VIDALIA — The study to find out exactly what is needed to fix Cocodrie Bayou’s drainage issues will be done.

Local government officials took representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a tour of the bayou, the parish’s main drainage artery, Wednesday, and Police Jury President Melvin Ferrington said the trip was a productive one.

“They saw the problem with (the bayou), and everyone recognized that there was a problem in the bayou,” he said.

The drainage problem in the bayou doesn’t have much effect during dry times, but in times of heavy rainfall — such as the rain that followed Hurricane Gustav — the bayou can’t drain the water fast enough to prevent significant parish-wide flooding.

“There’s a real problem with silt bars,” Ferrington said. “In some places the bayou is nearly silted closed.”

Because the bayou is designated as a scenic river, to clean out the bayou by snagging and silting the police jury would have to get a permit from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

To get that permit, a study would have to be conducted on the bayou, and the jury previously has stated it doesn’t have the funds to have a study conducted.

But Ferrington said after Wednesday’s tour the corps representatives agreed to do the study, and that the corps would pay for the first $100,000 of the study itself.

“Any cost above that will be a 50-50 match,” Ferrington said. “That $100,000 may be enough to do the study on, and if not it shouldn’t be a lot more.”

The jury will seek capital outlay funds to pay for its portion of the study, and Ferrington said he hopes to know what the study will cost within two weeks.

The deadline to apply for capital outlay funds is Nov. 1.

During the tour of the bayou, the group also discussed two weirs, one on Cocodrie Bayou and the other on Wild Cow Bayou, Ferrington said.

“We seem to think that if we can put a set of gates on the weir on Cocodrie Bayou, it would relieve some of the pressure on the water,” he said.

Other discussions included a plan already in place to build a gravity flow structure into Black River from Black River Lake, Ferrington said.

“It would be a significant help on Cocodrie Bayou during a low-water stage,” he said. The permitting process for the gravity flow structure is already under way, and Ferrington said it may be completed within a year.