Louisiana owes much of its greatest natural attributes to the earth’s most basic compounds — water.

The Mississippi River creates a sizable portion of the state’s eastern border with Mississippi, and across the state the Sabine River creates its border with Texas.

The marshlands and swamps of south Louisiana serve as the state’s southern border, and toward the extreme southeastern corner, the Pearl River picks up the north-south border that the Mississippi left off.

For the most part, a virtual natural moat surrounds Louisiana.

But the very liquid that gives Louisiana its lifeblood also can severely threaten the lives and livelihoods of her people, too.

That’s why we were happy to hear one of Louisiana’s U.S. Senators, Mary Landrieu, vow to work hard to help find resources to help control flooding in the state.

She was speaking to a group of concerned citizens in Concordia Parish last weekend when she promised to help the parish and all other areas of Louisiana try to overcome the seasonal flooding that can destroy property and threaten lives.

Fortunately, parish leaders had already begun to build out a plan of action to help begin to alleviate the flood problems so common in parts of the parish.

They have a workable plan. All they need is money to make the plan become a reality.

While Landrieu and others may be able to find some public funds to help, one also wonders what the parish might get accomplished on its own if parish leaders were willing to look for local taxpayer support again.

Would residents be willing to pay for flood control with their own dollars if the plan’s promised results were better-detailed and the tax wasn’t levied in perpetuity?