re: EBR starting $20 million in drainage improvements; $200 million from 2018 still delayed

The cost to put in a pumping station for one neighborhood in Lake Charles is a cool $75 million. Plus you have to show you aren’t creating significant downstream impacts. You do that by having an Engineer stamp a report with his seal as a professional stating as much.

You won’t find many who will say that a pumping station won’t move more water more quickly from upstream to downstream without creating additional downstream impact. That’s kind of the entire point of a pump station.

You can’t just wave a magic wand and throw shite against a dart board and presto changeo fix everything like a magic show. You have to increase standards, utilize drainage improvement projects, raise your codified standards, manage retreat through buyouts or elevating properties…it all has to go hand in hand.

You mix structural solutions (projects) with non structural (ordinances and laws) and-over time-you see changes. Not overnight. Over time.

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I said designed. Not maintained. You think an HOA board is full of engineers that take over drainage from a developer and can verify what they are taking over is done properly?

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lsu13lsu

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Most hire maintenance firms who are-get this-full of engineers who are depended upon to make the right calls in this department.

You sound a lot like you don’t know wtf you’re talking about. It’s super interesting to see you continue to respond despite it.

And by super interesting, I mean funny/sad. Simultaneously so.

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The plan targets more than 2,400 storm drains to be cleaned of sediment and debris.

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$20M to clean drains. Work the city should have been doing for the past 20 years. I bet those are some pretty generous contracts.

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s there some potential for using NOLA style pumping stations to move water up over the levee and into the Mississippi River when needed? Something on the EBR side of things to reduce the downstream flow to the surrounding parishes?

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I know there’s a Terrace Street pump station and one on the west side of the Capitol Lake by the Capital Annex that pump water into the river.

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Is there some potential for using NOLA style pumping stations to move water up over the levee and into the Mississippi River when needed? Something on the EBR side of things to reduce the downstream flow to the surrounding parishes?

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LSUBadger

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Lots of potential to do lots of things. But you have to understand the price of these things. Both up front and to maintain. You’d have to show a massive benefit in many cases. IE-tens of millions of dollars in benefit from avoided damages. I know it sounds easy, but these pumps would protect localized areas. Which means the benefits of avoided damages can’t be pulled regionally. But instead from the same area the pumps service.

The real problem here is that in many cases, low lying land that is flood prone is home to less desirable, cheaper/low cost housing stock within the local area. Long ago, folks realized it flooded and developed/moved to higher ground or worse, all that’s left to develop is low lying, high risk areas.

So when you put these solutions in areas that suffer, the avoided damages can’t add up enough to make them cost effective. Which is a big hoop to jump through when using federal funds to implement solutions like this. Which is a must due to their huge costs and local governments lack of funding available.

So you can’t offer them help. People don’t like to hear it but in a very real sense, low income and low home values areas are often already the most vulnerable, and often can’t generate the benchmarks needed to insert solutions like this.

It’s not an intentional thing. The rules are what they are. But it means help is only able to go where the higher priced local housing stock and critical infrastructure to service it is located.

In South Louisiana that isn’t expressed as much as other places because of just how widespread or drainage issues are. Our topography sucks all around. But it is still a concern.

In reality, we need every municipality in the area to increase their standard, reduce housing density via ordinance the closer to flood risks development encroach, increase free board requirements, filter their storm water runoff, require HOA’s to maintain detention/retention, move to zero net fill, restrict fill in a flood zone and disincentivize the use of Slab On Grade construction methods.

AND we need to spend millions on drainage improvement.

But we need to couple structural (projects) with non structural (ordinances, regulation, laws, zoning, etc) solutions. Or we are throwing good money after bad.

People don’t want to hear or be told what they can and can’t do with land and property. Developers and Engineers spend money supporting candidates. Politicians want to grow a tax base using new rooftops. But the tipping point is already here. We have to do something.

In the living world, uncontrolled growth in any living system can be described as cancerous. I’m not saying developers are cancers. Don’t get me wrong. I am a conservative and believe in less government. But we do need government. We do need to standards.

This is one such example of where we need more.

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So we pump water over the levee from the highest elevations in the entire city? Sounds about right.

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No, from the Capitol Lake that would flood areas along Spanish Town Road and Boyd. And the areas along Nicholson and Highland North of LSU that are served by Corporation Canal.
These pumping stations were built decades ago.

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those which are more than 75% clogged will take top priority

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Why do you allow drains to get to 75% clogged in the first place?!

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The plan also focuses on fixing 1,100 caved in pipes

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How do you allow 1100 pipes to collapse and not be repaired?

clown show

You’re busy rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.

People voted for library taxes dedicated strictly to libraries.

People voted for the Council on Aging taxes dedicated strictly to the Council on Aging.

People voted for CATS taxes dedicated strictly to CATS.

Government didn’t vote for it. Again…people did.

People get the community they want. The people in your community don’t want proper drainage. Otherwise their leaders would propose taxes to support it the way these other recipients of tax dollars did…and the people in your community would vote to support it.

LP didn’t want it. They didn’t trust their government. Voted against it. EBR isn’t even bothering with it. Ascension tried to. But they’re getting it wrong now. Though they are working to make it right.

But places like St. Martin passed a drainage tax. They’re leveraging their dollars on huge improvements. Lafayette Parish did the same thing. They generated $40 million. Hell, St. Charles’ Parish President placed an indefinite moratorium on development until they got their ordinances and development codes correct.

It can be done if you have the will. Evidently EBR doesn’t want to do what you think they should be doing.

Do we have to vote for a tax to get services? Don’t we pay taxes to the city and the parish that go into the general fund? Shouldn’t government provide basic services like picking up trash, cleaning ditches, fixing drain pipes and routine maintenance without having to vote in a new tax.
Besides the parish is on hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to drainage right now. Nothing is being done except talking about planning.
Broome has to figure out how she can spend the 200 million to help her community before she eill do anything. Until then she is just stalling,