NATCHEZ — Drainage questions keep boiling up in Concordia Parish, and Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland was ready to turn up the heat Monday night.

Copeland presented an independent drainage study on how the new Vidalia Municipal Complex and recreation complex will impact an already injured drainage system in Concordia Parish.

The study was done to satisfy questions the Concordia Parish Police Jury had about a possible influx of water from the two Vidalia projects into the Vidalia Canal.

Copeland said the study is just another example of the city’s commitment to drainage efforts in the parish.

“I can assure you drainage is very important to the City of Vidalia,” he said. “We have spent millions of dollars on drainage.”

Bryan Hammett, Vidalia city engineer, said the study found improvements needed for six drainage structures surrounding the project site.

“About 90 percent of what is in the study is to just bring the existing drainage system back up to its designed capacity,” he said.

That means repairing caved-in ditches and cleaning built up silt deposits out of ditches and culverts, Hammett said, something the City of Vidalia is prepared to do.

The study also recommended the installation of one additional culvert to direct run-off water into the parish’s drainage structures.

Hammett said the improvements to the culverts and ditches suggested in the study will pull water away from the Concordia Park area of the parish and not toward the flood susceptible area.

“It’s not going to get close to going into Concordia Park,” Hammett said.

Police Jury President Melvin Ferrington wasn’t convinced the suggestions in the study would do enough to stave off run-off water after a substantial rainfall event.

He said the development on currently open fields used for agriculture will increase the speed at which the water reaches the Vidalia Canal, filling the canal before water from other parts of the parish have a chance to drain.

“Our study says the site needs to have a detention pond,” Ferrington said.

Hammett countered saying the area drained is small when compared to the entire drainage network in the parish.

He said the 80-acre site is part of 3,000 acres of land located north of Logan Sewell Road that drains into the Vidalia Canal. Hammett said a total of 18,000 acres in the parish are drained by Vidalia Canal.

“I’m telling you that the 80 acres out of 3,000 and the 80 acres out of 18,000 acres is not going to have a significant impact on water flow,” he said.

Copeland said the police jury hasn’t properly maintained the drainage system and that is why the area is prone to flooding. He even came prepared to show a video demonstrating the cause of flooding in the Concordia Park area of Concordia Parish.

Ferrington did not allow the video to be shown.

“When I talked to you on the phone I informed you that I intended to show this video and you said ‘OK,’” Copeland said to Ferrington. “Are you telling me now that you are not going to allow that?”

Ferrington did not relent.

“I don’t want to let you show it,” Ferrington said.

Copeland said copies of the video would be available at Vidalia City Hall for “anyone who wants to know why Concordia Park floods.”

Police Juror Jimmy Jernigan said it was time for elected officials to tour the effected areas and lay out a plan for improvements.

“We all represent the people and what we need to do is go around and say ‘this is what we are going to do,’” he said.

But the money has to be there first.

Ferrington said the way to solve the Concordia Park flooding issue is to install seven pumps to move the water out of the area and into Vidalia Canal, but that project isn’t on the table currently.

“There are no plans in the making to install pumps,” he said.