Pumps ridding Bluff Swamp Basin of high water

PRAIRIEVILLE — Ascension Parish crews on Friday began pumping water from the Bluff Swamp Basin into Bayou Manchac.

East Ascension Consolidated Gravity Drainage District No. 1 workers installed two floating pumps in Frog Bayou on Thursday to facilitate lowering water levels in the Bluff Swamp area, officials said in a news release Friday.

Bluff Swamp is located in northwestern Ascension Parish, where water levels remain high following heavy rain that fell over the region during the past several weeks. Pumping operations started Friday morning and were expected to take approximately two weeks. Alligator Bayou Road, meanwhile, has been closed indefinitely.

Officials said each of the two pumps, which use 42-inch pipes, is capable of pumping 68,000 gallons of water per minute. Without the use of the pumps, officials estimated the basin would take at least one month to drain back to normal levels.

Comments

1) Comment by two_cents - 26/01/2013

Just went to Google maps and looked at Alligator Bayou and Spanish Lake area. SAD...

2) Comment by two_cents - 26/01/2013

@Stephen-- You are right. These questions should be answered.

3) Comment by Stephen - 26/01/2013

This is a good basic article. Now, please dig deeper here and find out what is going on here. Are wetlands being illegally drained wit these pumps? Will some unknowing people buy land thinking they can build homes only to find out later that they will periodically be flooded? How does this story relate to the destruction of the Alligator Bayou Conservation area. It was the jewel of our region, and it was destroyed by greedy developers. Is the flooding here what these developers said would never happen if we trusted them. Could we taxpayers be relieved of the cost of pumping these lands so the developers can make a quick buck? Again, was it legal, smart, or best for our region to destroy Alligator Bayou? Good start with this article. Now dig deeper.