Posted on January 21, 2016
The flood technical committee is waiting to hear if there will be $1.5 million in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers‘ federal budget allocated to the Red River bathymetric survey.
In December 2015, the consolidated appropriations, or omnibus, bill for 2016 passed the U.S. Congress. The bill included the budget for the Corps, which included $5.9 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.
Chairman of Red River’s study committee, Rich Brontoli, said the president budgeted $4.7 billion, while Congress provided an additional $1.2 billion for operation, maintenance, construction and studies. The $1.5 million for the study would be allocated from the additional $1.2 billion, he said.
“The Corps has to tell Congress how they’re spending their money by Feb. 18,” Brontoli said. “That’s about when we’ll know if our study’s funded.”
Without this study, FEMA won’t be able to map a new base-flood elevation.
Meantime, the committee is mostly inactive, Brontoli said. But they’re not the only ones anxious to better understand the river.
Pat Culverhouse, Bossier Parish Police Jury spokesman, said three new gauges recently were installed at Red Chute Bayou, Bodcau Bayou and on Red River at the Highway 2 bridge near Hoston.
The two gauges at Red Chute and Bodcau are to record regular water levels, as well as backwater flooding during a major flooding event on the river. The gauge directly on Red River in the northern part of the parish, however, serves a much more significant purpose.
“We (Bossier Police Jury) thought it was necessary to understand what was happening in the northern part of our reach, because the closest we had any kind of reading was up where the Sulphur River meets the Red River in Arkansas,” Culverhouse said. “So this new gauge will give us an idea of how rapidly the water’s rising so we can expect how it’ll hit down here.”
