As their NOLA pumps rust away, Corps plants trees

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Monday August 30, 2010 · 11:54 AM PDT

2010/08/30 · 11:54

With all the attention to Katrina +5, very little ink was spilled on exactly what is going on around the proximate causes of so much of the death and destruction in New Orleans: the failure of the outfall canal walls.

I'm proud to report the Army Corps of Engineers is doing lots!

Well, not really. Read below.

mcbrid35

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Tuesday June 22, 2010 · 4:09 PM PDT

2010/06/22 · 16:09

And they haven't been reporting it as required by law.

After reviewing four years of testing, purchasing, and engineering documents, I've concluded the Corps of Engineers has been spilling oil into the waters of Lake Pontchartrain - 40 spills totalling between 2000 and 6000 gallons, at least - and not reporting it to the Coast Guard as required by federal law. The federal penalties for failure to report an oil spill include imprisonment up to five years and fines up to $50,000 per day the spill went unreported.

mcbrid35

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Monday June 14, 2010 · 7:03 AM PDT

2010/06/14 · 07:03

Why is BP not streaming the audio that goes with their live video streams?

Spillcams at Rep. Markey's Committee webpage

Surely there is audio attached to each of these ROV's - the operators must have headsets and be communicating with other folks.

If NASA can broadcast video and audio live from their missions for 40 years, why is BP only giving us video?

Corps of Engineers protects NOLA with duct tape, rope, and rusty pipes

mcbrid35

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Friday June 13, 2008 · 5:26 AM PDT

2008/06/13 · 05:26

New Orleans might have slipped off the national radar a long, long time ago, but the residents still have to contend with the incompetence of the US Army Corps of Engineers on a daily basis.

Recently released documents show that the Corps and their contractors continue to use - shall we say - "unorthodox" construction methods in their flood protection works around New Orleans...

mcbrid35

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Friday February 29, 2008 · 10:14 AM PST

2008/02/29 · 10:14

Those of you that follow such things may remember that last year, the Corps of Engineers tried to shift $1.3 billion around in its work in the New Orleans area rather than just asking for the extra funds. It had the effect of pitting one area against another, and was a craven move to save dollars at the expense of protection.

People at all levels were outraged, and the extra $1.3 billion was eventually appropriated. Senator Landrieu said at the time, "Casting aside the lessons learned from years of underfunded levee protection to devastating results, the administration seeks now to shuffle $1.3 billion from one set of projects to another rather than pay the bill for each."

Believe it or not, they are unapologetically trying the same maneuver again.

mcbrid35

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Friday February 01, 2008 · 10:01 AM PST

2008/02/01 · 10:01

How many ways can a city violate its own laws? In a furious confluence of sloppiness, ineptitude and pressure from the Feds, a small committee inside New Orleans' city government appears to be trying to answer that question on its way to demolishing as much of the city as possible.

In the wake of Katrina, there has been far more demolition than rebuilding. The city is now pockmarked with empty lots owned by individuals with no intent of rebuilding. The so-called "jack-o-lantern" effect is happening one house at a time, and a city bent on spending FEMA demolition funds as fast as possible is doing everything it can to speed the process.

mcbrid35

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Wednesday January 02, 2008 · 12:40 PM PST

2008/01/02 · 12:40

Demolition is not a plan. But the city of New Orleans wants to convince everyone, including its own bureaucrats, of the opposite.

Over the past few months, as I've studied the workings of demolitions in New Orleans, I've gotten more and more dispirited. There's no leadership, no direction, just mixed up mountains of paper and growing numbers of confused, scared citizens getting victimized by their own city government. Homeowners discover their nearly restored house is targeted for demolition, and are forced through all nine circles of hell to prove to their own city that the city is wrong. And some only discover this after the home is bulldozed by the city. It's horrible.

I and a few talented individuals have taken upon ourselves to do what the government should be doing: forcing the city to abide by its own laws regarding demolition. This has turned into a herculean struggle, as the degree of intransigence and incompetence in city government has gradually come to light. Against rather long odds, though, there has been progress...

mcbrid35

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Monday December 10, 2007 · 9:12 AM PST

2007/12/10 · 09:12

I have been auditing New Orleans city public records in an effort to understand how the building demolition process in the city has gone so haywire. I'm not sure I understand the motivations completely, but I have certainly gotten my arms around a lot more facts. And those facts are disturbing...

mcbrid35

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Saturday August 18, 2007 · 2:57 PM PDT

2007/08/18 · 14:57

This past May, the Army Corps of Engineers released a long-awaited report about the walls along both sides of the 17th Street canal. Through three different methods, the stability of those walls was analyzed and a "Safe Water Elevation" of 6 feet was set. The top of the walls are around 14 feet.

The report is dense, and as such is filled with fascinating factoids which have never been made public.

Buried on page 53 is some very disturbing news. The canal, for around half its length, is almost half full of silt, cutting the drainage capacity significantly.

Read on..

mcbrid35

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Tuesday August 07, 2007 · 8:27 AM PDT

2007/08/07 · 08:27

Last November 5-8, about 50 University of Notre Dame civil engineering undergrads, led by a few Notre Dame civil engineering faculty, took a field trip to New Orleans, ostensibly to view flood control works. Their behavior during this trip was unbelievably offensive to the victims of Katrina. In addition, the propriety of the trip itself is questionable, since it appears to be nothing more than a recruiting junket by the New Orleans District of the Corps of Engineers, using professors at Notre Dame who also have deep connections to the Corps to fly in students/potential future Corps employees.

Updated: Notre Dame, in a written response to me, admitted the trip was actually for recruiting purposes. See comment "Notre Dame responds" below

Read on...

mcbrid35

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Friday August 03, 2007 · 12:48 PM PDT

2007/08/03 · 12:48

An internal Corps of Engineers report from May, 2006 (over 14 months ago, and nine months after Katrina), which I unearthed, shows numerous and varied flaws in the walls and levees along New Orleans' 17th Street canal in areas far away and near the area which breached in Katrina. This canal is in use every day, and these flawed areas are often subjected to loading by water. The Corps apparently did nothing with this report, because I can tell you that almost no repairs have taken place outside of the breach area. Also, the report was not passed along to the local levee boards to allow them to act on the recommendations.

Read on for background...

mcbrid35

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Friday June 08, 2007 · 1:15 PM PDT

2007/06/08 · 13:15

The Army Corps of Engineers internal investigation into the floodgate pumps is out, and it is a blockbuster. The news is horrible.

I have written about it and linked to a copy of it at my blog, http://fixthepumps.blogspot.com.

New Orleans has been completely screwed over by a small coterie of four COE employees, all of whom are named in my blog post.

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As their NOLA pumps rust away, Corps plants trees

NOLA: Corps of Engineers spilling oil for four years

Where is BP's audio?

Corps of Engineers protects NOLA with duct tape, rope, and rusty pipes

Corps plays $800 million shell game - AGAIN

Demolished Pt. 3 - New Orleans breaks its own laws

Demolished Part 2 - a further New Orleans tale

Demolished - A New Orleans Tale

NOLA: 17th Street canal full of silt

NOLA: Pictures of Notre Dame "tapdancing on graves"

NOLA: 17th Street canal walls full of holes

NOLA pumping bombshell