[StBernard] When levee work ends, locals fear big bills for maintenance

[Westley Annis]

When levee work ends, locals fear big bills for maintenance
Published: Sunday, June 27, 2010, 9:00 AM     
Updated: Sunday, June 27, 2010, 4:12 PM
Sheila Grissett, The Times -Picayune 
 
Long after the federal government finishes the $14 billion job of rebuilding
the New Orleans area levee system, state and local taxpayers likely will be
on the hook for millions of extra dollars annually to maintain and operate
the expanded system.

Some increased costs are expected in all five parishes where the Army Corps
of Engineers was ordered to rebuild the Katrina-era patchwork of deficient
federal levees, floodwalls and gates into whole cloth that doesn't fall
apart when wet. But a disproportionate share of that overhead will fall to
the Orleans, Lake Borgne Basin and West Jefferson levee districts, where
uber-sized corps projects include construction of the world's largest
drainage pumping station just south of Harvey and the Inner Harbor
Navigation Channel surge barrier crossing the Orleans-St. Bernard parish
line.

Levee officials say they don't know where the additional money will come
from, as revenue in the districts derives almost exclusively from property
taxes that are already at or near maximums set by law. And even if voters
were asked to raise the ceiling, levee officials speculate that property
taxes alone won't generate what will be needed to operate, control, service
and inspect the largest pieces of the re-engineered system.

"Not only will this be a bigger system, it will also be a way more complex
one and the operation and maintenance will be huge," said accountant Tim
Doody, president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East.
"It's hard to make a (fiscal) plan in the absence of hard dollars, and all
we've gotten so far is some early numbers from the corps. But we're about to
have a consultant start pulling together some numbers for us so we can
figure out what our next step will be."

Earlier this year, the corps roughly estimated that the completed hurricane
protection system will need $30.6 million for operation and maintenance:
$11.4 million in the West Jefferson Levee District, $8.8 million in Orleans,
$7.6 million in the Lake Borgne district that protects St. Bernard Parish,
$1.8 million in East Jefferson and $1 million in the Pontchartrain Levee
District, which hurricane levee on the east bank of St. Charles Parish.

The numbers likely will change as more construction projects are designed,
providing a clearer picture of operation and maintenance needs. Already, for
example, the corps has refined Lake Borgne's tentative estimate down to $3.5
million.

But even that lesser figure represents a 17 percent increase over the
district's current $3 million stream of property tax revenue. The district
operates both the levee system and drainage pumping stations in St. Bernard,
a parish all but devastated by Katrina and one that has regained less than
half its pre-Katrina population of 70,000.

And because of geography, it looks as though the cost of maintaining and
operating the big Inner Harbor Navigation Canal barrier, which will rise 24
feet to 26 feet above the water line to help protect the Industrial Canal
from potentially deadly storm surges, will fall on the Lake Borgne district.
The most complex elements of the barrier will be three gates that
accommodate marine traffic and will be closed when storms approach.

"I guarantee you that the marine industry doesn't want the levee district to
operate those gates," Doody said. "Not only should we not be involved in
interstate commerce, we will close those gates sooner than anyone else
because our orders are to provide flood protection.

A fourth gate still to be built in the Seabrook area of Lake Pontchartrain
will help protect the Industrial Canal from surges out of the north.
Although it must operate in tandem with the gates in the Inner Harbor
Navigation Channel project, the Seabrook structure apparently is to be
maintained and operated by the Orleans Levee District, which already is
responsible for more floodgates and miles of walls and levees than any other
district in Louisiana.

"I don't see how anyone looking at this can think that it's even possible
for us to handle this, which is why we keep pushing at the congressional
level to at least get the operation and maintenance of the four big gates
handed off to the corps," Doody said. "They have the resources and the
know-how to operate these gates, and they're willing to it."

But previous efforts to get that change through Congress have failed, and
Bob Turner, executive director of the Flood Protection Authority-East, said
Lake Borgne and Orleans district personnel have no choice but to ready
themselves for the job.

"Within 12 months, you'll have to have a plan to go out for additional taxes
or some other source of money," Turner said. "We'll soon have to start
supplying people to train to operate the IHNC, which will take away from
other (areas), and we'll probably have to bring on more electrical and
mechanical expertise."

As daunting as it will be to cover increased operation and maintenance
costs, Doody said, those don't begin to compare to the construction bill the
corps will present when the 100-year projects are complete. Congress and the
Obama administration are requiring that part of the cost of levee system
improvements be borne by what bureaucrats call "the non-federal sponsor." 

It has been widely reported that the state has earmarked about $300 million
to cover the cost of real estate for the projects. But that could still
leave about $1.5 billion in construction costs for the five levee districts
to shoulder.

"The O&M for these projects will be very, very bad," he said. "But it can't
even touch the percent of construction costs that we're supposed to
provide."

The federal government has agreed to a 30-year payment plan, but Doody said
the numbers are still horrific.

"Do the math. Rough estimates suggest that we could be left with a yearly
payment of  $25 million for the Lake Borgne, Orleans and East Jefferson
districts under our control, plus (operation and maintenance) costs," he
said. "Where's that money supposed to come from?"