Gregg Huber and Roy Arrigo. August 2006
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry wants to appoint the board members who serve on the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, rather than let a blue-ribbon committee do it. What does this mean for the people of south Louisiana?
Prior to Hurricane Katrina––and now––the US Army Corps of Engineers is 100% in charge of design, construction and the instructions for maintenance.
After Katrina, legislation was passed to merge the Orleans Levee Board (OLB) with the Jefferson and Lake Borgne boards and also to create a nominating committee to select who serves. There was a public misconception that board members would “oversee” the Corps’ work.
The board members who served since Katrina quickly learned that they couldn’t legally do what they were expected to do. Board members can only make suggestions, and the Army Corps has a history of ignoring them.
The SLFPA-East’s job is to follow the strict directions provided by the Corps to operate and maintain the levees.
FACT: The Army Corps is the messiah when it comes to New Orleans’ flood protection.
FACT: The flooding was due to the Corps’ mistakes, not the pre-K Orleans Levee Board.
FACT: The governor cannot tell the Corps what to do any more than the levee boards can.
But there is something that the SLFPA-East can do. They have “screaming rights.” Board members can sound off and protest to local and congressional officials when they see any problem with the Corps’ plans.
For example, in 1982, the OLB was worried about the Corps’ glacial pace in building the hurricane protection and screamed their discontent to members of Congress. This resulted in the Government Accountability Office requesting the Secretary of the Army to take specific steps to resolve the issue with the Corps.
LeveesOrg prefers that the blue-ribbon committee selects levee board members rather than the current governor. We have reason to doubt that the governor’s appointees would protest any actions of the Corps.
Take it from someone who understands how all this works. Check out this testimony––recently published in the New Orleans Lens––from civil engineer Stephen Estopinal who served on the SLFPA-East for eight years from 2008 – 2016 while the current new system was being built.
