Even though it could potentially mean fewer dollars for the other 19 parishes already in the system, lawmakers are being asked to include Ascension Parish in Louisiana’s official coastal zone. As flooding has become a perennial issue in recent years, officials in Ascension have questioned whether the parish should have joined Louisiana’s coastal zone during the 1970s, when the political territory was originally created by the Legislature to help municipalities deal with levees, floodgates and other water-control matters. The overriding answer on the local level and even in some corners of state government has been increasingly positive, and Rep. Eddie Lambert, R-Gonzales, has filed House Bill 423 to finally add Ascension Parish to the zone.
Lambert argues that Ascension suffers damage from not only major flooding on a regular basis, but also the strain of being among Louisiana’s fastest-growing parishes. Growing communities such as Sorrento, St. Amant and Prairieville have likewise slowly moved into higher-risk categories in mapping updates by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The challenges are no doubt familiar to coastal communities like Golden Meadow and Cocodrie: By having more of its geography into the flood plain, locals are facing higher insurance rates and development hurdles while simultaneously battling the natural causes. “If you look at Ascension Parish, particularly the southern portion, it’s nothing but swampland,” says Lambert, adding that saltwater intrusion in the Blind River-Lake Maurepas area is also causing the destruction of cypress trees.
Louis E. Buatt, assistant coastal secretary at the Department of Natural Resources, says that bringing Ascension into the coastal zone would likely have some kind of impact on the 19 parishes currently in the program. In general, however, he says the technical assistance enjoyed by the existing parishes probably wouldn’t change very much. “But there would be differences as for as monetary assistance,” Buatt says. “There’s a pie, and that pie would have to be shared between 20 instead of 19 parishes.”
Still, with Ascension’s recent flooding problems and the state’s involvement over the years, Buatt added that it would make sense to fold the parish in. Lambert said there’s bound to be cost-savings associated with pulling in one more parish. Lambert says he’s lobbying to have his legislation taken up within the next two weeks by the House Natural Committee, on which he serves. Already, Ascension meets practically all the criteria outlined in state law for inclusion in the coastal zone. But Buatt says the proposed legislation could always be amended to include only specific portions.
