.
This funding will also contribute to studies on how to properly  evacuate
floodwaters from the area protected by the Lake Pontchartrain and  Vicinity
Hurricane Protection levee.

	

These funds were  included in the U.S. Senate's Energy and Water
Appropriations Bill, which  passed through the U.S. Senate Appropriations
Committee this week and will soon  go the Senate floor for consideration.


Sincerely,
David Vitter
U.S.  Senator