HOUMA, La. – As part of the Louisiana Watershed Initiative’s first round of funding for local and regional projects, the state is awarding $3.8 million to fund three projects in Watershed Region 6, which includes the bayou region of south Louisiana. The projects, which will help reduce flood risk throughout the region, and requested funding amounts are as follows:

• $1.9 million for emergency backup pumps for pump stations in Lafourche Parish
• $1.25 million for Bonadona-Cataldo subdivision drainage pump in Ascension Parish
• $659,500 for Maringouin drainage improvements in Iberville Parish

“The funding of eight additional new backup pumps in Lafourche Parish will have a tremendous effect on our ability to consistently maintain water levels and drain the most vulnerable areas of our parish during rain and flooding events.  With the increased amount of rain that our parish and state has seen in the last few months, the funding for this project could not have come at a better time.”
-Archie Chaisson III, Lafourche Parish President

In total, the state announced $60 million in statewide projects today through the Watershed Projects Grant Program: Local and Regional – Round 1, which is part of the state’s Action Plan to spend $1.2 billion in federal mitigation funds. The goal is to fund low-risk, high-impact projects that can immediately reduce regional flood risk and improve the natural functions of floodplains without adversely impacting surrounding communities.

Participating state agencies of the LWI Council on Watershed Management scored and awarded projects through a competitive process based on publicly shared and reviewed evaluation and scoring criteria and program policies and procedures.

Round 1 projects that were not awarded funding this week will move on to the regional selection process. As part of this process, each region may select up to $5 million in projects to recommend for funding this summer.

LWI’s goal is to reduce statewide flood risk through a coordinated, regional, watershed-based approach. The state has designated eight provisional watershed regions to facilitate collaboration, coordinate watershed management among parishes and align project funding with regional flood risk priorities.

For more details on Round 1 projects, click here. To learn more about LWI, visit watershed.la.gov.

For more information contact Pat Gordon at pat@scpdc.org or 985.851.2900.

About author:

Joshua Manning is a Planner at SCPDC specializing in transportation and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).