By JIM BUTLER
Those involved conclude there is no viable option to butting against wetlands in order to boost Alexandria drainage effectiveness.
Construction or improvements to five pump stations in the Hynson Bayou/Chatlin Lake Canal system are planned to more effectively handle city-wide surges that bottleneck in South Alexandria during abnormal rainfall.
That chokepoint in turn causes backup across much of the city.
Five pump stations are involved, as well as installation of back flow prevention flap valves at existing gravity flow discharge sites.
Locations identified are John Thomas, University, Parkway, Hodges (vicinity of the old stockyard) and Sandy Bayou.
Required environmental assessment shows the work is in a designated floodplain and adjacent to wetlands — both areas construction attempts to avoid.
Choices for the city — don’t do the work or do it outside those locales, neither practical conclusions.
Finding no significant environmental impact and no practical alternative routing, officials have notified the public they propose to proceed.
Study also projects no increased development in the identified floodplain.
Hynson and Sandy bayous merge near Chatlin Canal, which sends the water to outflow miles to the south.
When that region’s waterways fill, Chatlin has nowhere to go and backup begins.
Alexandria’s current projected solution to that seemingly annual problem is known as the Big Ditch.
It involves construction of a channel, or ditch, south of the city from Chatlin east across LA 1, through the levee, draining into Red River.
A state pledge of $10 million from the Watershed Initiative Program is in hand for what early on was forecast to be a $12 million job. Time has changed that.
The current city 5-year Capital Outlay budget estimates a $20-$21 million price tag.
Allocations forecast over the five years include $6 million from local property tax receipts and $5 million from sales tax revenue.
It is also possible additional state funding could be secured.
About $700,000 has already been spent on the myriad of tasks preliminary to securing U.S. Corps of Engineers approval, budget notes indicate.