What if the Ouachita River dried up?
Before 1919, the Ouachita River at Monroe would be about 3 feet deep in the middle of the summer. Cows could walk between Monroe and West Monroe at Lazarre Point.
Over time, a series of locks and dams were installed and updated over time as part of the Ouachita-Black Rivers Navigation Project — a navigation and recreation project. Today, the pool stage of the Ouachita at Monroe is 20 feet.
And funding to maintain the lock, dams and levees is eroding over time. The long, slow decline in dollars has community leaders asking what Arkansas and northern Louisiana could look like without the river as we know and use it.
The Environmental Protection Agency held meetings and went on tours locally to develop a plan linking all the ways the river serves the community, including quality of life, so they can give lawmakers and decision makers the whole picture, and ensure needs are met.
Rich Fulford, a research ecologist with the EPA, said the goal is to help communities connect social and economic factors to issues like flood mitigation. They're working in communities around the country to customize plans for different issues using the same basic approach.
"We looked at what services people are getting from the natural system and not just describe them but actually try to get those connections into the decision-making process," Fulford said. The EPA isn't making the decisions, but the goal is to assist leaders in looking at the full suite of services instead of considering one or two.
Tracy Hilburn, operations supervisor for the Tensas Basin Levee District, is well aware of the importance of the river and the obstacles to funding that lie ahead.
He wants people to know the struggles the system is facing, but he doesn't want anyone to panic. The concern isn't about this year or next year, but 10 years down the line.
"If those locks go away, then the river as we know it will go away," HIlburn said.
What does the river means to us?
On May 23, a group of community leaders, elected officials, engineers and workers for local governments met at the Ouachita Parish Emergency Operation Center. They talked about the community's priorities and what the river means to residents.
It acts as a center for navigation, recreation, economic development and drinking water — not to mention community identity.
The river's recreational use skews toward fishing, skiing and boating. Sandy areas dot the river, and there are recreational areas that include beaches, picnic sites and boat docks.
About 150 communities in Arkansas and Louisiana pull water from the river. In Monroe alone, about 90,000 customers on the east side draw from the Ouachita.
Hilburn said about 45 percent of the nation's toilet paper is made in at the Georgia-Pacific mill in Crossett, Arkansas, that draws water from the river.
"Holy crap," someone muttered.
Angus pulls about 4 million gallons a day in Sterlington, there are additional chemical plants and and an energy plant that use the river system.
Farmers use it for irrigation.
And the ability to move goods along the river keeps costs low. For example, much of the fuel for northeastern Louisiana is brought up the river. If prices go up at the pump, it would affect the cost of almost everything.
So, what if the river disappeared?
Most of northern Louisiana from Lake Providence to Farmerville would dry up for part of the year.
The river at Monroe would effectively disappear in most summers, Hilburn said, as would several other waterways.
"Those four locks maintain the pool of water at Beouf River, Bayou Macon, Tensas River, Lafouche Canal, all of that's held back by the locks, and without those locks, all that will run dry in the summertime, so it's all tied together," Hilburn said.
It also would affect the wildlife refuges, like Russell Sage and Black Bayou.
"And if you look at the Ouachita Basin, it goes from Mena, Arkansas to Pine Bluff, Arkansas all the way down to the Red River, so all the water that comes in over at Lake Claiborne from the Mississippi River, all that ends up in the Ouachita River system."
It would effect the water supply. In 2015, Hilburn said, Graphic Packaging was told they'd close the doors if they couldn't maintain water supply.
"We wouldn't even need a fourth bridge," quipped one guy in a group discussion.
What pieces are missing?
The Tensas River Levee District is the sponsor for the levees, and the state of Louisiana sponsors the federal navigation project.
In 2012, the Corps instituted the Inland Marine Transportation Study, its grading system for rivers nationwide.
One of the metrics graded is tonnage. The Ouachita River has to have a million tons annually to maintain the system out of the low-use classification. If a river drops into low-use, it's put on the chopping block for funds.
"Over the last three years, we've missed that mark. We've seen funding continually being reduced," Hilburn said.
Since the rivers have been dredged, Hilburn said, shippers are returning.
When the channels aren't cleared out, barges have to run lighter loads or risk damage.
The 2016 flood caused a lot of damage but created projects for the Corps of Engineers to fix in Monroe that have brought close to 2 million tons of rock up the river.
