Rep. Valarie Hodges Seeks More Time for Dredging, Clearing, Snagging of Comite

Two Central legislators have introduced legislation to  allow dredging of the Comite River without a permit through August 1, 2026. The current authority for dredging without a permit expires Aug. 1, 2021.  Rep. Valarie Hodges is the lead author of HB 544. Sen. Bodi White will be handling the bill in the State Senate.

The bill is scheduled to be heard at 9 a.m. Thursday, April 22, in the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.

Three years ago, Sen. Bodi White explained the need to dredge the Comite in order to clear obstacles, improve flow, and reduce flooding.  The river has not been dredged to remove obstructions in more than 50 years.  

Years ago, the Comite was designated a Scenic River, which has prevented dredging without difficult-to-obtain permits.  So in 2018, Sen. White passed state legislation to remove the Comite from those requirements of the Scenic Rivers Act for three years.  Unfortunately, the dredging has not been done in that period.

Rep. Hodges says funding is now available to dredge the Comite, and she is proposing at the current legislative session an additional five years in order to allow “channelization, clearing and snagging, channel realignment, reservoir construction, or dredging operations for drainage purposes.”

Flooding in what is now the City of Central has been a problem from time immemorial. The city is a relatively low-lying area located between two rivers — the Comite River on the west and the much larger Amite River on the east.

Major flood events in every generation or so have caused flooding to be a major issue, both economically and politically.

A major flood in 1983 was the catalyst for passage in the late 1980’s of the Amite River Basin Commission and the approval of a plan to build the Comite Diversion Canal. The canal would divert water in the Comite north of Baker.