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. For the full version of this story, click here.—Jeremy Alford
