After hearing from outraged residents and officials at a public meeting in March, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided not to stockpile clay on a 42-acre vacant property located at Vans Lane and River Road in New Sarpy.
Everyone who spoke at the meeting was strongly against the proposed stockpiling location, saying that it would cause dangerous traffic conditions as well as high levels of dust and flooding in the surrounding neighborhoods. Overall, about 75 people attended, including Parish President V.J. St. Pierre, Steve Wilson with the Pontchartrain Levee District and many other representatives from the Parish Council, Sheriff’s Office and School Board.
The New Sarpy site would have been used to temporarily stockpile material that would be used to raise the height of the St. Charles Hurricane Protection Levee. Stockpiling in New Sarpy and other sites, the corps argued, would allow contractors to continue with ongoing levee construction if flooding on the Mississippi River necessitated opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, thereby inundating the existing borrow pits.
“Community feedback is always incorporated into corps projects,” Brett Herr, corps branch chief, said.
The clay construction material is now stored on the berms of the existing levees and also within a containment area at the Bonnet Carre Spillway, the source of clay for the St. Charles Parish levees. The St. Charles levee project’s scheduled completion date remains June 2011.
“In this particular instance we were able to stockpile additional material on the berms of the existing levees, and the projected spring floods on the Mississippi River did not materialize,” Herr said.
Along with the site in New Sarpy, the corps was also considering stockpiling clay at two sites in St. John Parish.
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