The Amite River Basin Commission (ARBC) met for their regular meeting on August 11, 2026 where they heard updates on several major projects along with the work done so far on ARBC’s pilot site in St. Helena.
To begin, the commission heard a quick update on the restoration effort for the Upper Amite River Basin from ARBC’s Chief Advisor Paul Sawyer.
According to Sawyer, a proposal will be sent to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) soon to draw funds in an initial step to continue progress on the project. Additionally, site prep is already underway with preliminary clean up efforts paving the way for future restoration work on the site.
Following this, Sawyer also told the commission that the Comite River Diversion Project has seen “marginal improvement” and “much of the project work has been completed with the exception of five outstanding contracts.”
The Highway 19 bridge, which Sawyer noted is now “25% complete,” has finished with the clearing and grubbing and traffic has been shifted from the southbound to northbound bridge since July 18.
The Comite River Diversion Structure where the river will enter into the canal is “progressing very rapidly,” and is around 20% complete. “They’re well underway to complete the driving of 200 piles [and] they’ve excavated the bowl,” Sawyer added. This structure, according to Sawyer, will look identical to the Lilly Bayou control structure built around 15 years ago.
Brooks Lake Closure located in the outfall area where the canal will enter into the Mississippi river will act as a guide levee to control that outfall and is 50% complete so far.
"It's all advancing very rapidly,” Sawyer noted.
Sawyer also gave the commission an update on a newly created state agency called CURRENT which is characterized as being similar to a Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) of the North despite it serving the non-coastal areas of Louisiana.
CURRENT is actually an acronym that stands for the Coordinated Use of Resources for Recreation Economy Navigation and Transportation, and CURRENT helps to create master plans for flood control and offers water and infrastructure resources for non-coastal areas in the state.
“It's in our interest to participate… [and] be involved with [CURRENT] as much as we can,” Sawyer added.
After Sawyer’s updates, Ryan Clark, the Program Manager for the Upper Amite Flood Risk Reduction and Restoration Program, gave the commission an update on their pilot site located in St. Helena Parish on the Amite River.
The pilot site is a total of 145 acres with roughly 3.38 miles of roads and trails (2 miles designated as high priority and 1 mile as lower priority and trails) that used to be an overgrown, abandoned sand and gravel pit before ARBC bought it to restore it.
Along with an abundance of stubborn vegetation, the site still has a handful of large excavated pits, abandoned mining equipment, and several piles of loose, unstable sand and gravel around the site. Some piles of sand at the site are actually 20 feet higher than the standard pile height, according to Clark.
So far, Clark and his team have established a field office on site and have been marking and attempting to clear trails to important observation points throughout the site, creating a living Geographic Information System (GIS) environment, as Clark called it.
Additionally, the main entrance of the site has been cleared and mowed and access has been established to an abandoned drinking water well and existing office building that does not have power or water.
Clark noted that they have plans to service the water well to bring it back into commission so water will be available on site.
According to Clark, his team is almost done with a draft response document that they will send to NRCS to explain how they plan to use NRCS’s funds to restore the site.
By doing so, the team will show NRCS that they “plan to create a toolbox of remediation strategies that we can use at this site, implement as pilot projects at this site, but also implement at future sites in this restoration program” as well as “use a significant portion of NRCS funding to pay for pilot construction at the St. Helena site in the near term.”
Clark ended his presentation by noting that there are plans in place for commissioners and interested stakeholders to visit the site once the overgrowth is sufficiently cut back enough to make it to those important observation points.
“What we’re trying to do, first and foremost, is get in there and clean the property up and then assess what new equipment we need going forward… like drones and wildlife cameras,” Sawyer explained. "We're trying to get the property under management so we can move to the next stage, all of which will prepare us for the bigger stuff coming up.”
The commission then discussed a resolution authorizing engagement of services for clearing, grubbing, site preparation, and related property maintenance and repairs for the St. Helena site.
The resolution will allow Clark’s team to graduate to heavier equipment that will be used to clear out vegetation, trees, and the abandoned mining equipment on and around pathways as a step towards establishing better mobility throughout the site. Sawyer noted that the timeframe for the clearance work may be done in around three months so that the true restoration work on site can begin at the end of this year.
The commission voted unanimously in favor of this resolution.
The next ARBC meeting will be held on September 8, 2026 at the Livingston Parish Council Chambers.
