La. R.S. 33:1237

A police jury may close and dam, on its own initiative, small canals or streams of water in the parish which it finds hazardous or detrimental as well as destructive or harmful to property or to the public health and which are not under the jurisdiction of the United States government or War Department, when it has the written approval thereto of the department of public works; and the written approval of the board of commissioners of the levee district in which said dam is to be located if it is in a levee district.