Katrina, the Corps of Engineers and Politics

The history of the drainage ("outfall") canal system in New Orleans goes back more than a century. The 17th street outfall canal dates to before WWI (at least 1913). The political control was the purvey of the Orleans Levee Board (OLB) who had authority over the land primarily, the Sewer and Water Board who had control over the use of the canal for drainage, and the Corps of Engineers who were charged to protect the city from storm surges. In the 1960's enter the Lake Pontchartrain's wetlands environmental groups who wanted to preserve wildlife, fishing, swimming and boating interests. The Corps was always under the the fiscal control of Congress, but this is mainly a problem of sales and consensus building for the Corps that they are used to and expert at. After hurricane Betsy, in the 1960's the Corps developed a "barrier plan" similar to the Dutch Zuider Zee. It would have controlled the storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain by means of a lock and dam installed in the Rigolettes ). This proposal was delayed and stymied by environmental and economic concerns and was abandoned in the late 1980's for the "high level plan" which involved raising the height of the levees and flood wall along the outfall canals. This decision put NOLA at great risk and transferred the responsibility of the canals to the OLD and SWB. Then the SWB in attempting to improve its ability to drain rainfall from the City requested permission from the Corps to dredge the 17th street canal to improve it drainage efficiency. In spite of warnings, the Corps granted the permit and dredging was completed in the late 1990's. Warnings were ignored that pointed to the exact spot where the levee later failed. All of this can be read in the Legal Brief on the class action suit against the Corps and the U.S.
The Judge dismissed the complaints because citizens can't sue the government but his words are damning to say the least:

This story–fifty years in the making–is heart-wrenching. Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system with respect to these outfall canals which was known to be inadequate by the Corps’ own calculations. The byzantine funding and appropriation
methods for this undertaking were in large part a cause of this failure. In addition, the failure of Congress to oversee the building of the LPV and the failure to recognize that it was flawed from practically the outset–using the wrong calculations for storm surge, failing to take into account subsidence, failing to take into account issues of the strength of canal walls at the 17th Street Canal while allowing the scouring out of the canal–rest with those who are charged with oversight. The cruel irony here is that the Corps cast a blind eye, either as a result of executive directives or bureaucratic parsimony, to flooding caused by drainage needs and until therwise directed by Congress, solely focused on flooding caused by storm surge. Nonetheless, damage caused by either type of flooding is ultimately borne by the same public . Such egregious myopia is a caricature of bureaucratic inefficiency. It is not within this Court’s power to address the wrongs committed. It is hopefully within the citizens of the United States’ power to address the failures of our laws and agencies. If not, it is certain that another tragedy such as this will occur again.

STANWOOD R. DUVAL, JR.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT JUDGE