The rivers are judged on a three-year average, so that will help the system, Hilburn said.
Because the river's purpose was navigation and recreation, those are the only factors that is is judged by.
In 1985, Gen. Tommy Sands, who then headed the Mississippi Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, wrote a letter stating the Ouachita River system was not a core part of the Mississippi River Tributaries Act (MRT).
When the levee system was established in 1929, there was an agreement between the levee district and the corps, which was supposed to handled all major maintenance.
Sands' letter nullified that agreement.
John Stringer, executive director of the Tensas Basin Levee District, has fought for years to get the levees back under federal jurisdiction.
In the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2006, the Tensas Basin Levee District thought the system would be restored to federal oversight because all portions of the Ouachita River System under Section 1 of the 1928 Flood Control Act were reinstated into the MRT.
The northern portion of the Ouachita system was created under Section 1. The portion starting just south of Monroe was built under Section 6.
The local Corps of Engineers supports the projects, Hilburn said. The difficulty comes when attorneys in D.C. interpret how laws apply to the system.
Since 2006, Hilburn said, earmarks have tripped up the ability to get funding.
He said the district spoke with the Mississippi River Commission and got verbal confirmation the Ouachita River would be put into the current Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).
On May 21, they were told funds were earmarked and the Ouachita River still would not be part of MRT.
Hilburn said the Ouachita River Valley Association meets with the congressional district and D.C. decision-makers to get funds for the whole river basin. They're having significant issues getting funding at the state and local levels.
This year, he said, the defunding portion of the WRDA targets defunding $300 billion in projects.
"What we're fighting for is trying to get the additional funding to maintain the system as it is today, keep the locks open 24/7 to allow for inter-modal transportation and keep our tonnage up so we can continue to keep our dollars coming into the system," he said. Money for the navigation project goes to the Corps of Engineers.
What do we need?
The levees, he said, would still be there and provide protection. The levee system has never had an overtop or cave-in. It does, however, need maintenance.
"People don't flood around here because the water comes over the Ouachita River levees. People flood around here because the flood gates get closed and the water can't get into the Ouachita River levees," he said.
Hilburn said the levee district talks to legislators at the state level to get capital outlay funds. This year, they asked for $24 million over five years, which would fix the entire levee system.
"We got zero," HIlburn said.
If he had the cash in hand, he said, it would take about five years to do all the repairs.
He said the Tensas Basin Levee District isn't funded in a way that lets them fix major levee slides; he had 18 in the southern portion of the system. All the bank cave-ins also are in the part of the system that aren't in MRT.
The need for levee repairs, he said, is costing residents money.
FEMA will not accept a part of the system until all the levees are certified, so the east side of the levee system is under seclusion because of the slides and cave-ins in the southern portion of the system.
Hilburn said the levees being certified could lead to a huge savings in flood insurance costs for many residents.
A solar farm looking to move to Morehouse Parish last year was willing to pay $100,000 for a new study to re-certify the part of the levee system from about the RiverMarket in Monroe up into Morehouse. FEMA didn't have the money for recertification. Hilburn said the firm went to Madison Parish because the certification couldn't be completed.
The navigation project requires about $11 million to be maintained at its current level for maintaining locks and dredging. Since 2011, the state has got about $8 million. For the past few years, there have been additional funds.
In 2017, the low river meant crews were able to snag and clear the entire channel up to Camden, Arkansas. It was the first time in years that the entire channel had been re-established.
"Every time the water comes up, we have shoaling, we have siltation, we have sandbars. So now they're in the process of doing a survey to determine where to dredge this year," Hilburn said.
In May 2015, for the first time since 2004, discussions about restricted funding involved putting some of the locks in Arkansas in caretaker status, which means the lock is opened when it fails and not repaired. Hilburn said the concern is that the federal government adopts whole systems at a time, so it might drop the whole system, not just parts. It's happened in other places.
"So the possibility is there. According to the current Corp of Engineers commander, he supports us 100 percent and doesn't intend to make it happen, but it's not always their decision to make," Hilburn said.
Putting it all together
The EPA-led meeting last week was the first step in putting that picture together for budget-crunchers.
Another meeting will be held later this year to present a framework of how flood mitigation is impacting multiple factors in the community and determine if the proposed plan makes sense.
"Ultimately, we're going to generate some recommendations for the parish as well as the cities of Monroe and West Monroe about how they can make those connections important," Fulford said.