Facing the potential of $43-million in damaged infrastructure, Southern University received some major help in its efforts to stop storm runoff from eroding the historic bluff adjacent to the university. Governor John Bel Edwards and leaders of the Southern system were on hand as Congressman Troy Carter announced a huge influx of grant dollars…
“7.6 million that will go directly to saving the university from literally subsidence and erosion, causing it to literally slip into the Mississippi River,” said Carter.”
The $7.6 million in grant dollars comes from the USDA’s Emergency Watershed Protection Program. Carter says that because Southern is an agricultural college and 20 percent of the campus is used for training in that field, the Louisiana DOTD was able to successfully apply for the funds.
“That was just enough for us to tap into a never-before-used stream of USDA money for an HBCU, for a university,” he added. “So we may have created yet another stream that we might be able to help other universities across the country.”
The project will construct permanent erosion control measures to stabilize Southern’s ravine. Carter says he was unaware of just how dire the situation was until about a year ago when he was invited to a presentation at the campus conducted by retired U-S Army Gen. Russel Honore’…
“General Honore’ was sharing with us the damages that were there,” Carter said, “and the likelihood that if something didn’t happen, over the next 10 or 15 years, the very land that we were standing on would be engulfed by the Mississippi River.”
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