Gauges included in flood projects

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A $2.4 million regional water gauge network is to provide a model for drainage projects.
The gauge project is one of several projects totaling $25 million approved by the Acadiana Planning Commission, which includes Acadia. Evangeline. Iberia. Lafayette. St. Landry. St. Martin. St. Mary and Vermilion parishes.
The projects were announced on Feb. 14.
Monique Boulet, chief executive of the Planning Commission, said in an Advocate report, 230 gauges on waterways throughout the region will monitor rainfall, stream flow and other factors.
The project could lay the foundation for a regional master plan that, as of now, cannot be done in part because of insufficient data.
“We don’t really understand the downstream and upstream impacts. That’s the reality of it. We are going to flow water really fast,” Boulet told The Advocate. “Probably some form of dredging is viable, and would be very helpful, but where and what?”
Boulet was at the Feb. 20 St. Landry Parish Coucil meeting.
Bill Fontenot, parish president, is chairman of the Planning Commission.
“Today was the first of many steps in addressing flood mitigation from a regional approach,” Fontenot said when the projects were announced. “The August 2016 flood was a model of how water knows no boundaries. While each parish could have received their own share of HMGP funding, the truth is that we can address flooding better together as a region than we can alone as individual parishes. I’m proud of the momentous steps the APC Board has taken today to address flooding.”
The gauges will be monitored by experts at the University of Louisiana Lafayette.
The gauges will provide a model to plan drainage, Fontenot said.
One of nine drainage projects announced in February is a $1.9 million retention pond in Evangeline Parish.
The pond is to be located northwest of Ville Platte and to retain water flowing south from the most northern portion of Bayou Joe Marcel.
Fontenot said the Evangeline Parish project will mitigate flooding in St. Landry Parish.
Evangeline Parish Police Jury President Ryan LeDay Williams, in a statement, said, “It wasn’t an easy task, but we were able to secure this grant to mitigate flooding in our parish,” concluded Williams. “Not only will this help the mitigation of flooding in our parish, we will look at this as a regional flood mitigation project to assist with the flooding throughout our region which encompasses also St. Martin Parish. Iberia Pariah, Lafayette Parish, St. Landry Parish, Vermilion Parish, and Acadia Parish.”
Other projects funded were: Coulee LaSalle Detention Pond - Alt. HMGP 1 $2.3 million; Coulee Ile Des Cannes - Lateral L8C Regional Detention Facilities Project - Alt. HMGP 1 $1.5M; Coulee Ile Des Cannes Flood Control Project - Alt. HMGP 2 $2.4 million; Bayou Parc Perdu Regional Detention & Improvements Lake Peigneur Project $5.3 million; Bailey Grove Regional Detention Pond - Alt. HMGP 1 $5 million; Elevation of La. 14 Bypass in the City of Abbeville $2.7 million; and Cypress Bayou/Coulee La Salle Drainage Improvements $2 million.