Plan would force Army Corps to study options to opening Bonnet Carré
South Mississippi continues to fight for a voice in Bonnet Carré Spillway operations with a new proposal that would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study environmental impacts on the Mississippi Sound and adjust flood-control plans accordingly.
The recently formed Mississippi Sound Coalition hopes member Coast governments will sign onto proposed national legislation that its drafters say would include three key components:
▪ Require that the Army Corps within two years complete an environmental impact study to include alternative methods for controlling Mississippi River flooding that would be less harmful to Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi Sound.
▪ Require the Corps to consult with Mississippi’s local and state officials on operations of the Bonnet Carré and the Morganza Floodway in central Louisiana.
▪ Add a Mississippi member to the agency that advises the Army Corps on flood control, the Mississippi River Commission. The MRC is headed by the Corps’ Mississippi Valley commander, who ultimately makes the decision on spillway operations in consultation with the Corps’ New Orleans District engineer.
The proposed legislation is called the Mississippi Sound and Lake Pontchartrain Protection Act of 2020. The Mississippi Sound Coalition will consider endorsing the legislation at a meeting Jan. 15.
The Bonnet Carré has opened with greater frequency in recent years, causing millions of dollars in damage to fisheries and related businesses in South Mississippi and Louisiana. The spillway releases polluted Mississippi River water and sediment into Lake Pontchartrain and waterways beyond, including the Mississippi and Breton sounds.
But the Army Corps has not updated its environmental impact study on lower Mississippi River flood management since 1976. And the 1976 study did not include the Mississippi Sound.
The state of Mississippi and Coast governments also have recently filed federal lawsuits aimed at forcing the Corps to review and update flood control plans.
The Corps’ meetings to discuss opening the Louisiana spillways have always been held in Louisiana.
“Mississippi never came into the conversation,” said George Ricks, a commercial fishing captain from St. Bernard Parish who has sounded the alarm about the devastating impacts of too much river water on the Coast’s estuarine environment. “I definitely think now it perked their ears up, the Corps and the state. Mississippi’s gotten a lot of press and it’s opened a lot of people’s eyes in Louisiana, what the river’s doing.”
Because of the pending federal lawsuits, a Corps spokesman said Thursday that the agency is unable to comment on future operations of the Bonnet Carré or related issues.
The Morganza Floodway has been opened only twice in its history, most recently in 2011. Mississippi officials have criticized the Corps’ decision to leave the Morganza closed in 2019 after saying that it would be opened. Before making a decision, the Corps held public meetings in Louisiana with landowners who would have been flooded.
“Are we really being heard in a open public meeting by the Mississippi River Commission and the Army Corps of Engineers?” asked Gerald Blessey, the Mississippi Sound Coalition’s manager. “No, we’re not and we think we should be.”
“We’re stakeholders. So, the next time you call a meeting, hold them in Mississippi, too, just like you did in Louisiana. The whole state of Mississippi is a stakeholder. This affects not just the Coast but the whole state economy.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 3:00 AM.
