In the News

Much of those 37 navigable miles run along and through Livingston Parish, making the river one of the most important bodies of water.

Knowing that fact, all eyes have returned to the river now that the Comite River Diversion Canal has been funded and the project barrels forward.

New studies are being conducted across eight different entities, the description of which is outlined here as provided by the office of Congressman Garret Graves:

1. DOTD & Dewberry LIDAR modeling – Using old Gustav/Ike flood recovery money, the state Office of Community Development (which runs all state recovery programs) awarded funds to DOTD to create a "numerical model" of the Amite River Basin (ARB) using laser precision instrumentation (LIDAR).

DOTD contracted out with the firm Dewberry & Associates.

This model is designed to look at the entire basin and (1) help identify where large flood mitigation projects should go and (2) measure how one project might impact an area or how a project might impact another project. In other words, the model finds the projects and helps figure out how to make them work compatibly.

This is a dynamic model, which means it can be used by anyone and used all the time, with consistent updates.

The Corps of Engineers is using it to update its modeling for the Comite and EBR flood projects.

2. Comite River Diversion Canal + EBR Flood Control H&H modeling – Because these projects are very old, and because conditions have changed over the years, the corps is conducting hydraulics and hydrology (H&H) modeling on these projects. The purpose is to confirm the original impacts and benefits and measure any changes to the original plan. If anything has changed in the decades since they were first designed, the H&H will inform the corps on how to course correct.

3. City of Central – using its own funds, it has hired a private firm to help it design a stormwater management plan. Doing this requires analysis of the flood plain in Central.

4. $1.2 billion in Community Development Block Grant flood mitigation funding – This money has been allocated but not yet distributed. When it is distributed, Louisiana plans to model the nine major watersheds of the state. It is possible that some of these funds will be used to discover gaps in modeling and planning for the Amite River Basin.

5. EBR stormwater management planning – The city-parish is using $15 million in FEMA flood recovery funds to help develop a parish-wide stormwater management plan. If the Comite and EBR Flood projects are flood protection designs for the 1980s, and will not work in 2019 going forward, the $1.2 billion will be used for flood protection for the future. The EBR stormwater management plan is the parish's way of analyzing what additional protections it will need after Comite and the stormwater study are done.

6. Ascension Parish flood-plain management – The project mirrors EBR.

7. Corps of Engineers-Amite River and Tributaries (sometimes referred as "East of the River") study – Congress gave the corps an additional $3 million to survey and study the entire Amite River Basin. In 1986, Congress passed the Amite River & Tributaries Act, which directed the corps to come up with a flood-control plan for the Amite River Basin. This effort resulted in five corps projects (including Darlington, Comite, EBR stormwater, and others). None of those projects were built or carried forward.

With two of them now being built, Congress directed the corps to go back and look at the Amite River Basin - Livingston Parish looks nothing like it did in 1983 or 1986.

For that matter, neither does the entire Amite River Basin.

With this study money, the corps is going back in time to look at the projects it developed in 1986 and contrast conditions then to conditions now. It will determine what needs to be finished, what needs to be changed, or what new projects need to be done.

Once this is complete, the corps will propose all new projects, which must be funded by Congress.

"A cynic might scoff at this suggestion," said Paul Sawyer, Graves' chief of staff. "However, the prioritization and funding of corps projects have fundamentally changed since 1986.

Comite is one of those projects that was created under a past, unpopular regime. Any new projects proposed under the new regime will be regarded as legitimate and will receive proper attention.

"I'll believe it when I see it, but I believe in the new process more than I believed in the old process."

8. Amite River Basin Commission H&H and Impact study – With funds coming back to the Amite River Basin Commission due to the full federal funding of the Comite River Diversion Canal, ARBC's director pushed for a H&H and Impact study.

At its monthly meeting May 21, the ARBC agreed to a four-phase project intended to help direct future projects while ensuring the enduring mitigation effect provided by the Comite. ARBC Executive Director Dietmar Rietschier unveiled his plan to create a High Fidelity Inundation Map for the entire Amite River Basin.

The map is "basically the basis for the next step in the floodplain management plan," he said.

Graves said spending millions on eight separate analyses didn't make sense if they don't work together, but each group has different requirements and processes that are mandated, either federally or by FEMA.

For instance, the corps has its own processes that must be followed in order to compile information and present it to Congress for funding.

Therefore, its must do its own study.

The congressman's role is to step in at that point, to make sure redudancies don't occur.

"We tell them, ‘Look, DOTD has already done (its own) study. Use it, and focus on filling the gaps in your own process instead of starting over.'"

According to the congressman, they've had early success – especially with Central and East Baton Rouge to help them combine funds and labor for specific drainage projects.

The end goal? A business term called ‘"vertical integration." For instance, a vertically integrated business would combine various levels of the services – manufacturing, sales, and delivery – all under one roof.

Graves is focused on making sure that all these studies will integrate vertically and work in tandem, as all facets have an effect on the flood plain.

"All of these different efforts are important," Graves said, "it's important to understand what types of consequences are involved in new changes and projects."

The work doesn't stop there, however, as project identification is just the first phase. The second phase is design and implementation.

Graves argues the third phase is most important - maintenance and efficiency.

The congressman continues to stress that the cost of disaster recovery is nearly six times that of disaster prevention.

He added that using disaster funding as a mechanism is dangerous and uncertain, because the funds may not always be there at a federal level.

"We have to make sure these investments are performing at 100 percent well beyond just year one," Graves said. "We need to keep them maintained and up to standards; they cannot be forgotten.

"That's when you get another 2016."