<DOC>
[109 Senate Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:39525.wais]
S. Hrg. 109-1013
EVALUATE THE DEGREE TO WHICH THE PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ON THE FAILURE OF
THE LEVEES ARE BEING INCORPORATED INTO THE RESTORATION OF HURRICANE
PROTECTION
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
November 17, 2005
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works
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COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma, Chairman
JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia JAMES M. JEFFORDS, Vermont
CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri MAX BAUCUS, Montana
GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut
LINCOLN CHAFEE, Rhode Island BARBARA BOXER, California
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
JOHN THUNE, South Dakota HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York
JIM DeMINT, South Carolina FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey
JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia BARACK OBAMA, Illinois
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
Andrew Wheeler, Majority Staff Director
Ken Connolly, Minority Staff Director
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
NOVEMBER 17, 2005
OPENING STATEMENTS
Bond, Hon. Christopher, U.S. Senator from the State of Missouri.. 6
Inhofe, Hon. James M., U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma... 1
Isakson, Hon. Johnny, U.S. Senator from the State of Georgia..... 5
Jeffords, Hon. James M., U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont.. 2
Murkowski, Hon. Lisa, U.S. Senator from the State of Alaska,
prepared statement............................................. 38
Thune, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from the State of South Dakota.... 7
Vitter, Hon. David, U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana..... 3
WITNESSES
Gagliano, Sherwood, Ph.D., president, Coastal Environments, Inc.. 24
Prepared statement........................................... 43
Responses to additional questions from:
Senator Jeffords......................................... 68
Senator Vitter........................................... 68
Hitchings, P.E., Daniel E., Regional Business Director,
Mississippi Valley Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 39
Roth, Larry, P.E., deputy executive director, American Society of
Civil Engineers................................................ 25
Prepared statement........................................... 70
Responses to additional questions from:
Senator Jeffords......................................... 75
Senator Vitter........................................... 75
Suhayda, Joseph N., Ph.D., emeritus engineering professor,
Louisiana State University..................................... 28
Prepared statement........................................... 76
Responses to additional questions from:
Senator Jeffords......................................... 78
Senator Vitter........................................... 78
Verchick, Robert R.M., Gauthier-St. Martin eminent scholar chair
in environmental law, Loyola University New Orleans............ 30
Prepared statement........................................... 80
Responses to additional questions from:
Senator Inhofe........................................... 87
Senator Jeffords......................................... 88
Senator Vitter........................................... 89
Zimmie, Thomas F., Ph.D., professor and acting chair of Civil and
Environmental Engineering Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute...................................................... 23
Prepared statement........................................... 41
Responses to additional questions from Senator Vitter........ 42
EVALUATE THE DEGREE TO WHICH THE PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ON THE FAILURE OF
THE LEVEES ARE BEING INCORPORATED INTO THE RESTORATION OF HURRICANE
PROTECTION
----------
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2005
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Environment and Public Works,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. in room
406, Senate Dirksen Building, Hon. James Inhofe (chairman of
the committee) presiding.
Present: Senators Inhofe, Bond, Thune, Isakson, Vitter,
Jeffords, and Carper.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES M. INHOFE, U.S. SENATOR FROM
THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
Senator Inhofe. Good morning and welcome to our fourth full
committee hearing on the response to Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita. Our first two hearings focused on the Federal response to
the hurricanes and our most recent hearing considered some
steps required to bring into focus the degree to which the
preliminary findings on the failure of the levees are being
incorporated into the restoration of hurricane protection in
Louisiana. Repairs to the levee system must begin now in order
to prepare for the next hurricane season, which means that we
can't wait for final reports to begin the rebuilding.
Conversely, if preliminary findings suggest areas of
weakness in levee design or construction, it is important to
incorporate those preliminary findings in near-term restoration
efforts. The challenge we have at hand is incorporated in the
lessons learned from the ongoing assessment of levee
performance, while simultaneously restoring the levee system to
pre-hurricane design.
