=1= INTRODUCTION
The Josh Guillory Administration appears to have violated federal funding guidelines because no environmental review was performed as part of a drainage project involving spoil banks and land use.
The Lafayette Parish Democratic Party Executive Committee (DPEC) conducted research by contacting the agencies that should have participated in the environmental and archeological review. We found no such review.
Rather than making unfounded accusations, we will make a public records request for environmental correspondence and documents to determine if any such violation occurred and the extent of the violation itself.
=2= SEPARATE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
We will write a separate blog post dealing with wetland and flood plain issues. Similarly, we contacted agencies that should have been contacted, but no records of the Josh Guillory Administration’s participation in an environmental review could be found.
=3= BAYOU VERMILION ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES
These notes are from an interview with a culture resource management professional who requested anonymity to protect his ongoing work in archeological excavations. We shall refer to him as Rambling Jack.
Rambling Jack stated the area that was excavated is within one of the largest concentrations of complex archeological sites in the region, the state, and perhaps in the nation.
The DPEC’s research indicates that the area is generally located along banks of the Bayou Vermilion from its headwaters connecting to the Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya River rolling perhaps as far southward as Camellia Boulevard Bridge. According to Rambling Jack, the epicenter of archaeological sites is located on the eastern bank of the Bayou Vermilion adjacent from the Lafayette Regional Airport, the same area near the spoil bank project.
That area near the airport was inhabited continuously beginning in 2000 BC to the historical times, nearly 3,000 years. This is the same period of time as from the building of the pyramids in Egypt to the present day.
Other sites are more dramatic throughout the United States such as, for example, the Pueblo site in New Mexico.
However, the importance of the site is its continuous settlement of aboriginal peoples, ancestors of the historical native Americans who to this day inhabit Lafayette Parish.
According to Rambling Jack, there are many, many sites scattered through the area due the complexity of the ecological niches providing habitats of various plants and animals. The diversity provided many different foods sources so that aboriginal people did not have to migrate from place to place to find food. Rather, food was readily available.
Based on our conversations with Rambling Jack, he reported that fresh water springs were located near Paul Breaux Elementary Schools. Springs of fresh water, rare in south Louisiana, provide clean and pure drinking water. Clean drinking water is the basis of all permanent settlements from Rome and Greece in classic times to contemporary urban areas in Lafayette Parish.
Sadly, the springs were disrupted in the 20th century due to development and the 1927 flood and so are no longer present.
According to Rambling Jack, the inhabitants of the areas were not primitive peoples, but a sophisticated people who knew how to exploit the great diversity of plants and animals without migration. Based on the DPEC’s research, we can state that another area of similar importance was created the Northwest coast from Northern California to Alaska. The Native Americans used salmon as a primary food sources that enabled free time to create complex social systems as well as myths.
Sadly, these Acadiana myths were never fully collected before their disappearance in the ethnological record.
Rambling Jack spoke with some reverence about Dr. John L Gibson, PhD, who was a pioneering archaeologist employed by the then University of Southwestern Louisiana in the 1960s through perhaps as late as the 1990s and performed many site evaluations in this area. His records are filed with an agency and are now housed by the State of Louisiana, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, Office of Cultural Development, Division of Archaeology.
=4= FEDERAL FUNDS AND SECTION 106 REVIEW
According to the DPEC’s research, the funding agency is responsible for preparing an environmental review for federally funded projects. One such component of the environmental review is a Section 106 Permit. No funds are permitted to be expended until a Section 106 permit is completed.
We quote from the Cornell School of Law, 54 U.S. Code § 306108 – Effect of undertaking on historic property; https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/54/306108
“Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) states: “The head of any Federal agency having direct or indirect jurisdiction over a proposed Federal or federally assisted undertaking in any State and the head of any Federal department or independent agency having authority to license any undertaking shall, prior to the approval of the expenditure of any Federal funds on the undertaking or prior to the issuance of any license, as the case may be, take into account the effect of the undertaking on any district, site, building, structure, or object that is included in or eligible for inclusion in the National Register. The head of any such Federal agency shall afford the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation established under Title II of this Act a reasonable opportunity to comment with regard to such undertaking.”
On June 22, 2022, the staff of Louisiana State Division of Archeology reported in a phone call to a member of the DPEC that the agency has no records of being consulted on the spoil bank project.
As quoted below in news reports and statements in the Lafayette Parish Council, federal funds were involved in the overall planning and funding for the Guillory Administration’s Drainage plan.
News reports by Andrew Capps in the Daily advertiser, July 20, 2021, state that federal funding was provided for 70-project budget for LCG’s $86M.
We quote directly from that news article in the Daily Advertiser:
https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2021/07/20/lafayette-plans-70-projects-lcgs-federal-funding-drainage-roads-improvements/7989807002/
“Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory revealed a 70-project proposal to spend Lafayette Consolidated Government’s $86 million federal windfall from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act.
Guillory’s 18-page proposal was revealed Tuesday night as Lafayette’s city and parish councils gave it initial approval for a final vote set for their Aug. 17 meetings.
The federal funds are split between city and parish government operations, with $47.5 million for the parish and $38.3 million for the city.
The proposal from Guillory’s administration sets aside $22.6 million for drainage projects, $28.3 million for roads and bridges, $14.6 million for public safety improvements and $20.1 million for what the administration is calling competitive investments, which target quality of life improvements such as parks, public area lighting and digitization efforts.”
However, the DPEC contacted members of the local media who reported that the council did not directly authorize the expenditure of funds for the spoil bank project. The DPEC concludes that since the project was conducted secretly, then an acknowledge of the project would not be made as part of the funding documentation from the council.
=5= PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST
On the face of it, there is a disconnect from the federal finding agency’s requirements and fulfilling those requirements by the Guillory Administration.
The DPEC is making a public records request related to for permit preparation, if any, as part of the media release.
We are requesting electronic and digitized paper correspondence to and from the funding agency related to environmental review process of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). We are also requesting studies or documents prepared as part of that correspondence.
If a fee is required for the records, please consult the Lafayette Parish DPEC before undertaking document preparation; but note that these records are for public review, which traditionally does not charge for such requests. The records received will be posted on this website.
In particular, we are very interested if a Section 106 Report, if any, was prepared for the project.
We are also requesting documentation that the Lafayette Parish or the Lafayette City Council authorized expenditure of funds for the spoil bank project. In particular we requesting the ordinance listing the spoil bank project.