Direct drive pumps at the 17th St. Canal. Photo Credit: John McCusker / Times Picayune
New Orleans, LA – July 20, 2009 – Council Vice President Jackie Clarkson joined local, state, and national leaders today in announcing legislation filed in Congress authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pursue the most effective means of storm protection for New Orleans’ three outfall canals.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has consistently argued that of three possible options for redeveloping the London Ave., Orleans Ave., and 17th St. canals, Congress has authorized them to pursue only the cheaper “Option 1,” which involves retaining deficient canal walls, relying on existing Sewerage and Water Board pumps to handle falling water, and constructing new pumps at the mouth of each canal to handle rising water.
Senators David Vitter, Mary Landrieu, and Barbara Boxer introduced the legislation today to put an end to that debate by expressly authorizing the Corps to pursue the more expensive and far safer “Option 2,” which would deepen and repave the canals and build new all-purpose pumps, or “Option 2a,” which includes these improvements and also allows for pumping excess water from the canals to the Mississippi River.
“This is a great step forward,” said Clarkson, who has been a strong advocate on this issue both in Washington, D.C. and in New Orleans. “We simply cannot allow the Corps to move forward on a ‘cheaper’, less effective plan that will end up putting our region at risk for dramatic costs in life and property.”
She continued, “There is no real choice here. We simply need to follow the science and not the money. The important fact here is that lives and property will be lost or saved depending upon which method the Corps pursues. And what is the value of a life?”
In announcing this significant step forward, Councilmember Clarkson joined Senator David Vitter, Representative Steve Scalise, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, Jefferson Parish Councilman-at-Large John Young, and representatives from the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board.