So I thank all of you for coming today. Senator Jeffords,
we had said as soon as we get 6 Members here, we will probably
take up these amendments and then of course, we will have to
have 10 for, I think we have 5 final passages on resolutions.
So we may have to do that off the floor during a vote, perhaps.
[The prepared statement of Senator Inhofe follows:]
Statement of Hon. James M. Inhofe, U.S. Senator from the
State of Oklahoma
Good morning and welcome to our fourth full committee hearing on
the response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Our first two hearings
focused on the Federal response to the hurricanes and our most recent
hearing considered some steps required to develop a comprehensive plan
for Coastal Louisiana, including storm protection, navigation and
wetlands restoration. Today, we will evaluate the degree to which the
preliminary findings on the performance of the levees are being
incorporated into the restoration of hurricane protection.
I want to thank all of our witnesses for coming today and
participating in this committee's ongoing and comprehensive review of
hurricane response and recovery. I appreciate your willingness to
travel here, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Before we get too far down the road of deciding what we should do
when rebuilding, we first must understand happened to the levees and
why the city was flooded. If mistakes were made in the past, they must
be rectified. There are a number of experts here today that have been
taking a look at this very issue, and while it is too early for final
conclusions, some preliminary assessments have already been made. I
understand that the Army Corps of Engineers has been making some
adjustments when restoring the current protection to take into account
these initial findings.
This hearing is especially important in that it will help bring
into focus the degree to which the preliminary findings on the failure
of the levees are being incorporated into the restoration of hurricane
protection in Louisiana. Repairs to the levee system must begin now in
order to prepare for the next hurricane season, which means that we
can't wait for the final reports to begin the rebuilding. Conversely,
if preliminary findings suggest areas of weakness in levee design or
construction, it is important to incorporate those preliminary findings
in near-term restoration efforts. The challenge we have at hand is
incorporating the lessons learned from the ongoing assessment of levee
performance while simultaneously restoring the levee system to pre-
hurricane design standards.
Once again, thank you all for coming today. I look forward to
working with all of you and my colleagues on the EPW Committee to
ensure that we restore hurricane protection to Louisiana in an
effective and responsible manner.
Senator Inhofe. Senator Jeffords.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES M. JEFFORDS, U.S. SENATOR FROM
THE STATE OF VERMONT
Senator Jeffords. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased
to once again be here to receive testimony regarding the
reconstruction of the flood control system in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina. Today we will hear from the Army Corps of
Engineers and multiple experts regarding the rebuilding of the
levees and whether or not the Corps is considering the
preliminary information regarding levee failures as it rebuilds
New Orleans.
Last week, I said that without adequate flood control,
redevelopment will be impossible. It is imperative that as we
try to rebuild flood control quickly, in preparation for
another hurricane season, we do not build a fatally flawed
system that could further erode public confidence and slow
redevelopment. It is part of this committee's responsibility,
as the committee jurisdiction for the Army Corps, to ensure
that water resources are a positive force in the redevelopment
of New Orleans, not a hurdle to overcome.
Today's hearing will, I hope, identify what needs to be
done to ensure that an initial rebuild is effective. That will
be the first step in what should be a comprehensive, integrated
water resources plan to provide protection and restore
ecosystems.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Senator Jeffords follows:]
Statement of Hon. James M. Jeffords, U.S. Senator from the
State of Vermont
Good morning. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to once again be here to
receive testimony regarding reconstruction of the flood control system
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Today, we will hear from the Army Corps of Engineers and multiple
experts regarding the rebuilding of the levees and whether or not the
Corps is considering the preliminary information regarding levee
failures as it rebuilds in New Orleans.
Last week, I said that without adequate flood control,
redevelopment will be impossible. It is imperative that as we try to
rebuild flood control quickly, in preparation for another hurricane
season, we do not build a fatally flawed system that could further
erode public confidence and slow redevelopment.
