Spanish Lake basin faces dual threats of drainage and BR loop tollway: coastal implications ignored.
Bayou Manchac was historically an important distributary that conveyed river water from the Mississippi River east toward Lake Maurepas. This bayou, once called “Rive d’Iberville” was seasonally navigable and formed a shortcut to New Orleans via Lake Pontchartrain.
For that reason, Andrew Jackson dammed Bayou Manchac at the river in 1814, to prevent the British from gaining a backdoor entrance into New Orleans.
Before being severed from the river, this distributary helped nourish the Manchac swamps surrounding Lake Maurepas, the same swamps that were memorialized by photographer Julia Sims, and that are now dying from salt water intrusion and lack of nutrients and sediments from the river. Bayou Manchac also nourished and provided hydrologic exchange for the Spanish Lake basin. The latter is a 10,000 acre swampforest ecosystem south of Bayou Manchac that has become impounded, hydrologically strangled and rendered largely dysfunctional by surrounding residential and industrial development.
Shutting off Bayou Manchac was arguably the first domino to fall in the decline of the entire Pontchartrain Basin, just as damming Bayou Lafourche triggered the ultimate collapse of the Barataria and Terrebonne basins.
The western third of Bayou Manchac has largely silted in but the footprint of the beautiful old meandering watercourse is clearly marked by baldcypress trees occpying the former channel. The historic channel starts at River Road at the boundary between East Baton Rouge and Iberville Parishes and travels east along this boundary about eight miles to the Ascension Parish line. At that point, the channel becomes navigable by small boat and continues on to where it merges with the Amite River at Livingston Parish.
For many years I have argued that Bayou Manchac could and should be reconnected to the river and that a spring pulse of river water should once more be allowed to flow eastward toward Lake Maurepas, flushing and rejuvenating the now stagnant watercourse. The cost of this reconnection should be funded under a truly comprehensive coastal sustainability program.
Among many other benefits, reconnecting Bayou Manchac would finally bring East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Iberville Parishes (with Livingston) to the coastal “table.” These parishes are not officially considered “coastal” but from a functional standpoint they are. As things stand now, residents and officials of these parishes, who should be allies in the coastal crisis, don’t have a dog in the fight.
Reconnecting Bayou Manchac to the river with a control structure could result in four important benefits in no particular order: (1) adding a pulse of sediment-rich spring river water to the Manchac swamps that are dying for lack of nourishment; (2) restoring the health and water quality of an historic bayou that has degenerated into a stagnant ditch prone to backwater flooding from the Amite; (3) relieving local flooding by the installation of a reversible pump at the control structure that would under local flood conditions pump excess bayou water “backwards” into the river; and (4) providing a means to fill the stagnant Spanish Lake basin during the spring and to drawdown the basin during smmer and fall for cypress tree regeneraion.
After considerable technical lobbying by a few persistent coastal visionaries, the concept of reconnecting Bayou Manchac squeaked into the 2006 LCA coastal plan. Unfortunately that plan was dramatically scaled back by the Bush administration, before being authorized in 2007. Nevertheless, the concept of rejuvenating Bayou Manchac and Spanish Lake remains viable, although perhaps on life support.
An article by John McMillan in the March 27 Advocate reports that Iberville Parish wants to drain Spanish Lake, raising legitimate environmental concerns that various parish and regional plans are under consideration for the area, none of which may acknowledge the big picture, including reconnecting the bayou. Frank Bonifay, with Alligator Bayou Swamp Tours, is especially concerned. Frank’s passionate and long-held vision for participating in the restoration of Spanish Lake is very much at stake, as well as the ecotourism business that he and co-owner Jim Ragland have nurtured for many years.
An ongoing study by Les Waguespack with the Shaw Group was mentioned in McMillan’s article. Apparently this is a major regional planning effort begun by the corps that includes Spanish Lake, Bayou Manchac and Bayou Braud. The April 14-15 meeting of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) in Baton Rouge (see Calendar) will feature a discussion of this study.
Now for the other threat to Spanish Lake. An additional article in the March 27 Advocate by Greg Garland described a public meeting held this past week in Addis to discuss alternate routes being considered for the proposed the I-1o/I-12 highway loop project to bypass Baton Rouge. The photo accompanying the article appears to show alternative routes bisecting Spanish Lake.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) is now a partner with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in the Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration. I wonder whether the coastal implications of this massive highway project are even being considered?
Addendum: Just before publishing I received the following message from Paul Orr, with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN).
Swamp Draining About Money, Not Restoration.
The truth is beginning to come to light. In an Associated Press article it was made clear to me that this is what is happening:
A landowner has threatened to sue the Iberville Parish Council if they do not lower the water levels in the Spanish Lake Basin.
Excerpt from an Iberville Parish Press Release:
“Parish President J. Mitchell Ourso Jr. had three reasons for taking this action:… 3. Landowners owning more than 9,000 acres of property surrounding
the Spanish Lake have threatened to sue Iberville Parish…”
This landowner wants to use his property as a mitigation bank to sell mitigation credits.
This land owner wants his Cypress Tupelo Swamp to dry out and be converted to bottomland hardwood forest because bottomland hardwood forests are more valuable for mitgation porposes.
This action by Iberville Parish has nothing to do with restoring ecosystems and everything to do with making a landowner more money.
Here is an excerpt from the AP article:
“Scott Nesbit, a wetlands ecologist representing landowners who hold 6,300 acres in Iberville Parish, said it would just turn the clock back, letting oaks and other hardwoods return to much of the area covered for more than 50 years by cypress-tupelo swamp.”
“One of his clients sells mitigation credits – essentially, getting paid to restore wetlands for a developer who wants to fill wetlands elsewhere in the same watershed – and the other plans to [sell mitigation credits]. In the Bayou Manchac watershed, there is more demand for bottomland hardwood credits than for swamp, Nesbit said.”
I would add that all of the scientific evidence shows that these areas were historically Cypress Tupilo swamp. Most of the young cypress trees in the area are 100 years old or more and sprouted after the old growth Cypress was cut. Some of the old-growth Cypress left in the area date back over 2000 years. Cypress Tupelo swamps don’t just pop up in 50 years, the science is clear about that and I would reference the Science Working Group report “Conservation, Protection and Utilization of Louisiana’s Coastal Wetland Forests” for that.
Also, in a previous e-alert I called the Corps of Engineers project that was in progress the “Bayou Braud, Spanish Lake, and Alligator Bayou, LA Ecosystem Restoration Project.” It was correctly pointed out to me that this project has been officially combined into the larger “Amite River and Tributaries, Bayou Manchac Watershed Project.” The same issues will be addressed and this is the project that I was referencing.
We will continue to keep you updated.
Addendum: John McMillan wrote the following update on this issue for the Advocate on March 29.
Addendum 2: Greg Garland wrote the second update on this issue for the Advocate on April 2. As Garland reports, a decision has been reached to open the control structure at Bayou Manchac to lower water levels in Spanish Lake. This decision was made by Lee Ourso and Tommy Martinez, Iberville and Ascension Parish presidents, respectively. I’m curious about the timing, i.e., why the decision was made in early Spring rather than in June.