30seconds with Dr. Paul Kemp

Ascension and Iberville parish officials recently opened flood control gates, allowing Spanish Lake to drain naturally, but threatening to alter Alligator Bayou. Dr. Paul Kemp, vice president of the Louisiana Coastal Initiative, explains some pros and cons.

Why is draining Alligator Bayou significant?

Alligator Bayou is like a red-headed stepchild because it occurs at the confluence of three parishes. It is the parish line between Ascension and Iberville, so it falls between the cracks in some ways. But of course for East Baton Rouge, it’s a major ecotourism site. Every high school, every middle school and every elementary school goes out there. And of course, the access. The plan of just opening the gate may not do much for drainage, but a lot for preventing access by boat, which is the way most people get there.

Does it make sense to open the floodgate?

I do understand the ecological rationale. It makes sense to have Spanish Lake, which is a backwater overflow, reattached more frequently to the bayou so the fish can move up and down. But that could be done a lot better if the connector, the culvert, were bigger.

Then what’s all the fuss?

There’s a huge amount of drainage disruption on their property that the landowners are not talking about. They’ve got levees impounding their water that have nothing to do with Alligator Bayou. The plan sounds like it’s a wonderful thing for the ecology—it’s possibly a start in the right direction if six other things are done at the same time.

Like what?

There’s a plan that’s been around for some time that’s not followed through. If we’re really interested in the drainage in Alligator Bayou, we shouldn’t do it through 72-inch pinhole pipe. Another thing: There’s an awful lot of sedimentation in the bayous due to construction around the watershed, a lot of that needs to be cleared out. And there’s an awful lot of improvement that must be done on the landowners’ (timber growers’) land. They need to take steps to get rid of banks and impoundments on their property. One can understand if they did all of that first and still have drainage problems. It seems like they’re taking the last step first.

With parish officials and legal advisers meeting in private, what can the public do to have input?

A lot of people have come to see Alligator Bayou and Spanish Lake as part of their heritage, which they didn’t have to do much to enjoy. Now they see it takes more action on their parts if they don’t want it to go away. It should be about improving ecology in general.