§301.1. Coastal area levee districts; elevation reports

A. Every levee district located wholly or partially in the coastal area and every parish governing authority for parishes located wholly or partially within the coastal area but which are not part of a levee district shall, once every three years, submit a levee elevation report on tidal levees located within the coastal area to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board and to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. The levee elevation report shall be based upon a centerline profile survey conducted by the levee district or parish governmental entity on all tidal levees within the coastal area under its control. The centerline profile survey shall be limited to the gathering of elevation information along the top of the levee at two-hundred-fifty-foot intervals and shall not include cross-sectional levee elevation information. The information gathered pursuant to the centerline profile survey shall be incorporated into the levee elevation report, which shall indicate the elevation based on the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 of all tidal levees, including federally funded and nonfederally funded levees, and shall specifically identify inconsistencies in levee elevation. The report shall also include a plan to correct any problems that have been identified.

B. The centerline profile survey required according to the provisions of this Section may, at the discretion of the levee district or parish governing authority, be conducted by a licensed surveyor or by the levee district or parish governing authority. Any levee district or parish governing authority which chooses to conduct the centerline profile survey may use its own employees and equipment. If a levee district or parish governing authority undertakes the survey using its own employees and equipment, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority shall provide technical assistance and shall provide guidance in conducting the survey.

C. Every levee district located wholly or partially in the coastal area may, in addition to any other powers and duties provided by law for the boards of commissioners of levee districts, establish on its own behalf or for the areas or the levee districts under its authority adequate drainage, flood control, water resources development, and integrated coastal protection, including but not limited to the studying, engineering, designing, planning, maintenance, operation, and construction of erosion control measures, marsh management, coastal restoration, reservoirs, diversion canals, gravity and pump drainage systems, and other flood control works as such activities, facilities, and improvements related to tidewater flooding, riverine flooding, hurricane protection, conservation, and saltwater intrusion. Levee districts located wholly or partially in the coastal area may enter into contracts or other agreements, including cooperative endeavor agreements, with any public or private person or persons, corporation, association, or other entity, including the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, the state and other agencies thereof, public corporations, port authorities, levee districts, parishes, other political subdivisions, or the United States government or agencies thereof, or any combination thereof, or with instrumentalities of any kind to provide such adequate drainage, flood control, water resources development, and integrate coastal protection, and to this end, may contract for the acceptance of any grant of money upon the terms and conditions, including any requirement of matching the grants in whole or in part, which may be necessary.

D. If specially provided for by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority in a cooperative endeavor agreement, levee districts located wholly or partially in the coastal area may expend funds for projects and programs outside of their normal jurisdictional bounds on the condition that the funds are used consistent with the purposes and intent expressed in R.S. 49:213.1 and will benefit the jurisdiction from which the funds are derived.

Acts 2006, No. 181, §1, eff. June 2, 2006; Acts 2009, No. 225, §1; Acts 2010, No. 253, §1; Acts 2016, No. 430, §4.