Does Louisiana need a new agency to address inland flood risk and restoration?

Almost 20 years after the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority was created to oversee natural resource restoration and flood risk reduction across south Louisiana, a team of officials is considering whether it’s time to form a similar agency to address those concerns in the rest of the state.

“The thought is, can we replicate what CPRA does in the coastal zone beyond the coastal zone, and provide that benefit to the entire state?” CPRA Executive Director Glenn Ledet said during the first meeting of the new Natural Resources Steering Commission last week.

The commission was created to help oversee Gov. Jeff Landry’s efforts to both restructure the state Department of Energy and Natural Resources, and examine whether CPRA should better coordinate its operations or merge portions of them with DENR.

Tuesday’s meeting was largely an update of how both agencies are reviewing their varied missions in light of state law changes approved by the Legislature this year.

But Ledet said CPRA and DENR officials also have been meeting with representatives of the Department of Transportation and Development, which oversees levees and flood control projects outside the coastal zone, and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office, which oversees restoration projects funded as a result of oil spills. The aim is to determine whether a new agency is needed or whether better coordination between existing agencies can improve restoration and flood risk reduction projects in the rest of the state.

CPRA oversees both flood risk reduction projects, including major levee construction, and coastal restoration in the state’s 20 coastal parishes.

A major part of its success is its adoption of a coastal Master Plan updated every six years that identifies wetlands restoration and flood risk reduction projects to be built over the next 50 years, based on an estimated $50 billion budget, along with annual plans that spell out how to implement those projects. Both have so far been approved by the state’s Legislature with routine near-unanimous votes, with the annual plan for the 2025 fiscal year beginning July 1 totaling $1.7 billion.

Whether similar success can be achieved in building large-scale flood and natural resource restoration projects elsewhere through the creation of a single agency or a greater emphasis on cooperative efforts by multiple agencies is the question, Ledet said.

Today, the DENR, Department of Wildlife & Fisheries and Department of Agriculture and Forestry oversee a variety of natural resource projects north of the coastal zone.

The DOTD acts as the non-federal sponsor for Army Corps of Engineers projects outside the coastal zone, including plans to rebuild the Comite River Diversion in the Baton Rouge area, and efforts to elevate flood control levees along the Mississippi River.

DOTD also manages Louisiana’s statewide flood control program created by the Legislature in 1982. Like projects along the coast, the idea has been to reduce flood damages through expansion or improvement of levees, and the adoption of nonstructural projects to elevate or floodproof homes and businesses or move them out of flood-prone areas.

“This is very similar to the work that CPRA does, but unfortunately this program only receives $20 million in annual funding,” through the Louisiana Transportation Trust Fund, compared to the $1 billion a year or more that CPRA receives from a variety of different funding sources, Ledet said.

While DOTD’s public works and water resources office has the authority to implement such projects, “in its current position, it just hasn’t been able to receive the priority and level of funding necessary,” Ledet said.

Not having a master plan for such projects in the rest of the state represents a challenge to both DOTD and LOSCO, he said.

LOSCO generally coordinates the use of fine and natural resource damage money it receives from settlements with companies responsible for oil spills with CPRA, often using the money to pay for projects CPRA is already planning or building, or by building projects that comply with the Master Plan.

Outside the coastal zone, LOSCO works with other agencies to determine what types of projects should be built with damage assessment funds. At times, that can mean working with the Department of Wildlife & Fisheries or U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on a fish stocking project.

“But in areas where you don’t have a clear plan associated with an injury, they have to develop the plan themselves, which is obviously an extensive process. And so having a (statewide) master plan would be helpful there,” Ledet said.

Ledet said future research into the historic roles of all the state’s agencies, including their in-house capacity and the laws governing their authority in developing natural resource and flood risk projects, is the next step in determining whether to create a new agency or revamp coordination between existing agencies.

The Office of Community Development, part of the state Division of Administration, which oversees the Louisiana Watershed Initiative reviewing freshwater and groundwater use statewide, and which also has been involved in efforts to review the flood-prone status of towns throughout the state, also will be included in the review, he said.

The idea of an agency handling flooding and restoration efforts north of the coastal zone might be viewed favorably by some environmental groups. 

"The waters of our state are all connected — rivers to swamps to marshes to the Gulf, northern Louisiana to the coast, ground water to surface water to wetlands," said Kim Reyher, executive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. "A more comprehensive approach could make sense -- so long as it is based in science. That is critical. We would want to see specific details of any proposal."