Commission History

The District was created in 1981 by the Louisiana Legislature by Act 896 and included all the territory within the watershed limits of the Amite River and Tributaries Basin in Louisiana within the parishes of East Baton Rouge, St. Helena, Livingston and those portions east of the Mississippi River in Ascension and St. James Parishes. The original legislation was designed to establish the District as a regional non-federal entity to cooperate with both state and federal governments in establishing major flood control efforts. In addition, the District was given the authority to levy a drainage tax pursuant to approval of such millage assessment by a majority of voters in the Amite River Basin Drainage and Water Conservation District. 

Amendments to the enabling legislation were made in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989, and 1991. In 1982, East Feliciana Parish was added to the original language, and changes were made to the number of Board members. Amendments in 1983 were administrative, relating to appointment and 1ength of term of commissioners to the Board. In 1984, amendments were made to change the boundaries of the Basin in Ascension and St. James parishes from the Mississippi River eastward to U.S. Highway 61. This was part of an agreement with the Pontchartrain Levee District that provided the District with its first significant funding -- in exchange for removing the major industrial areas of those District parishes that also lay within the boundaries of the Levee District. As a result of these changes and exclusion of the watershed area in Mississippi, the Amite River Basin District boundaries do not reflect the Basin's physiographic boundaries. Also in a 1984 amendment, the subsection which had limited the District's authority to regulate or affect the operation of any gravel mining business was repealed.

Following an in-house study by Brown & Butler, in 1984, the State hired that firm to review the feasibility of constructing a reservoir in the upper Amite River Basin. The study recommended that a wet reservoir be constructed near Darlington. Based upon this recommendation, the State applied to the USACE for a construction permit for the reservoir. This required an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for which the State then hired the firm of Espey, Huston & Associates, Inc. 

The 1985 amendments dealt with right of entry and expropriation.

By 1989, the studies complete, the ARBC recommended to the Governor that the State proceed with its efforts to construct a wet reservoir. Meanwhile, the 1989 amendments revised the District's authority to levy up to a three mill drainage tax by adding a provision which required that any mill levy be approved by a majority of the voters within the District, and that those parishes that do not approve such a levy by a majority be exempted.

In 1990, Governor Roemer established the Governor's Interagency Task Force on Flood Prevention and Mitigation through an Executive Order to examine and make recommendations on measures to mitigate floods in the Amite River Basin. Additionally, it required that a coordinated interagency review be made of existing and potential solutions to identify and expedite implementation of effective flood damage reduction measures. This study recommended the construction of a dry reservoir near Darlington, among  other programs and that the USACE be invited to reestablish studies which had been discontinued in 1985. 

As a result of another recommendation, Governor Roemer issued an Executive Order in 1991 that established the Amite River Basin Interagency Committee (ARBIC). The purpose of ARBIC, comprised of appropriate state agencies, is to provide to the District the technical assistance necessary in developing and implementing flood 1oss reduction programs; to serve as the State's single point of contact for the District and tributary projects with the USACE; and to serve as the District's coordination group for economic development studies for East Feliciana and St. Helena parishes -- the areas where the proposed reservoir would be constructed.

Further amendments were made to the original legislation in 1991 to establish ARBC in the role previously identified for the Office of Public Works. In addition, reports from committees formed as a result of the Governor's Interagency Task Force were developed in 1991. One report identified improvements that could be made to the ARBC for improving the operations and administration of the District. Another report was deve1oped which analyzed the impacts of the sand and gravel mining industry upon Amite River flooding, and provided recommendations for improvement and changes.

In 1991, the first legislative appropriation of funds to support the operations of the District was passed. A full-time staff was hired and a Basin-wide newsletter was initiated to serve the District's Community Rating System program. The District provided support to parish and municipal governments to join the National Flood Insurance Program's Community Rating System (CRS). This program grants credits to local governments whose floodplain management program efforts exceed the minimum requirements. These credits are, in turn, used to reduce every NFIP policy holder's flood insurance premiums within each community. To date, CRS has resulted in over $200,000 in savings, Basin-wide. As part of the CRS program, the ARBC also sponsors Flood Awareness Week activities.

The ARBC's efforts in 1991 gained the District national attention during 1992. In February, the first ever "field trip" of the national Federal Interagency Task Force on Floodplain Management was conducted in the Amite River Basin. This effort led to grant applications for this planning effort and a multiple-objective river corridor management study that would tie together the interests and needs of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Park Service (NPS) with those of floodplain, water quality, economic development, and recreation management. A multi-objective management program is still being pursued. In 1992 the State Legislature provided an increased level of funding for District activities.

In 1999, Act 1045 formally and legally defined the basin using a lengthy metes and bounds description. For the most part the boundaries matched the hydraulic boundaries of the Amite River Basin, however a small notch of East Baton Rouge Parish along the Mississippi River in the petrochemical plant area, and a much larger area south of Highway 61 containing an area of Iberville Parish and areas of Ascension and St. James Parishes were excluded from the ARBC jurisdiction. The small area in EBRP was reportedly excluded because it encompasses the petrochemical plants. 

