This week, the Senate Natural Resources Committee heard arguments for Senator Robert Owen’s bill SB124, to suspend regulations prohibiting the channelization, clearing and snagging, channel realignment, reservoir construction, or dredging operations for drainage purposes in the West Pearl River, from Lock 1 to the Rigolets, in St. Tammany Parish. The West Pearl River is designated as a Louisiana Scenic River and is protected from the listed activities without an approved permit from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
SB124, if passed, would remove the West Pearl River from the Scenic River program for a period of 8 years. The Louisiana Wildlife Federation opposes removing scenic rivers from the Scenic Rivers System. The concerns about making exceptions for a scenic river is that it allows for operations on the river with no state oversight into how the activities would impact the river’s function and values. Without specific information to decide on a proposed project, particularly in a sandy-bottomed system as represented by the West Pearl, these activities have the potential of causing upstream bank erosion, increased sedimentation and siltation, and water flow faster downstream, potentially resulting in increased backwater flooding. Dredging projects, if not properly designed, can also cause damage to roads and bridges along the river system. Interfering with the river’s ability to maintain itself has consequences for communities and wildlife that could be difficult, expensive, and maybe impossible to reverse.
During the Senate Committee hearing, LWF, in addition to numerous St. Tammany residents, presented testimony opposing SB124. At the conclusion of testimony, an offer was submitted to Senator Owen to convert the legislation to a one-year study on the issue, Senator Owen, however, declined to move forward with a study on the issue. A committee decision was made to defer the legislation in its current form and the Louisiana Wildlife Federation will continue to monitor SB124 throughout the legislative process.
LWF has been a vocal advocate of Louisiana’s Natural and Scenic Rivers System for more than 50 years. LWF Reaffirmed its commitment to the scenic rivers program in 2018 with a resolution approved by LWF’s Board of Directors – LWF Reaffirms Support for the Louisiana Natural and Scenic Rivers System – Louisiana Wildlife Federation.
Learn more about Louisiana’s Scenic River System and LWF’s commitment to the program in our earlier blogs Whither the Comite River? – Louisiana Wildlife Federation, Celebrating 50 Years of Louisiana’s Scenic Rivers Act – Louisiana Wildlife Federation, and Scenic Rivers Need Your Help – Protect from automatic dredging, de-snagging, clearing – Louisiana Wildlife Federation.