Mission

The Pontchartrain Levee District was created by the Louisiana Legislature in 1895 for the primary purpose of maintaining the levees along the Mississippi River within its jurisdictional boundaries.  The District includes portions of East Baton Rouge Parish, Iberville Parish, Ascension Parish, St. James Parish, St. John the Baptist Parish and St. Charles Parish, all located on the east bank of the Mississippi River.

In the mid 1980s after the losses of our coastal marshes between Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico, it became apparent that the District’s residents and industries were being threatened by flood events from other sources and from a different direction, namely tropical storms and hurricanes in lieu of river flooding. Thus the District’s mission had to grow to include Hurricane Protection and today implementing this mission creates a continuing challenge for the Pontchartrain Levee District and the State of Louisiana.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it has become apparent that the Pontchartrain Levee District needs to continue its mission to complete a Hurricane Protection Program for its constituents as quickly as possible.  TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.  The bureaucratic “red tape” and the fact that the Pontchartrain Levee District has local sponsor dollars available but are not allowed to spend these dollars while deficiencies in the levee system exist have got to be changed.

Projects like (1) the St. Charles portion of the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Project, (2) the Westshore of Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Protection Project, (3) the St. James Hurricane Protection Project, (4) the Bayou Manchac Flood Control Project and (5) the St. Charles East Bank Urban Flood Control Project have got to be completed as soon as possible.  All of these projects are in different stages of engineering, design and/or construction, but they all need to be implemented as soon as possible.  A repeat of the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina cannot be allowed to happen in this six (6) parish area.