LAPLACE — Residents of St. John, St. James and St. Charles Parishes all received good news Friday morning, as the Army Corps of Engineer Civil Works Review Board unanimously approved release of the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain final integrated feasibility report and environmental impact statement for state and agency review.

The approval means the proposed $718 million project, designed to protect St. John Parish and more than 7,000 structures from Montz to Garyville and St. James Parish, is one step closer to a reality, as it needed the board’s final approval before it can be sent to Congress for funding.

The feasibility study and environmental impact statement will remain open for state and agency review for 30 days, and St. John Parish officials said a Chief’s Report is expected to be completed by April and sent to Congress for authorization and appropriation of funds.

“It is truly a momentous day for St. John Parish and we remain committed to seeing this levee built and our residents protected,” St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom said. “The vulnerabilities of no protection were exposed during Hurricane Isaac and today’s vote suggests that the Corps of Engineers is ready to put this plan into action.”

Robottom and members of the Council defended and supported the recommended plan before the Civil Works Review Board during a September trip to Washington, D.C. In October, the project was delayed while district representatives addressed concerns in the draft report.

The report was approved during a conference call early Friday morning with representatives from the local, state and federal level on the call.

In November 2013 the Army Corps of Engineers confirmed a tentatively selected plan to build storm protections measures. The selected plan, named Alternative C, is 18 miles in length and would protect Montz, LaPlace, Reserve and Garyville. The levee would run between the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Montz and the Hope Canal in Garyville and would provide risk reduction for approximately 60,000 residents and nearly 17,000 structures in the study area.

St. James Parish would not be protected by the levee, but the plan does include other measures designed to protect the east bank of the parish.

St. John Parish residents have been teased for decades, wondering if the promise of flood protection in the form of a levee would ever become a reality. The sting of unkept promises was felt the harshest in 2012, when over 7,000 homes flooded in St. John Parish.

During Hurricane Isaac, Interstate 10, “the major corridor for access to and from the New Orleans metropolitan area which bisects the study area, was submerged for multiple days and slowed emergency response across the region,” the Corps’ website states. “This caused considerable rerouting of traffic for days after the storm.”