Posted on February 14, 2017
By Lauren Langlois, The Daily Star
Silt from the bottom of South Slough is being piled up along the canal’s banks.
Contractors from Chem South Spray of Gonzales have been working since mid-January on a major Tangipahoa Parish Gravity Drainage District No. 1 project that aims to deepen the canal to roughly five feet.
The $1.19 million project also involves removing fallen trees and debris and turning them into wood chips to be dispersed in the marsh.
The same dredging and desnagging work will continue on the other side of Interstate 55 in Anderson Canal. Both canals are just south of Ponchatoula.
After the two major floods in 2016, district officials are hoping this project and similar canal work will help the parish avoid future damaging floods.
The district board is also considering toughening drainage plan requirements for residential and commercial construction. Basically, the tougher requirements call for more retention of runoff water.
Kiley Bates, district administrator, toured the South Slough work Friday. The canal had not been dredged in recent memory, he said.
When contractors arrived at the site, they saw hundreds of trees lying across the canal, debris caused in part by the August 2016 flood. The March flood also caused a considerable amount of debris to clutter drains. Some parts of South Slough were as shallow as 18 inches, Bates said.
The canal is in a protected area next to the Joyce Wildlife Management Area, under the supervision of Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, so the project required getting an environmental permit.
The drainage district used the services of Elos Environmental to secure the permit that required performing a survey of bird nests, among other steps, to protect the fragile marshland.
“We want to be as minimally invasive as possible,” Bates said.
For example, he said cypress trees are completely off limits in an area that was once hit hard by the logging industry.
Chem Spray South will not use chemicals for this project but will use mechanical techniques to clear the canal.
That is because the vegetation that is being removed is already dead, Bates said.
On Friday, the workers were digging out sediment from the bottom in one section of the long canal and were cutting tree limbs and logs in the water in another section.
After seeing the state of Big Branch Creek, which connects to South Slough, the district opted to extend the work for roughly a mile into the creek, Bates said. The creek goes through Ponchatoula and crosses La. 22. It is considered an important lateral in the drainage district that covers the southern half of the parish. The extra work will cost about $80,000, he said.
Also in the works for the district is its canal improvements project for 2017. Bates said the district will be seeking bids soon to begin that project.
Source: The Daily Star
