Plans are moving ahead this week for two massive projects that would deliver 100-year flood protection for the lower Mississippi Valley. The question is whether the money and political will exists for the two protection systems to materialize.
One of the projects is the proposed $2 billion Upper Barataria levee system, which would provide 100-year storm surge protection for seven south Louisiana parishes and tie into the region’s overall storm protection system. The other project involves a $220 million pumping system that would be the last remaining feature in the Yazoo Backwater Project, which received congressional authorization in 1941 and has been moving forward piece by piece since then.