The St. Charles Parish Council Monday unanimously approved Chevron U.S.A.’s request to not install berms, weirs or hydrologic structures in any canals in the Sunset Drainage District boundaries that could alter the drainage patterns and retention. The district encompasses about 10,000 acres with drainage canals and pumping stations that protect thousands of people in the communities of Paradis, Des Allemands and Bayou Gauche.
Chevron, which owns nearly 8,000 of those acres, maintains it is controlling drainage there without the need for the structures, according to the resolution passed by the council.
Calling it a “self-sustaining drainage solution,” Chevron states efforts such as filling and grading internal ditches and canals, as well as plugging culverts have successfully grown wetlands there by 249 acres or 24.6 percent from 2005 to 2014.
Sapling survivability increasing by 86.1 percent is another factor that Chevron maintains demonstrates “wetland function has improved in the absence of hydrologic structures,” according to the resolution.
By structures, the parish agreed not to install any type of berm, weir or hydrologic structures that could alter the area’s current drainage.
Chevron’s background with the area goes back to establishing an agreement effective June 2, 2005 with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that put the acreage in a wetlands mitigation bank known as the Paradis Mitigation Bank.
Chevron also was to establish a Water Management Agreement (WMA) that would have provided for the installation and maintenance of hydrologic structures in several feeder canals in an attempt to introduce and maintain wetter conditions in the area.
To date, the WMA is not in place, according to the resolution.
Instead, Chevron announced its intention to “seek Corps approval to approval to eliminate the requirement to install hydrologic structures within the district’s canals.”
The council and parish administration stated they support the move.
According to resolution, the parish participates in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Levee Analysis Mapping Procedure (LAMP), which takes into account existing drainage in the district. It maintains altering drainage in the district could alter work done with LAMP, as well as lessen the benefits of Chevron’s “passive improvement” activities on its acreage in the district.
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