River Parishes seek nearly $500 million from feds for levees

East bank residents of the River Parishes are a step closer to getting a new federal levee protecting them against floodwaters from Lake Pontchartrain -- a project more than 40 years in the making that took on new urgency after the inundations brought by Hurricane Isaac in 2012.

President Barack Obama recently signed into law a comprehensive federal water resources bill that included authorization for an 18-mile stretch of levees protecting the towns of Montz, LaPlace, Reserve and Garyville.

It would run roughly parallel to Interstate 10 from the Bonnet Carre Spillway in St. Charles Parish to the Hope Canal in St. John the Baptist Parish.

The question now is whether President-elect Donald Trump and Congress will actually set aside the money to pay for it. The plan envisions a total cost of $744 million, with 65 percent coming from the federal budget and the rest from local sources.

Read more: http://www.houmatoday.com/news/20170102/river-parishes-seek-nearly-500-million-from-feds-for-levees