JBE only pretending to care about flood protection in EBR, Livingston, and AP

Those 3 parishes have been taxed for 17 years to fund a flood control project with nothing to show for it but flood damage.

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Governor cites progress in Corps of Engineers meeting on Comite River Diversion project, but no commitment yet on cash

LINK

WASHINGTON — A meeting between top brass at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Gov. John Bel Edwards Monday on the long-stalled Comite River Diversion flood-control project left the governor feeling encouraged — but left open key questions over project funding.

The Corps’ commanding officer, Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, called the Comite River project “critically important” and agreed in principle to a construction scheme that would build the diversion canal in sections over several years, Edwards said Monday afternoon, just after the meeting. Edwards also said the Corps of Engineers called the project a viable one based on their current cost-benefit analysis.

“The flooding we had last August, I think, has raised this project in their consciousness, so there’s more of a commitment to actually getting it done,” Edwards said.

But Semonite hasn’t committed any specific money from his agency budget to get the project built, the governor said.

Funding has remained the primary rub for the project ever since it was first authorized 25 years ago. First pushed in earnest after the destructive 1983 floods in Baton Rouge, the canal’s design would redirect water from the Comite River to the Mississippi during periods of high water.

The Corps of Engineers also decisively stated that federal law prohibits Louisiana from using any FEMA hazard mitigation funding to pay for Corps-authorized projects like the Comite River Diversion Canal. That assertion echoes similar responses from FEMA and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and appears to shut the door on using existing federal disaster money from the 2016 floods to get the long-delayed project moving.

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Your own state doesn't care.

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State Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, has said the state should start paying for its share of the canal work to demonstrate it has skin in the game.

"It's like a stand-off," she said of the relationship between the state and federal governments.

Louisiana has to pay for work such as relocating utility lines and building a bridge on Louisiana 61 for the canal to flow under. Hodges believes that investing in those projects will show the Corps that the state is committed.

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If you are in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, or Ascension...you've been taxed for this project for 17 years with nothing to show for it except flood damage.

It's still not a priority for the state of Louisiana despite the flooding last year.

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Residents of the watershed area in parts of East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes approved a tax to help fund the project 17 years ago. A total of about $117 million — about $78 million from the Corps and a bit under $40 million split between the state and the Comite River Basin Commission — has been spent on the project so far, used for land purchases, studies and the construction of a flood-control structure at Lily Bayou.

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