The second special legislative session in 2006 and an overwhelming victory in September's general election make Constitutional Amendment #3 the law. We will now have new regional levee boards focused solely on protection and technically competent enough to provide oversight to the Corps.

Starting in 2007, two super levee boards have been created. One focuses on the Pontchartrain basin including St. Bernard, Orleans, East Jefferson, St. Tammany, St Charles, St. James, and  Tangipahoa. The second is for the Barataria Basin, but ended up including only the west bank parts of Jefferson, St. Charles, and Orleans. Somehow Plaquemines, Terrebonne, Lafourche opted out. The statewide oversight board created in the first session remained intact. Statewide, fifteen of the twenty boards were untouched:

Atchafalaya Basin Levee District, Board of Commissioners of

Bossier Levee District, Board of Commissioners of

Caddo Levee District, Board of Commissioners

Fifth Louisiana Levee District, Board of Commissioners for the

Lafourche Basin Levee District, Board of Commissioners of

Natchitoches Levee and Drainage District, Board of Commissioners of

Nineteenth Louisiana Levee District, Board of Commissioners for the

North Bossier Levee District, Board of Commissioners of the

North Lafourche Conservation Levee & Drainage District

Red River Levee and Drainage District, Board of Commissioners for the

Red River, Atchafalaya and Bayou Boeuf Levee District, Board of Commissioners for the

South Lafourche Levee District, Board of Commissioners

Tensas Basin Levee District, Board of Commissioners of

Terrebonne Levee & Conservation District, Bd of Commissioners of the So we got rid of five and added two plus an oversight board. Perhaps a little more hopeful than that, is the rule that members of the new boards will be professionals in flood control. The new boards will be limited strictly to flood control. Real estate, marinas, airports and police will be managed elsewhere.