Blame Game - Corps of Engineers and Congress
Posted by Moonage on 11 Sep 2005 | Tagged as: Katrina
From National Review:
The Army Corps was planning to upgrade 303 miles of levees along the river in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. This was needed, a Corps spokesman told the Baton Rouge, La., newspaper The Advocate, because €śa failure could wreak catastrophic consequences on Louisiana and Mississippi which the states would be decades in overcoming, if they overcame them at all.€ť
But a suit filed by environmental groups at the U.S. District Court in New Orleans claimed the Corps had not looked at €śthe impact on bottomland hardwood wetlands.€ť The lawsuit stated, €śBottomland hardwood forests must be protected and restored if the Louisiana black bear is to survive as a species, and if we are to ensure continued support for source population of all birds breeding in the lower Mississippi River valley.€ť In addition to the Sierra Club, other parties to the suit were the group American Rivers, the Mississippi River Basin Alliance, and the Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi Wildlife Federations.
The lawsuit was settled in 1997 with the Corps agreeing to hold off on some work while doing an additional two-year environmental impact study. Whether this delay directly affected the levees that broke in New Orleans is difficult to ascertain.
Although a direct connection might be difficult to ascertain, what is not difficult to ascertain is the antagonism ecological groups have had for the Corps of Engineers for a LONG time. People are quick to criticize Bush for not funding or proceeding with the Corps plan to reinforce the levees. What none of them are willing to deal with is the fact that Corps had tried and been sued repeatedly in the past. The Washington Post takes direct aim at the Corps of Engineers in New Orleans, citing a separate project that got sued and blocked by The Sierra Club in 1994. What they TOTALLY OMIT is that the corps had another project at that time to reinforce the levees and it was blocked by, you got it, The Sierra Club. Why do you suppose the Post does that?
Why do you suppose this is possibly the first place you’ve read that the Corps, criticized heavily for not reinforcing those levees, tried, and was blocked?
Heads up to Junk Science for the pointer.
Michelle Malkin has also picked up this story.
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