“There are two (drainage) projects that are transformational,” Parish President/EA Drainage Director Clint Cointment addressed East Ascension Drainage Commission earlier this week. “New River Stormwater Management Pump Station (depicted in the artist’s rendering above) and Sorrento Storm Surge Protection.”
The latter is an extension of the West Shore (Lake Pontchartrain Risk Reduction) Project, from which Ascension was excluded a decade ago. According to Cointment, “St. James is working on their extension and we’re going to tie into it.” This week’s news concerned the former.
Funding for the first of two phases appears to be locked in place, and the long-discussed New River pump into the Mississippi is closer to realization than anyone not named Clint Cointment ever expected. The second of two parish governmental meetings on Tuesday, EA Drainage saw unanimous approval of a resolution to shift $6 million from its ADAPT (the torturous acronym stands for Ascension Drainage Assistance Program Team) fund to the New River project. It is the final piece to fully fund the $61 million job.
The pumps will require significant detention (or is it retention) area to operate.
Half-an-hour earlier the same eight parish council members, convened as the Finance Committee, resolved to appropriate $15 million from the parish’s Mega Infrastructure Fund for the project.
Combined with the $40 million (out of the $100 million Louisiana Watershed Initiative) allocated by Amite River Basin Commission, and the first phase of New River Stormwater Management Pump Station is a few Parish Council votes away from being fully funded.
Once construction begins it is anticipated to take five years to complete.
“This project takes water out of the basin,” President Cointment explained. “It is the only project we are working on that does so.”
No adverse impact on any other parish or region, and it is the only project on Ascension’s drawing board that provides immediate relief to the western half of East Ascension, similar to what the Marvin Braud Pump Station (MBPS) does for the eastern half.
The basin currently served by Marvin Braud Pump Station
Currently stormwater in Geismar, south Prairieville and Dutchtown all flow along New River’s 22-mile course to MBPS. According to Cointment, those waters will be redirected west to the Mississippi. The plan also includes relief for flood prone areas in proximity with Bluff Swamp, which heretofore relied upon Bayou Manchac to draw down levels on an easterly course to the Amite River.
“The problem in 2021 was that the Manchac got so high that we could not let the water out (of Bluff via Manchac),” said the parish president, going on to explain that “flooding occurs when water elevation reaches 11′. “We’re going to start managing that water above six feet. Before it even gets there, we’re going to start transferring that water to the Mississippi River.”
Box culverts will be installed under Hwy 74 so that water can access New River where the activated pumps send it westward to the Mighty Mississippi.
On hand Tuesday, representatives of Honeywell discussed the company’s donation of drainage servitude “that will greatly benefit the Hwy 74 and Bluff Swamp drainage areas.”
Surveying has begun, to be followed by engineering of the project for which requisite applications must be made by the end of October. Once approved, those monies from Louisiana Water Initiative will be forthcoming. It is the culmination of efforts begun in 2021 with preliminary engineering. That is three years before seven of the current 11-member council were seated, just about the time that their predecessors in office attempted to remove President Clint Cointment from administration of EA Drainage.
Once done, funding for the second phase will have to be found. The administration plans to submit requests for grant dollars through the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program.
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