To: Senator Richard Shelby, R-AB
Re: Concerning U.S. Senate Bill 2238, sponsored by Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky. Bill to amend National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 – to reduce losses of property for which flood insurance claims have been made.
Dear Committee Members,
Please be advised that this letter is from Save Our Wetlands, Inc. (SOWL), consisting of over 3,600 members. SOWL has been a very active Louisiana environmental organization since 1974. SOWL has been documenting the destruction of Louisiana’s wetlands and the promotion of housing/commercial developments by Louisiana state agencies in wetlands that are low-lying and extremely susceptible to hurricane and tidal surge flooding.
As you are well aware, Louisiana politicians are requesting that the U.S. Congress continue to heavily subsidize the federal flood insurance program, which indirectly supports Louisiana land developers. Louisiana politicians are also requesting billions of dollars to restore Louisiana’s eroding coastal zone and disappearing wetlands.
In the same breath that former Louisiana governor Mike Foster (R) and now governor Kathleen Blanco (D) say to the U.S. Congress “give Louisiana billions of dollars to restore Louisiana wetlands,” their Louisiana department of Environmental Quality and other state coastal protection agencies rubber-stamp any and all construction permits, which destroy wetlands for housing and shopping developments. The end result of this is that developments are placed in flood prone areas that American taxpayers have to subsidize with federal flood insurance.
One of the most glaring examples was former La. Governor Mike Foster taking $11 million of state money to destroy 256 acres of wetlands in Westwego, Louisiana, to subsidize construction of a private golf and housing development in a flood plain.
Also See:
SOWL and others have also documented Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) under former La. Governor Mike Foster rubber-stamping any and all construction permits for housing and shopping development in wetlands. And now our new Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s first order of business was to cut the DEQ’s funding. So, under her administration it will be “business as usual.” In other words, Louisiana politicians and agencies, under Gov. Blanco will continue to rubber-stamp permits which promote the development of flood prone areas in wetlands.
In Louisiana we have parishes rather than counties. One of the fastest growing counties in the U.S. is St. Tammany Parish. SOWL has documented how the St. Tammany Parish Police Jury (known now as the St. Tammany Parish Council) has recklessly permitted any and all housing and shopping developments over wetlands in St. Tammany Parish, in spite of past flooding.
This is particularly true in the area known as ‘Bayou Liberty’. However, it is also true by the Council’s encouragement of promoting developments in Bayou Desert, Bayou Cane, on the Pearl River, the Tchefuncte River, Bogue Chitto River, and over 5,200 acres of wetlands on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain called the Eden Isles, Oak Harbor and Lakeshore Estate subdivisions.
The St. Tammany Parish Council is constantly rezoning hundreds of rural acres, which contain many wetlands and streams into housing subdivision and shopping malls. They do this in spite of massive objections from local residents and landowners. The Parish Council’s decisions are always supported by their flimsy Council Planning Commission, which is nothing but a puppet for developers who have made a net profit of over $300 million by helping to turn the once beautiful and rural St. Tammany Parish into an urban gridlock. Homes in St. Tammany Parish that never used to flood are now flooding with some regularity because of the permitting actions of the St. Tammany Parish Council, bending over backwards, to accommodate developers.
Before the U.S. Congress begins pumping billions of dollars into the greasy-fingers of Louisiana politicians for more flood insurance and ‘coastal restoration’ projects, there should be a congressional investigation of all the thousand of wetlands acres in Louisiana that have been destroyed illegally and criminally. Also, the thousands of wetland acres now being proposed for urban development by Louisiana politicians should be investigated.
Pressure has to be placed on Louisiana state agencies, such as the DEQ and the St. Tammany Parish Council to stop their wholesale permitting of housing and commercial developments in Louisiana wetlands and floodplains. Congress needs to set up a fund to begin purchasing all wetlands presently left in Louisiana, which act as buffers against flooding due to hurricanes and tidal surges. Wetlands are not just an economic asset to the fish and shrimping industry but they are also vital to safeguard the housing industry.
Louisiana should not receive any money for flood insurance or coastal restoration until such agencies as the St. Tammany Parish Council and the Louisiana DEQ are forced to stop their wholesale promotion of development into floodplains. The St. Tammany Parish Council Development schemes and their relations to a billion dollar St. Tammany Parish developer, seeking to also install a sewage treatment plant and solid waste disposal sites, should be investigated not only by the U.S. Congress but also the FBI.
Finally, what type of politician sits on the St. Tammany Parish Council? As described one that has taken a once vast rural scenic oasis and turned it into a nightmare of urban blight. One that has taken low-lying areas of forested wetland flood barriers, and permitted development of shopping and strip malls, causing massive floods to surrounding neighbors, landowners, and communities. And they have done this in spite of overwhelming objections and voices of disapproval by the many decent people in opposition to these ill-conceived projects. But one of their recently approved projects deserves special mention here and now. It reflects such a blatant example of the evil contained within the soul of the St. Tammany Parish Police Jury body – and that is the permit of approval granted by the St. Tammany Parish Council to build a junior high school adjacent to an old toxic landfill. The locals here call it “Landfill Junior High.” What type of politician permits and pushes its younger generation to be subjected to 9 hours a day to toxic, leeching deadly fumes and substances from an old landfill? The type of politician that sits and governs as little king despots over the many decent people of St. Tammany Parish. The people of St. Tammany Parish deserve better. The politicians of the St. Tammany Parish Council deserve a U.S. governmental investigation.
SOWL would be happy to furnish more information upon request. Billions of dollars in federal flood insurance are at stake and of course thousand of human lives, especially in St. Tammany Parish.
Respectfully,