Project Overview

The Project consists of the development and implementation of a watershed flood prevention plan aimed at reducing flood damages, enhancing public safety, and improving water quality across the Walnut Bayou Watershed. The proposed action for the Project is to increase drainage capacity for Mill Bayou, Walnut Bayou, Bayou Mothiglam, Panola Bayou, and Cypress Bayou, which are the primary drainage conveyance channels to be evaluated in the Plan-EA. It is anticipated that the efforts to increase drainage capacity will require dredging and snagging, or similar bank and stream-bed rehabilitation, to increase flow and drainage to the Tensas River.

The proximity of Madison Parish’s land uses (farmland and rural residences) to landforms (low lying ridge-swales) with little topographical relief often leads to flooding of homes, businesses, the rural highway system, and farmland. Poor drainage conditions throughout the Parish have also contributed to water quality impairments due to sedimentation, which worsen the poor drainage condition and recurring threat to flooding in the area. A watershed flood protection plan has been identified to address these issues and related public safety and natural resource concerns. The watershed flood protection plan is aimed at reducing flood damages, enhancing public safety, and improving water quality across the Walnut Bayou Watershed. It would provide total flood protection to an area of approximately 216,000 acres and afford flood protection benefits to agricultural enterprises and rural communities.