The Corps of Engineers is supposed to begin removing trees and other debris from the Vermilion River this fall to ease flooding, a Corps official told the Lafayette City and Parish councils.
The federal agency then will consider dredging spots on the river, but will not dredge the entirety of the Vermilion River.
Col. Scotty Autin, commander and district engineer of the New Orleans District of the Corps, who is a native of Houma, briefed the city and parish councils at a special meeting Tuesday, where the colonel faced push-back from some council members and residents.
The Corps, not contractors, will begin as early as October and into 2027, clearing 919 obstacles identified in the river, starting in the northern part of the river and working to the south, Autin said.
The river will be analyzed afterward to identify places for spot dredging, he said, because clearing debris could affect existing low spots.
Ten years ago, in August 2016, 20 inches of rain fell on the city, parish and region, flooding thousands of homes. Nothing has been done by the Corps since then, despite $50 million in federal funds being allocated for river dredging by 3rd Congressional District Congressman Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette.
The Corps and Higgins, in February 2020, presented the findings of a study concluding that the $150 million it would cost to dredge the Vermilion River is too high a price to prevent a few hundred homes in Lafayette Parish from flooding.
Autin, who has been in his current post about a year, said his team is working with leaders from Lafayette and Vermilion parishes, which is to Lafayette’s south.
In addition to the estimated $150 million cost of dredging the entire river in Vermilion and Lafayette parishes, Vermilion Parish leaders do not want the river fully dredged, Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet said.
“The Vermilion River must be dredged,” Higgins wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday. “For over nine years, I have patiently and professionally fought to overcome the bureaucracy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and deliver long-promised flood mitigation and navigation projects to South h. We’ve done our part. These projects are studied, analyzed, modeled, engineered, supported by federal law, partnered with local government, authorized by Congress, funded by Congress and shovel ready.”
The Corps is mandated by statute to maintain the Vermilion River as a navigable waterway to a depth of 9 feet and a width of 100 feet, said Lafayette Parish Councilman John Guilbeau, who displayed a Dredge the Vermilion bumper sticker on his council auditorium desk.
Residents and boaters say some spots in the river in Lafayette Parish are as shallow as 1-4 feet.
Gordon Schoeffler, legal advisor to Dredge the Vermilion group, said three businesses left Lafayette because the river is no longer navigable in Lafayette Parish.
Raney Redmond, who owns Redmond’s Marine on General Mouton Avenue in Lafayette, said he bought the property on the river years ago but is unable to get boats to his business now because of the debris.
“We need help,” he said.
Several members of the Dredge the Vermilion group presented the councils and Corps with information on why the river should be dredged, including the economic benefits.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency rated Lafayette at a 99.8% flood risk, Jeremiah Supple, Dredge the Vermilion board member, said.
The 2016 flood in this region resulted in 5,000 flood claims at a cost of $500 million in losses, Supple said. Some 59% of the loss was in Lafayette Parish.
Jeff Lemon, who lives on Coulee Mine in Lafayette Parish, has been researching and studying the Vermilion River since he had more than a foot of water in his house in August 2016.
The Corps, he said, conducted a comprehensive dredging operation on the Vermilion River in the 1950s.
“It made a huge difference until 2016,” Lemon said. “I don’t understand why dredging is not part of the solution.”
The City and Parish Councils on Tuesday adopted resolutions urging the Corps to execute spot dredging and maintenance of the Vermilion River, including accumulated silt and overgrowth to return the river to its legally-required navigational depth of 9 feet and width of 100 feet.