Iberville Parish President J. Mitchell Ourso Jr.’s address to the East Ascension Drainage Board was expected to provoke a new skirmish in the battle over Alligator Bayou. This past April, an order from Ourso — not to mention the threat of legal action by some area landowners — prompted Ascension Parish President Tommy P. Martinez to open the locks near Alligator Bayou to allow drainage into Bayou Manchac.
Since then, the water level has dropped from approximately four feet to less than 18 inches. Although the adjacent property is no longer flooded, the lack of water has left the Alligator Bayou Tours’ swamp boat high and dry, effectively shutting down the $20-plus per-person tours.
While Ourso did not attend the meeting, a contingency of Iberville officials presented the parish’s position, and a parade of Alligator Bayou supporters including neighbors, biologists and environmental group representatives implored the board to close the locks.
Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper for the Waterkeeper Alliance Paul Orr Jr. began with a series of before-and-after photos showing a speedboat charging down the waterway contrasted by a bayou bed of parched mud. “The new water regime is damaging the (Spanish Lake) basin,” he explained. “Last week, Spanish Lake was essentially dry. It looks like the moon. There is no reason for these sorts of conditions in the basin. A suitable low level of water can be found where there are no trees under water and people can recreate.”
However, supporters of keeping the gate open insist their position is based on sound science, and a wish to return the area to its natural state.
A 1995 letter written by Paul Orr Sr., the riverkeeper’s father and the former manager of the state Department of Agriculture’s urban forestry program, supports their position. In it, Orr suggested a variety of water management actions, including managing water levels “to provide relatively dry conditions in the growing season” was crucial to regenerating and maintaining the area’s “healthy wetland forest habitat.” Bonifay presented Ascension Parish with a comprehensive plan for new locks at Alligator and Frog bayous and the dredging of the sediment to increase the outflow during seasonal flooding. The aim was to control water levels in the Spanish Lake Basin to protect landowners, hardwood forests and to restore the flooded, 80-acre Cypress Flats to a cypress-tupelo swamp.
Four parish administrations and 13 years later, the parish’s only progress was the installation of three drainage pipes. Still, Bonifay believed the council had finally approved $13 million allocation for the hydrology work, until he was notified the locks would open.
Landowners who support opening the gates say the media has fed into the myth that Alligator Bayou is a natural wonderland, and that its draining is automatically bad for the environment there.
One of the area landowners, Kevin Couhig, points out that the original purpose of the gate was to provide relief during periods of intense flooding. “Managing the gate in a closed position only serves Mr. Bonifay’s commercial interests, but it means that there is very limited place for the floodwaters to flow which endangers the homeowners’ property in surrounding areas.”
The landowners near Alligator Bayou who succeeded in having the floodgate opened soon found themselves at odds with supporters of the swamp tours, which was evident at the recent drainage board meeting.
Referring to Alligator Bayou as “one of God’s cathedrals,” environmental activist and biologist Florence Robinson asked, “Are we going to destroy this great treasure for the benefit of a small number? When are we going to stop selling our sunsets?”
Citing the Louisiana Civil Code, Iberville Parish Chief Administrative Officer Edward “Lucky” Songy defended Iberville’s action. “(The locks) were put there as a floodgate. The locks were not put there to artificially create any water level,” he insisted. “Government cannot artificially impound waters to interfere with the natural drainage. Louisiana law says you can’t stop the flow of water. Iberville Parish complies with the law. Government has no right to deprive people of the usage of property that they own.”
Furthermore, Iberville Parish Environmental and Permit Manager John Clark noted the drainage of 33,000 acres through the locks affects not only the landowners who threatened the lawsuit, but residential areas, 179 businesses and cities such as St. Gabriel.
Lifelong resident and Mayor of St. Gabriel George L. Grace described the city’s longstanding problem with ponding after heavy rains. “We spend a lot of money to keep up rather than get ahead,” he said. “It discourages investors to develop subdivisions when you have these kinds of conditions.”
After a recent rainstorm, the city drained faster than ever. Grace attributed to the improvement to the recently opened locks, and the increased flood storage capacity due to the lower water level in Alligator Bayou. “The maintaining of the health and safety of our people,” Grace declared, “was greatly enhanced.”
As two hours of discussion came to an end, the drainage board commissioners unanimously passed a resolution to close the locks and keep the bayou at four feet until a by the Shaw Group is completed later this summer.
Ascension Parish President Martinez quickly reminded the largely jubilant SRO crowd that Iberville Parish still maintains jurisdiction over the locks.
A few days after the drainage board decision, CAO Songy reiterated Iberville’s plan, “We will continue to leave the floodgate open while there is no threat of flooding at Bayou Manchac. Bayou Manchac is coming into the Spanish Lake Basin for the first time in 50 years. (So) the Spanish Lake Sub basin is receiving some of the benefits of wetlands such as filtering and slowly releasing fish from the Pontchartrain Basin into the bayou. We plan to maintain the flow of a more natural regime.”
Although the meeting did not resolve the fate of the Alligator Bayou locks, it strengthened Ascension officials’ commitment to the basin’s survival.
“The issue is not about whether we open or close the gates, it’s more complex than that,” said Commissioner Kent Schexnaydre, a history and biology teacher. “(By putting in the locks), we have changed the ecology of the whole thing, and it will never be the same. We then became stewards of having to manage it, and that’s where we went wrong. There’s validity to both sides. To say there’s only one way to do it is wrong.
“I would say to East Baton Rouge and Iberville parishes, that we are open to commingling funds and maintaining this great basin that is a very special gem.”
