[PBARC] An authority speaks out about New Orleans

[E. Glenn Wolf, Jr.]

FYI
 

 

 

Here is the story in New Orleans as per Vald Heiberg:

 


I was the District Engineer in New Orleans in the '70's as we fought the
"Greens" over putting two huge "Dutch style" flood gates at the east end of
Lake Ponchartrain. That was the Corps plan, to allow us to protect ALL of
the lake shore and to keep the levees where needed along the lake
(especially at New Orlean s) lower.  The soil conditions near the big Lake
are atrocious, unlike along the Mississippi River where centuries of natural
levees with far better soil exists. Higher levees near the Lake clearly was
the wrong answer for the hurricane protection. I even invited all our
"green" attackers to Vicksburg, flying them there for a day in 1975, to
visit with the world's best model and hydraulic experts at the Corps labs.

 

But I didn't convince those rabid "greens," and they sued the Corps to stop
those massive flood gates.  A Federal judge agreed with them:  "Just build
those New Orleans levees higher", we were told in court.

 

Meantime, Dutch, British, and Italian engineers visited our Vicksburg
experts to get their facts right for their projects, and they built systems
providing far more protection.  For the Dutch, they protect their urban
areas against
10,000 year flood events.  The Congress allows the Corps to build to (at
most) 100- or 200-y ear protection.

 

In 1986, the Corps finally gave up the decade-long fight to keep those huge
gates.  That concession was perhaps my biggest error as the Corps' "Chief,"
but there simply was no support from the Federal courts or the Congress who
assumed "higher levees are the answer."

 

Katrina showed everyone the error of abandoning those huge flood gates, yet
that story remains poorly told. There are some critics who say "It wouldn't
have made that much a difference."  I am certain they are wrong, and know
that future hurricanes will be far better handled by a flood gate system
more like the Dutch, Brits, and Italians have chosen. But in the '70's and
beyond, the "greens" had the upper hand.  Perhaps now, with the waste and
chaos of Katrina and Rita behind us, our future protection will include
those large flood surge gates! I have provided these thoughts to the chair
of the National Academies committee who are studying "the big picture" for
future N ew Orleans hurricane flooding protection.

 

Now you know "the rest of the story" . . . and I was there. Too bad the
author of that scurrilous attack on the Army Corps of Engineers didn't know
his/her facts. And I hope you find a way to share this with those who saw
your earlier piece.

 

Vald Heiberg Commander, New Orleans District '74-'75

Member, Mississippi River Commission, '75-'78

Director, Civil Works, Corps of Engineers, '79-'82

Deputy Commander, Corps of Engineers, '82-'83

Commander and "Chief of Engineers", Army Corps of Engineers, '84-'88