It is part of this committee's responsibility as the committee of
jurisdiction for the Army Corps to ensure that water resources are a
positive force in the redevelopment of New Orleans, not a hurdle to be
overcome.
Today's hearing will, I hope, identify what needs to be done to
ensure that our initial rebuild is effective. That will be the first
step in what should be a comprehensive, integrated water resources plan
to provide flood protection and restore ecosystems.
Senator Inhofe. Thank you, Senator Jeffords.
We will have to have six Members, but we also have to have
two Democrats, so we will wait until a Democrat comes in, and
we may interrupt our opening statements at that point to handle
one of the business items that will be necessary.
Senator Vitter.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF LOUISIANA
Senator Vitter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member
Jeffords, for having this hearing. It is very important. I had
requested this hearing because it is so important to understand
exactly why the levee system failed in the greater New Orleans
area during Hurricane Katrina. It is important to understand
that so we move forward in the right way, not just rebuilding
levees and floodwalls, but making sure we rebuild them right,
so they provide a solid foundation of protection for the next
hurricane season.
Before Hurricane Katrina, an estimated two-thirds of the
entire population of Louisiana lived in the areas now declared
disaster areas. Those folks, many of them are still deciding
whether or not to return home. Restoration of the hurricane
protection system and assurance that we will use a better,
smarter design and build more protection is absolutely crucial
to allowing those people and businesses and investors to return
home.
Today, I look forward to hearing from the Army Corps of
Engineers and other independent teams about the preliminary
findings from their investigations and the levee system's
performance during Hurricane Katrina. I want to thank all of
those witnesses for being here today and for their important
ongoing work.
Preliminary findings seem to show that there is a problem
when rebuilding the levees and floodwalls are done with
different designs. For instance, the transition points in the
protection system between different types of designs for levees
and floodwalls actually weakened the structure. For this
reason, we must not rebuild only in areas of the system that
had a failure, because first, it won't address the fundamental
design problems with the other parts of the system that
happened not to fail, but were designed the same way. Second,
it is actually multiplying the transition points between
different types of systems. Again, those transition points are
points of weaknesses.
So there needs to be consistency in the design of the
levees and floodwalls to make sure we do not have failures
again. Of course, that is the whole point, we must make sure
that this devastation, which has caused tremendous heartache
and misery and loss on the ground and tremendous cost to the
Federal Treasury never happens again.
We need stronger, improved hurricane protection now.
Rebuilding to just pre-Katrina conditions isn't an option. When
we say to Louisianans, we have a Category 3 protection system
in place, we need to be certain that we have a true Category 3
protection system in place. I certainly hope that is the goal
for the next hurricane season, and then to go beyond with an
intelligent design of a higher standard of protection.
So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member,
for this hearing.
[The prepared statement of Senator Vitter follows:]
Statement of Hon. David Vitter, U.S. Senator from the State of
Louisiana
Thank you Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Jeffords for holding
this hearing today. I requested that the Environment and Public Works
Committee hold this hearing because it is very important to understand
what caused the levee system to fail during Hurricane Katrina so that
these factors can be incorporated in making the levees better and
stronger so they will withstand future storms. This time we need to not
just rebuild the levees and floodwalls, but rebuild them right so they
provide a solid foundation of protection for the next hurricane season.
Before Hurricane Katrina, an estimated two-thirds of the population
of Louisiana lived in the areas now declared disaster areas.
Louisianans are still deciding whether or not to return home.
Restoration of hurricane protection that incorporates better, smarter
designs is a key factor for people and businesses when deciding whether
or not to return to Louisiana.
The city of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes are below sea
level. Once the storm surge overwhelmed the levee and floodwalls
system, the Greater New Orleans area had extensive flooding. For
several weeks, the areas remained flooded. Many Louisianans lost their
homes and over 1,100 lives were lost. This is why stronger hurricane
protection must be put in place by the next hurricane season to ensure
it is safe for Louisianans to return home and as they rebuild their
lives in Louisiana.
