Atchafalaya Basin Program Needs to Strengthen Its Administration of Water Management Projects

Officials with the Atchafalaya Basin Program need to strengthen their administration of water management projects within the basin, the Legislative Auditor said in a report released today.

The Atchafalaya Basin Program has completed five water management projects since 2004 at a cost of about $3.5 million and is working with a nonprofit organization on a sixth one. Performance auditors found that officials did not properly oversee certain aspects of the program’s first two water management projects – Schwing Chute and Bayou Postillion – which resulted in concerns related to transparency, concessions for landowners, potential conflicts of interest, and insufficient monitoring, the state auditor said.

Although the program has improved its administration efforts since 2008, it could strengthen its processes even more by having each project formally approved before construction begins and by consistently conducting project monitoring. A formal approval process after a project’s engineering specifications have been developed would allow for greater public transparency and give further assurance the project will meet its intended goals, while a consistent monitoring plan would help officials determine the impact and success of the program’s water management projects.

Auditors also found that the State Master Plan for the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway System expired in 2013. The Master Plan was created in part to establish the state’s role of providing 25 percent of the operational and maintenance costs of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ water management units once they were completed. However, the Corps has not completed any of its water management units, and the state has not had to provide operational and maintenance support.

In addition, Act 606 of the 2008 Regular Session changed the focus of the Atchafalaya Basin Program’s efforts to building water management projects. As a result, the current State Master Plan is no longer adequate to guide the program’s operations.