11/10/2003     

Officials Have Big River Restoration Plans 
By TODD BILLIOT (tbilliot@theadvertiser.com) & RICHARD BURGESS (rburgess@theadvertiser.com)

LAFAYETTE — Voter approval of a property tax proposal on the Nov. 15 ballot would support the first major restoration and water quality improvement efforts on the Vermilion River. “We know what needs to be done,” said Kerry Collins, executive director of the Bayou Vermilion District. “It's just a matter of doing it.”

The .45-mill tax would generate up to $4 million over 20 years, with $2 million of it matched with funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pay for aquatic ecosystem restoration. The remaining money would pay for flood-control projects, and improvements to parks and boat launches. The tax would not increase the amount that homeowners and businesses pay, because it is a renewal of an existing property tax, Collins said.

The Bayou Vermilion District was created in the 1980s to address water quality in the river, which was once considered one of the most polluted waterways in the nation, a victim of sewage, agricultural runoff and wastewater from factories. Without that tax money, Collins said the work of the Bayou Vermilion District would be difficult to continue. “We would continue to try to reach our goals, to make the river safe for swimming, but it will make it lot more difficult,” Collins said.

Perhaps the most noticeable problem is the trash that continuously floats down the river, Collins said. Besides the usual litter, Bayou Vermilion District workers spend a lot of time hauling out tires, washing machines, refrigerators and other unsightly items, he said.

Collins said that some of the money from the proposed tax would help make that job easier. One proposal calls for structures that would prevent logjams at bridges that take a lot manpower to clear. Another would purchase equipment to make it easier to unload trash from barges.

“Right now we have to haul it up the bank — barrel by barrel, tire by tire,” Collins said. “Simply by improving what we do, getting equipment to make it more efficient, we can do more without additional operating funds.”

Some of the major unfinished projects involve undoing man-made “fixes” from decades ago. Most of the rain water that falls on Lafayette rushes to the Vermilion. Once there, the water has few places to go, except to rise because natural relief outlets were cut off. This causes flooding as well as erosion along the river’s edge.

Collins said that some of the bond money would be used to partner with private developers to build more retention ponds. Another chunk would go to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project that reconnects the river with wetland areas that could serve as “natural” retention ponds, as they did before the levees were built. Wetlands also help filter pollutants from the water.

Other planned projects include planting trees and shrubs along the river banks to help stop erosion. Less erosion would mean less dirt in the water, which would make the river more hospitable to fish and other aquatic life.