District 1 State Senator A.G. Crowe (R-Slidell) has filed a resolution with the Louisiana Senate urging Congress and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to incorporate eighteen miles of levees in Plaquemines Parish into the federal flood protection system. Currently, the federal flood protection system on the east bank consists of approximately fifty-two miles of levees from Phoenix to Bohemia. The eighteen miles of constructed levees from Braithwaite to White's Ditch are not part of the federal system and are not built to federal standards. Senate Concurrent Resolution 3, filed by Senator Crowe, urges Congress to take the necessary action to include those eighteen miles into the federal system and get them built to the same standards as other levees in the New Orleans area.

  "These eighteen miles of levees failed during Hurricane Katrina and they're going to fail again if they're not built to federal standards," said Senator Crowe. "There are over four hundred seventy-five million dollars in residential and commercial property located on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish in danger of flooding if another hurricane should hit. The Corps of Engineers is building improved levees throughout the New Orleans area, but up to now has totally ignored the needs of this area. The levee system they are constructing could have the unintended effect of worsening the floods for the east bank unless this eighteen mile stretch is built to the same standards."

  The Congress of the United States expressed its intent in regard to the inclusion of Plaquemines Parish east bank levees into the federal system by including wording in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, which states that the non-federal levees in Plaquemines Parish should be incorporated into the New Orleans to Venice Hurricane Protection Project. Senator Crowe hopes that Senate Concurrent Resolution 3 will cause Congress to take swift action to ensure that all the levees in Plaquemines Parish are built to the federal standard.

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