Louisiana's State-Sponsored Drainage Program

Abstract

In 1940 the Louisiana state government, under the direction of Governor Sam Houston Jones, inaugurated a program for rehabilitating the existing drainage system of the state and extending it into undeveloped areas. This program promises to mark the beginning of a new and, it is hoped, more rational period in the long history of Louisiana's effort to protect her alluvial and prairie lands from floods and drain them for agriculture. It has come into operation at a time when many of the local drainage organizations, which have long borne the weight of the drainage problem, are falling into decay and when the federal government through such agencies as the U. S. Army Engineers and the Soil Conservation Service (and associated districts) is ready to make a positive contribution to drainage engineering. Students of land development see in this state-sponsored program a step toward the much needed local, state, and federal coordination of drainage work. Should it prove successful, immense improvement will be made in the agricultural base, in terms of new land for crops and pastures and improvements to existing farm lands. One of the most ambitious drainage programs attempted in recent years by a state government, it may set the pattern for future drainage reorganizations now badly needed in all the southern states, particularly the Mississippi Valley states. Not only has this program marked the rebirth of state interest in drainage problems in Louisiana but it has already had considerable influence on federal drainage reclamation policy. The influence which this program may have on drainage reorganizations throughout the Mississippi Valley makes it important that it be well understood and its advantages and disadvantages carefully analyzed. This paper outlines the plans and objectives of the Louisiana state drainage program, and attempts to show how drainage planning at the state level may serve as an important coordinating link between local drainage organizations and the expanding programs of federal agencies. Advantages and disadvantages of