Pearl River mayor pleads with residents to stop filling ditches

St. Tammany News

Hurricane debris and garbage dumped into Pearl River ditches have clogged the waterways, causing minor flooding and adding one more drainage headache for officials prepping for this year's storm season.

Mayor James Lavigne is pleading with residents to curb this practice.

"With the rainy season coming, this will cause a huge problem by clogging our drain pipes," said Lavigne. "Our town workers are putting in extra hours trying to repair all the damages that were caused by the storm and are having to stop what they are doing to unclog drain lines."

While the town is roughly 16 to 17 feet higher than Slidell - its flood prone neighbor to the south - Lavigne said floods still threaten the city because the federal government has yet to clear the town's waterways as promised. If clogged when a major storm strikes, water could pool and flood the town, he said.

The Natural Resource Conservation Service originally proposed to fund the clearing project in at 100 percent funding. But at the end of last year it's funding dried up, bringing the project to a halt.

Now the agency is offering a 75 to 25 percent funding split to continue the project.

Lavigne, claiming his share is likely too much for the small town, said he was forced to sign the agreement.

To date, no work has continued. Representatives with NRCS have used a GPS system to map the waterways and plot their next course of action, Lavigne said. But recent rains have risen water levels in the Pearl River and is subsequent drainage ways, causing another delay, he said.

"The river is coming back up, and it's coming strong," Lavigne said. "It's something else. The whole parish drains through here to the Pearl River. We need to do something."

With his city work crew down to two men from five, it's crucial that residents don't put debris into ditches.

"These rains are coming in," he said. "It doesn't take much - 3 to 4 inches of rain - to float a log down our culvert, but if the people would just help."