Two public meetings were held in February for collection of public comments on the Draft Atchafalaya Basin Program (ABP) FY2010 Annual Plan. In addition, interested parties were given until February 16th to submit written comments on the draft.
The Plaquemine meeting was lightly attended, with few comments submitted. Comments included a plea for support for continued monitoring of the Basin by LSU Ag Center Fisheries students for maintenance of long term data collection, which is used in consideration of future plans and evaluation of current projects. ABP staffers indicated that the Assessment Tool funding would support ongoing water quality monitoring. The Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and his assistant requested that more attention be paid to the sedimentation of the Basin, which is threatening more trees and other species. Representative St. Germain announced that she would continue to fight for a constitutional amendment for funding of the Atchafalaya Basin Conservation Fund.
ABP staff members indicated that, as a precaution, a total of $10 million was requested in the fall of 2008 through the Capital Outlay process, prior to the failed constitutional amendment for funding of the Basin Conservation Fund. If the Legislature should see fit, it could fund more than the Annual Plan request but no additional projects are “shovel ready” because of the lack of time and resources required for the TAG to research and consider additional projects.
The Henderson meeting was better attended and drew more passionate and some heated input. Some public comments reflected the frustration of citizens in the Basin with the lack of action in water flow and quality improvements. Those familiar comments emphasize the difficulty of making sweeping changes in the public and privately-owned floodway and the lack of consensus on which changes will be most effective in improving the long-term health of the Basin. Many commercial fishermen and craw-fishermen have and still are pushing for better identification of legal access boundaries in the floodway, based on typical water levels. The use of the Basin as a floodway and the artificiality of the water levels as set by the USACE further complicates the setting of those boundaries. The craw-fishermen are also calling for a basic policy of opening traditional north-south flowing bayous and for cessation of dredging of east-west canals, which carry large amounts of sediment into the swamps.
Other comments contained complaints about the lack of USACE erosion protection for properties bounding on Whiskey Bay Pilot Channel. After the pilot channel was dug and the Atchafalaya River was given a more direct path through the Floodway, the new channel began to widen and erode adjacent properties. The problem has continued to worsen, and according to comment presenters, the USACE has resisted private attempts to sink pilings and bulkheads, which would protect some of the land in question. Congressional staff members were in attendance at the Henderson public meeting but were not optimistic for timely action in the current economic climate and recommended that citizens petition responsible state agencies, including Natural Resources, Highways and Wildlife and Fisheries to combine and become more vocal about the problem.
Another common subject that came up in the Henderson comments was that of the water level in Henderson Lake. Henderson Mayor Sherbin Collette explained that St. Martin Parish started a five-year plan two years ago to keep the hydrilla (a problem invasive plant in the Basin) under control by drawing down the Lake each year and thereby improving fishing and overall water quality. That effort was thwarted last year by the excess of rain in St. Landry Parish and the need to get boats in to repair electrical lines after hurricane Gustav but it should get back on track this year.
Some comments were presented opposing the dredging of American Pass, above Morgan City. This access channel allows water to flow from the south into areas of the Basin that are sensitive to additional sediment and there are opposing views on the desirability of dredging. More discussion on this project is sure to come up in the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) this year. The American Pass Project represents one of many disagreements among different segments of the Basin constituency on modifications to the sensitive hydrology of the combination Floodway, fishery, and transportation system.
If you have an opinion, continue to make your voice heard. That is the only way to make changes. We can’t afford to give up on the system. It’s the only one that we have.
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