Parishes on west side of Miss. River triple-team flooding problems across the region - WAFB

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POINTE COUPEE PARISH, La. (WAFB) - After years of trying to go at it on their own, three parishes on the west side of the Mississippi River are working together to address flooding across their whole region.

On the west side of the Mississippi, parish leaders describe their region like a bathtub that is already half-full even before more water is added on.

“We are better off working as a group and as a team to really get something significant accomplished,” said Pointe Coupee Parish President Major Thibaut.

Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, and Iberville parishes are all coming together to find ways to alleviate flooding on their side of the river.

“The entire basin is, you know, from the top to the bottom - from Pointe Coupee like False River, Morganza - it comes all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico; it’s gravity-fed,” said John Clark, environmental manager for Iberville Parish.

Back in May, floodwater covered parts of Iberville Parish and most of that was because of overflowing water from other northern parishes like Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge. Parishes are already looking at multiple projects on how to get this water out. One of the ideas is to put in more pumping stations.

“Basically cutting a conveyance channel that would pump that water into the Atchafalaya as one of the projects that we are talking about and learning more about,” added Thibaut.

The only issue is money. Right now, the parishes are trying to come up with a master project that will benefit all of them - either one giant project or a series of projects - and then present it to the governor in hopes of getting federal funding.

“Because the money is available, you know, but it’s going to be competitive,” said West Baton Rouge Parish President Riley Thomas. “You know, we got a lot of people who are trying to get that money and so, we just feel united. We got a group of four, five, maybe six parishes working together that we have a much better chance getting it funded.”

The multiple parishes are working with Congressman Garret Graves as well. They will be having another meeting on July 27, where they are hoping to pinpoint their own major drainage project.

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