Army Corps: Levees too costly for Vermilion Parish

Close to 120 people learned the federal government will not be building a protection levee for three parishes along the Louisiana coastline.
The reason?
Cost.
The Army Corps of Engineers held a special meeting to take public comments from parish residents on a recently released Southwest Coastal Louisiana Draft Integrated Feasibility Report.
For the last two years the Corps has been trying to figure out a way to stop future storm surges and erosion along the coast of Vermilion, Cameron and Calcasieu parishes.
The Corps came up with different ways to stop future storm surges and tried its best to put a price tag on it.
The Corps looked at building small levees throughout Vermilion Parish and also one large levee along the Intracoastal Canal from Delcambre to the Texas boarder. It would be 122 miles of 12-foot high dirt levee along the Intracoastal Canal.
Andy Macinnes, the plan formulator for the Corps, spoke to the residents about why it was not a financially good idea to build a levee along the Intracoastal Canal.
Macinnes said the construction and maintaining the levee would cost $3.8 billion. During the two-year study, the Corps figured out the levee would be protecting $1.8 billion worth of structures and value of land. Because there is a $2 billion difference, Macinnes said to build a levee along the Intracoastal Canal is not financially feasible. He said the U.S. Congress would not fund the project because of the cost.
Kevin Sagrera, a police juror who lives south of Abbeville, said Vermilion Parish is a “agriculture-based parish” and he hoped the Corps figured into its numbers how valuable farm land is to the parish and the rest of the United States.
Instead of building levees, the Corps is going to submit a plan to Congress where it is asking for money to elevate 3,900 structures (including homes and businesses) in the three parishes. The cost would be $419 million.
Before anything is elevated, Congress still has approve funding it, which it has yet to do.
Also, in the Corps plan, it calls for planting trees, building structures to stop erosion along the coastline.
“So, no protection?,” said Vermilion Parish resident John Foster.
“Levees would not make sense for this area,” replied Macinnes.