[StBernard] Interim storm protection along Intracoastal and Industrial canals in question

[Westley Annis]

Interim storm protection along Intracoastal and Industrial canals in
question
Posted by The Times-Picayune August 08, 2007 10:31PM
By Mark Schleifstein
Staff writer

The Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday did not bring encouraging news
about the chances of temporarily beefing up storm-surge protection in the
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and Industrial Canal to a joint meeting of two
New Orleans City Council committees. 

It would take until the start of the 2009 hurricane season to build a $100
million temporary gate on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway east of Paris Road,
Col. Jeffrey Bedey, commander of the corps' Hurricane Protection Office in
New Orleans, told members of the Public Works and Restoration committees. 

Click here to see map.
<http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/08/INDUSTRIAL080907.gif>
 

Adding 3-foot metal plates to the tops of existing I-walls along the
waterways, an option that would cost between $30 million and $50 million,
also can't be completed until 2009, Bedey said. 

And corps engineers are just now figuring out whether a third option,
building 15-foot-high rock jetties in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, could
both block surge and allow barge traffic to continue to use the channel, he
said. He provided no estimate on when that work could be completed. 

Bedey said the agency hopes to decide within a few weeks whether to adopt
any of the temporary fixes or to just hope that a major hurricane doesn't
hit the city while the corps concentrates on completing a long-term plan to
protect the city from the surge caused by a 100-year hurricane. 

That long-term plan is expected to include a much higher gate on the Gulf
Intracoastal Waterway and either a gate or other closure on the upper end of
the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, with a levee running between the two
structures. 

The combined protection eventually will be built to 30 feet above sea level,
he said, the height now believed necessary to stop surge from Lake Borgne
from entering the interior waterways. 

That project will be completed by the start of the 2011 hurricane season,
Bedey said, with a contract for construction expected to be issued by next
March.

'The end of this great city' 

But others addressing the council members warned that it is just too risky
to wait until 2011, especially with the corps' past record of delays in
building major hurricane projects, and the existing I-walls' record of
failure during Hurricane Katrina. 

Even with already-completed improvements to I-walls on the east and west
sides of the Industrial Canal, another hurricane hitting the city before the
100-year protection is completed will topple some of those walls and again
flood huge sections of the city, said Tom Jackson, a member of the Southeast
Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. 

"I believe another catastrophic flood in this city would be the end of this
great city," he said. 

"People refer to this as the hypodermic needle," said Stephen Rosenthal, a
member of the Flood Protection Alliance, an organization of industry, civic
and environmental leaders who have been pushing for the temporary gate. 

He showed the committee a corps map of the waterways that indicated the
potential of 100-year hurricanes to overtop segments, without the gate or
other measures. The map indicates that 40 percent of the computer-model
storms used by the corps to predict risk would overtop most of the levee on
the northern side of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which would flood
eastern New Orleans. Smaller percentages of storms would overtop other parts
of the system, according to the map. 

Adding the temporary gate would block the surge from those storms
overtopping or breaching the levees and walls, he said. 

"It takes everything out of play, and the walls become secondary," Rosenthal
said.

Concerns over gate raised 

A spokesman for Lone Star Industries, one of the few remaining major
businesses with ships that used the MR-GO before Katrina, said the company
is concerned that the temporary gate won't be built big enough to
accommodate its larger ships. 

St. Bernard Parish officials attending the meeting said they oppose the gate
because the water it blocks will end up being pushed back out into the lake
and then over the levees along the MR-GO. 

Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez expressed similar concerns about
the effects of the 30-foot-high, 100-year-protection. 

And Rodriguez and St. Bernard Parish Council President Joey DiFatta said
that if the corps approves the temporary gate, Congress could reject a
hard-won recommendation by the corps to close the MR-GO farther south at
Bayou la Loutre. 

Bedey agreed with the St. Bernard officials that the temporary gate could
mean higher water on the MR-GO levees, but said an expected 2-foot increase
in water height that the 100-year plan might cause will be matched by an
increase in the heights of St. Bernard levees. 

Members of both committees peppered Bedey with questions about the plans. 

He said the concerns about the time it will take to complete the temporary
protection projects were raised as engineers used computer risk models to
determine the effectiveness of the projects. And the gate proposal's price
and time of construction increased as engineers learned more about the speed
of currents in the two channels and about the softness of the soils in which
the gate would have to be built.

'Shortage' of engineers 

Asked by Councilman James Carter whether building the temporary project
might interfere with either the money or manpower needed for the 100-year
plans, Bedey said money would not be a problem. 

"But there is a shortage of architects and engineers in this area now, and
that potential exists," he said. "It's not going to become a showstopper,
but the potential exists." 

Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis expressed dismay that two years after
Katrina, no decision has been made on whether to build the temporary
protection. 

"When you still can't get a contract (for construction of the 100-year
protection) out until March 2008, that's not acceptable," she said. 

Holding a copy of National Geographic, Councilwoman Shelly Midura warned
that the arguments over temporary protection bolster arguments made in the
magazine's August edition that the city should no longer exist. 

"It puts a dagger through the accomplishments we've made so far," Midura
said. "And the reason is because of the risk factor. 

"Please answer the questions (raised by the magazine) by eliminating the
risk, and eliminating it as soon as possible," she said. 

Councilwoman Stacy Head, who leads the Public Works Committee and called the
emergency meeting, said either her committee or the Recovery Committee will
request that corps officials attend another briefing when they decide
whether the temporary protection plans will be implemented.

Mark Schleifstein can be reached at mschleifstein at timespicayune.com or (504)
826-3327.