Lafitte gets own levee district

Still in its infancy, metro New Orleans' consolidated levee system became fractured again Friday, as Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law a provision to cleave a Lafitte-area levee district from the reformed West Bank board and give the bayou town management of its own flood protection.

The action came as six members of the West Bank levee authority -- four in person and two by phone, but minus the board president -- convened a special meeting to consider objecting to amendments tacked on to the board's own legislative wish list in the 11th hour of the session.

House Bill 413 started as a housekeeping measure, West Bank board members said, to tidy language in the statute that created the two regional levee authorities last year. The proposal called for clarifying taxing mechanisms, board voting rules and commissioner pay.

By the final day of the session, the document had tripled in length and included provisions to create an Algiers Levee District managed by the West Bank board, a new levee district for Lafitte, Barataria and Crown Point and an entirely new levee authority to manage lower Jefferson Parish flood projects.

Despite a supportive letter that board President David Bindewald sent Blanco this week urging her to sign the legislation, several West Bank commissioners called the views contrary to their own. They characterized the additions as "baggage" that rejected voters' cry for levee consolidation last year.
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