Levees.Org enraged over delays by ASCE ethics panels

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Levees.Org is angry over long delays and other conduct by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and its management of two ethics panels. We think the delays are contrived and that both panels are more focused on protecting ASCE’s reputation than protecting the American public.

We will not to let this continue unchallenged, and at a press conference Tuesday, we will document our position and take action.

When: Aug 5, 2008 at 10:30am
Where: Lakeview Harbor Restaurant, 911 Harrison Avenue, New Orleans (Lakeview area). Enter door with “the gold ribbon.”

The details:
Late last year, the ASCE announced the formation of two separate ethics investigations and promised the final reports by April 2008, but each has yet to produce the much anticipated reports. One panel is an internal committee looking into allegations by Dr. Ray Seed, University of California Berkeley who says the US Army Corps of Engineers, with the help of the ASCE covered up its mistakes in the flooding after Hurricane Katrina . The other panel, lead by retired Congressman Sherwood Boehlert R-NY is looking at how the ASCE participates in engineering studies of national significance.

Click here for Associated Press story.

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Rep. Melancon files bill that would authorize 8/29 Investigation Team

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

Yesterday, Congressman Charlie Melancon D-LA released this statement of his support for the 8/29 Investigation.

“I am and always have been a strong supporter of an 8/29 Investigation into the levee failures that caused massive devastation in New Orleans, St. Bernard, and surrounding communities. In Congress, I have worked with Sen. Mary Landrieu to push legislation creating a commission to lead this investigation, modeled after the 9/11 Commission, so we can get a complete and unbiased expert opinion on what went wrong and what we can do to make sure those mistakes never happen again.

The flooding in New Orleans and St. Bernard after Katrina was a man-made disaster, one that we have the power to prevent from ever happening again. But to do so, we must authorize outside experts who don’t have a personal interest in the outcome to conduct an independent investigation into the levee failures. An 8/29 Investigation would do just that, and I will continue working to convince my colleagues in Congress of the serious need for this independent analysis.”

With the third anniversary of the worst engineering disaster in America almost here, we at Levees.Org are pleased by the Congressman’s strongly worded support. Earlier this week, a staffer with Rep Melancon’s office alerted me that the Congressman had filed a House version of the 8/29 Investigation on July 18 that did not differ in any significant way from the Senate version filed on April 7, 2008 by Senator Mary Landrieu D-LA.

As the AP reported yesterday, the Corps of Engineers has cited deficiencies with 122 levees in a federal rehabilitation program with three (3) of the levees in Washington, including the Potomac Park levee near the Reflecting Pool. With 43% of the American public living in areas protected by levees, the 8/29 Investigation is clearly in the nation’s best interest.

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The show goes on despite bridge closing

Friday, July 18th, 2008

The unexpected closing of the Judge Seeber bridge couldn’t keep dedicated citizens away from a Levees.Org-sponsored photo shoot at the Lower Ninth Ward this morning.

With ground zero of the Industrial Canal as a backdrop, actor/producer Harry Shearer joined Levees.Org, its supporters, and residents from the metro New Orleans community for a photo shoot marking the launch of a new campaign.

As a public service, Levees.Org has created a second website with a searchable data base so citizens anywhere can find out if they’re at risk of flooding by going to AreWeAtRisk.org and entering their zip code.

Stanford Rosenthal, 18, webmaster for Levees.Org wrote a program that converted the US Army Corps of Engineers’ list of at-risk levees into a simple searchable data base.

The new website will help educate citizens nationwide that levee failure and flooding is not a distinctly New Orleans problem especially since over 40% percent of the American population lives in areas protected by levees.

We also launched a tee-shirt campaign with the theme that many are “in the same boat as New Orleans” and should “demand the 8/29 Investigation.” The campaign is a cooperative venture; for every t-shirt Dirty Coast sells, Levees.Org will get a portion of the profits. Tees will be available online at Dirty Coast by 5pm Saturday CST.

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