[StBernard] Plaquemines Parish residents worry about side effects of Chalmette Loop Levee

[Westley Annis]

Plaquemines Parish residents worry about side effects of Chalmette Loop
Levee
By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
December 21, 2009, 10:51PM

More than 50 east bank Plaquemines Parish residents showed up Monday night
with pointed questions for the Army Corps of Engineers about a massive
federal levee system that will protect St. Bernard Parish, but will increase
the risk of flooding in their communities.

The Plaquemines Parish Council is being asked to sign off on a plan for a
small portion of the more than 20-mile levee system that will eventually
ring St. Bernard Parish. Although a sliver of the system crosses into the
east bank of Plaquemines, the parish is essentially shut out of the 100-year
levee improvements that will benefit St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St.
Charles parishes.

"When we flood -- because it's not if we flood, it's when we flood -- are
they going to keep giving us flood insurance? Are they going to buy us out
or not?" resident Donald Duplantier asked Chris Gilmore, senior project
manager for the Chalmette Loop Levee system being built around St. Bernard.
"The point is, what does the future hold for us?"

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that," Gilmore responded. He said estimates are
that once the levee is built around St. Bernard -- at a height of 26 feet
compared with an 8.5-foot, non-federal levee protecting the adjacent area of
Plaquemines' east bank -- flooding could be increased by about a foot.

"We in no way begrudge St. Bernard their long overdue flood protection,"
resident Debbie Kelly read from a letter written by the Citizens of
Plaquemines Eastbank, a civic group, "However, we must state there will be a
high price ... This funnel of water will be created because the northern end
of the east bank of Plaquemines Parish will now be the path of least
resistance for flood surge to follow. There will be no other place for this
surge to go. We will be the bull's-eye."

Congress authorized the 100-year storm protection system that the corps is
working to complete by 2011. And St. Bernard Parish Councilman Wayne Landry,
who attended the meeting, said the only way to get better levees for
Plaquemines is by lobbying in Washington.

"The federal government is not going to come and put money on a levee system
that's not a federal levee system," Landry said, referring to the system of
back levees that stretch about 15 to 20 miles below the Plaquemines-St.
Bernard parish line. He said St. Bernard would push in Washington to get
those levees included in the federally authorized system.

"Where we are in St. Bernard is fortunate. We're getting flood protection,
no doubt about it," Landry said. "But we're only fortunate because they're
using us to protect New Orleans now."

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser added that the parish is
currently working on a locally engineered design to raise the levees on the
east bank, as well as a coastal-restoration program that would build up sand
and silt in the marshes through the long-term lease of a dredge boat.

But he said residents should support the Plaquemines council in approving
the St. Bernard levee system, because a delay will not help the cause in
Plaquemines.

"All it's going do is it's going to delay it three to six months, and it's
going to hurt St. Bernard getting it done in a timely manner," he said.

Plaquemines Parish Councilman Don Beshel, who represents the east bank
communities, said he did not expect the council to hold up the St. Bernard
levee. But he did say he wanted specific issues ironed out in the agreement
with St. Bernard, such as when the floodgate across Louisiana 39 would be
opened and closed.