Davis Pond project transfer delayed

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Dec 2, 2008 - Page: 4B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The Davis Pond Freshwater Diversion coastal restoration project isn’t quite ready to be handed over to the state, but it could be by 2010, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said.

“We sent a letter to the state in October to officially transfer the project to the state,” said Tomma Barnes, corps project manager.

However, there are still operation and construction issues being worked on that will delay the transfer for another year, she said.

David Miller, director of implementation with the state Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration, agreed that now isn’t the time to transfer the project.

“The project’s not functional,” he said.

The project is designed to take fresh water laden with nutrients and sediment from the Mississippi River to rebuild coastal areas starved by the widespread building of levees.

Since the Davis Pond project in St. Charles Parish opened in 2002, there have been problems with getting the anticipated amount of water to flow through without flooding certain areas.

The project essentially is a controlled hole in the Mississippi River levee that allows water to flow south into a pond area and then out into Lake Cataouatche.

The gravity-fed system is designed to mimic what would normally occur without the levee system, which is wetland flooding when the Mississippi River is high and less water when the river stays within its banks during low-water periods.

Although the structure has been operational for six years, there have been issues on how to move the water from the pond area without going over guide levees to the west and east, Miller said.

There have been improvements to the project and this spring water was running through the structure at 4,000 to 5,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) during the Mississippi River high water, Miller said.

“The guide levees held during the spring,” he said. “I think we’re close. I think we’re very close to getting to a solution.”

There were some tests done last year in which the project was opened for several days during high water and the guide levees worked even at peak flow at or near 10,650 cfs, Barnes said.