Amite River Basin commission adopts master-plan recommendations after tense discussion; City of Central showcases live flood-forecasting model

The Amite River Basin Commission on Friday approved master-plan recommendations for the basin as amended to include projects in St. James Parish, and heard a detailed presentation from the City of Central on a data-driven stormwater-management program that officials say reduced local flood risk and provides real-time flood forecasts.

The commission’s vote accepted the Dewberry-led draft master plan recommendations and instructed staff to finalize the document with the agreed additions. The vote followed questions from multiple commissioners about sequencing projects and downstream impacts. Later in the meeting, City of Central Mayor Wade Evans and CSRS engineer Stoker Brown described the city’s investments in mapping, modeling and an online flood-forecasting system used by residents and first responders.

Why it matters: the master plan will serve as the basinwide blueprint for project identification and funding priorities for projects intended to lower flood risk across parishes in the Amite River Basin. Commissioners emphasized that the plan is conceptual and that individual projects will require additional engineering and environmental review before any construction or approvals.

Paul Sawyer, ARBC executive director, told commissioners the basin also faces two large regional projects not under ARBC’s direct management: the Comite River Diversion Canal and an East Baton Rouge Parish Corps of Engineers flood-control program. Sawyer said the two efforts together represent roughly $1.2 billion in regional flood-control investment and estimated both programs could continue to show measured progress through about 2028.

Mayor Wade Evans described Central’s approach as deliberately data driven. “We were able to take the data and…verify and then do infrastructure projects based on model data, and it solved the problem before I just went and spent money doing something without verification,” Evans said. He said Central invested in a high‑resolution lidar survey (about $42,000), Leica survey equipment, and a program of targeted ditch and culvert repairs, and used federal ARPA funds to install river and bridge‑site gauges tied to a public EarlyFlows forecasting system.

Stoker Brown (CSRS) said the city’s hydraulic model runs automated forecasts hourly using multiple weather forecast products and recent radar/gauge-corrected rainfall datasets. The model produces a range of projected water-surface elevations at defined crossings and critical locations so residents and emergency managers can see a “spaghetti” of possible outcomes and plan accordingly. Brown said the model runs in a streamlined configuration that can produce forecasts on a city-scale in roughly 15 minutes.

City officials said the package of interventions reduced Central’s National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System (CRS) class from 7 to 5 and that officials will reapply to move to class 4; the city estimates the CRS improvement represents roughly $1 million a year in reduced flood-insurance premiums to residents at present and additional savings if the CRS class improves further.

Garvin Pittman of the Water Institute of the Gulf, who coordinates Region 9 Louisiana Watershed Initiative (LWI) activity, and Dewberry project lead Seth Bradley updated commissioners on master-plan progress. Bradley said project owners will be contacted next week to verify details and numbers in the plan tables, and that an “all-projects” model run will estimate annualized flood-risk reductions and structures removed from the floodplain if projects are built together.

Legal counsel Larry Bankston reported that an extension to the intergovernmental agreement with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) covering master-plan funds has been executed; the extension runs through June 2026.

Commissioners spent extended time debating whether the master plan should propose a specific sequence for projects so downstream impacts would be avoided. Several commissioners and outside participants warned that imposing strict sequencing at this conceptual stage could delay projects and complicate federally administered deadlines for LWI funds. Dewberry and other presenters repeatedly stressed the plan is conceptual: it identifies projects and estimated impacts, and sequencing or detailed mitigation measures will be addressed during later design and permitting.

A motion by Commissioner Quintmon to approve the master-plan recommendations with an explicit inclusion of St. James projects passed on a roll call. A subsequent motion to reconsider that approval failed on a roll call.

Public comment included a resident from Livingston Parish, Cindy O’Neil, who asked how the timeline for LWI model delivery affected the ability to design projects and meet grant deadlines; commissioners said detailed scheduling and project sequencing discussions remain ongoing with Office of Community Development staff and other partners.

The commission also received updates that the Comite River Diversion Canal faces pipeline relocation work that must finish before major excavation begins, and that the East Baton Rouge Parish Corps project (roughly $255 million) is largely clearing and snagging of key bayous with some engineered armoring in upper reaches and is expected to progress through about 2028.

Looking ahead, Dewberry expects to deliver a final draft of the master plan to the commission on March 14, and commissioners were encouraged to submit final comments quickly so the plan can be finalized and publicly released. The commission said individual projects identified in the plan will still require separate decisions, funding and permitting before construction.

(Attributions: Mayor Wade Evans, Paul Sawyer, Stoker Brown, Garvin Pittman, Seth Bradley, Larry Bankston; resident Cindy O’Neil.)

The meeting adjourned after the public-comment period.