The larger area south of Highway 61 was reportedly excluded to reduce conflict with the Pontchartrain Levee District (PLD) which has jurisdiction and performs projects there. The Act also defined a “Comite River Diversion Canal Impact Area” largely but not entirely located within the ARBC jurisdiction. It was defined using another lengthy metes and bounds description, and also hand drawn on maps by ARBC and adopted by the Legislature, intended to describe the area benefitted by the Comite River Diversion Channel Project, and solely to provide a taxing area specific to that project, independent of the rest of the ARBC jurisdiction. The CRDC Impact Area protrudes from the full ARBC jurisdiction near Zachary, to the west, following the right of way of the diversion channel. 

In 2022, pursuant to the 2021 House Continuing Resolution 46, Act 490 was promulgated. This act made significant changes to the makeup and governance of the ARBC. The most notable changes are detailed below: 

1. The geographical bounds of the district were modified to include all portions of the geographical area within the watershed limits of the Amite River and Tributaries Basin; specifically to include those portions of Iberville, Ascension and St. James parishes south of Highway 61 previously excluded from law. It also required the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to submit to the legislature a detailed legal description of the Amite River and Tributaries Basin watershed. 
2. The board shall comprehensively manage the district as a single system. 
3. The number of commissioners was increased from 13 to 16, and the makeup of the board was changed, providing that seven members shall be parish presidents representing the parishes making up the district, or their designee, and will serve ex officio without appointment. Three non-voting advisory members shall be comprised of the executive director of the CPRA, or their designee; the secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), or their designee; and the executive director of the PLD, or their designee. The remaining six shall be appointed by the governor to serve at large, and will serve four year terms staggered with three positions expiring every two years; initial terms are two years for three commissioners and four years for three commissioners. All at large commissioners are subject to senate confirmation from nominations submitted by the representatives and senators whose districts include any portion of the district. Commissioner nominees are encouraged, but not required, to reside in the district or any particular parish within it. Each legislator within the district may nominate up to two persons meeting the qualification requirements per vacant position. If no nominees meeting the qualification requirements are submitted for a seat, the governor may choose their own. All six at large commissioners shall have at least seven years of professional experience in their discipline, of which at least four must be engineers, project managers, certified floodplain managers, or professionals in a drainage-related field such as geotechnical, hydrological, or environmental science. Parish commissioner designees are encouraged to be, but need not be, professionals; however, priority will be given to nominees that reside in the district or any parish within it.
4. The board is required to promulgate regulations for watershed management within the district to address planning; permitting; selection of and performing projects and programs; resolution of conflicts among agencies; use of best available science; outreach to the public and agencies; coordination with state agencies and political subdivisions regarding watershed management; identifying, seeking, receiving, and expending federal and other funding for planning and projects; providing assistance to political subdivisions in planning, designing, and constructing projects, and identifying and obtaining funding; agreements with public and private entities to identify, seek, receive, and expend funds; maintaining projects and programs once complete; providing an appeal process; defining qualifications for staff and contractors; and creating and managing a wetland mitigation bank. 
5. All projects are required to receive approval of two thirds of the total voting membership, and all decisions, including technical aspects of projects, including planning and permitting decisions, require approval by a simple majority of the voting membership. 
6. The board is required to develop and implement a plan to manage all waterways in the district in relation to matters impacting watershed management in the district. Placing a heavy focus and constant emphasis on plans that include project inventories, implementation plans, and strategies to maximize the use of innovative funding strategies such as public private partnerships, pursuit of grant funding, capital outlay requests, and millage initiatives to the extent necessary to timely fund and implement the board's planned projects and programs. 
7. The commission shall create a Master Plan for comprehensive drainage, flood control, and water resource management with the district, which shall address both long- and short-term watershed management, including lists of projects, costs, and selection criteria, and is subject to annual approval of both the House and Senate Committees on Transportation, Highways and Public Works. 
8. The commission shall create an Annual Plan that includes, at a minimum, a three year projection of funding for projects and programs, including funding sources to be submitted to the parish presidents and parish governing authorities representing the parishes making up the district, the legislature, and a committee of representatives and senators whose districts include any portion of the Amite River Basin. The annual plans are subject to approval of both the House and Senate Committees on Transportation, Highways and Public Works. 
9. Each parish within the district is required to submit an initial hazard mitigation plan by Jan. 1, 2023, and thereafter to submit a hazard mitigation plan to the board every five years. Those parishes are also required to cooperate with the board to ensure that the impacts of drainage, flood control, and water resource management are considered in the development of each hazard mitigation plan, and prioritization is given to reduction of flood risk and flood insurance premiums. 
10. The commission is required to investigate contracting with the state of Mississippi for the purpose of collaborative projects relative to watershed management in the basin. 
11. Voting for taxes levied by the board will now be by everyone in the district, and not by individual parish. Taxes levied by the board are also no longer capped at three mills.
12. Parishes, municipalities, drainage districts, levee districts, and other political subdivisions in the district are allowed to transfer or donate funds to the board, and the board is allowed to accept such funds.
13. The Amite River Basin Drainage and Water Conservation District cannot initiate any project or program within the limits of the Pontchartrain Levee District without consulting with and receiving approval from the board of commissioners of the Pontchartrain Levee District.