Today, I look forward to hearing from the Army Corps of Engineers
and other independent teams about the preliminary findings from their
investigations of the levee system's performance during Hurricane
Katrina. I would like to thank the witnesses for testifying before the
committee today and providing critical information from their
investigations that will be important toward the effort in restoring
stronger hurricane protection in Louisiana.
From hearing the witness's testimony today, we will have a better
understanding of whether the failure in our protection system was due
to geological considerations, overtopping, other design problems, or
other causes. In order to provide a stronger level and smarter design
for hurricane protection in Louisiana, it is important that we
understand how faults occurred in the system and what designs need
improvement. It is also important to recognize that these failures in
the system could happen in other areas along the hurricane protection
system too. We need to be certain that those areas of the system that
did not fail during Hurricane Katrina are not at risk of failing during
future storms.
Preliminary findings show that there is a problem when rebuilding
the levees and floodwalls with different designs. The transition points
in the protection system between different types of designs for levees
and floodwalls actually weaken the structure. For this reason, we
should not rebuild only areas of the system that had a failure because
it will not address the fundamental design problem within the entire
hurricane protection system. There needs to be consistency in the
design of the levees and floodwalls otherwise if only the levees that
failed are rebuilt with better designs for stronger protection, the
rest of the levee and floodwall system will just weaken the entire
structure and protection system. Obviously, it is necessary that all of
these areas of the system are upgraded with better designs that
guarantee stronger hurricane protection.
We must make sure this devastation never happens again. We need
stronger, improved hurricane protection now. Rebuilding to just ``pre-
Katrina'' conditions is not an option. When we say to Louisianans that
we have a Category 3 hurricane protection system in place, we need to
be certain that we truly mean we have a true Category 3 protection
system in place. We need a strong foundation on which to build upon in
the future. Therefore, we need a true standard of hurricane protection
now that provides a solid, consistent, strong level of protection
throughout the entire system.
Thank you.
Senator Inhofe. Thank you, Senator Vitter.
Senator Isakson is here for an opening remark. But you also
might mention, we are going to be asking unanimous consent when
we have the appropriate number here to include yours on the
agenda, since we didn't have the time to do it in the normal
way, as we discussed yesterday. So you might, while we are
waiting for another person to come, go ahead with your opening
statement, then we will recognize you to explain that, so that
we will be ready when the appropriate time comes.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHNNY ISAKSON, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF GEORGIA
Senator Isakson. As far as an opening statement is
concerned, I want to really commend Senator Vitter for the hard
work that he's undertaken in this committee since the tragedy
of Katrina to really dig down and find out the facts, so we do
not repeat mistakes of the past that were made, not
intentionally, but we have learned from since Katrina. I
sincerely hope we will continue as a Senate to learn from what
we learn of the past, and build constructively in the future,
so as to avoid those breaches or anything that might have
contributed to those breaches.
But not to get into a blame game of historically what
happened in the past, but instead a learning experience so we
can do it right in the future. I commend Senator Vitter for his
efforts in that regard, and I look forward to working with him
and the Members of the committee with regard to the levees in
New Orleans and their reconstruction.
Would you like for me to go into the----
Senator Inhofe. Yes, why don't you just briefly, and then
we will be ready for that.
Senator Isakson. Mr. Chairman, I was asked by a dear friend
of mine, Dr. Sullivan, the former Secretary of Health and Human
Services in the Bush I administration, to shepherd a piece of
legislation in the Senate dealing with the land transfer of
currently Government-owned property on Independence to the
National Health Museum, which is a private, not-for-profit,
501(c)(3), that Dr. Sullivan and other leaders in medicine have
founded. The purpose of transferring the land is for them to
build the National Museum of Health, which will be built
privately, operated privately and funded privately.
In the course of discussions with Members of the House and
the Senate on this proposal, questions arose with regard to
certain issues that are controversial. Among them, the issue of
abortion, assisted suicide and things of that nature. After
meeting with a number of Members, Dr. Sullivan's board and
those Members agreed to report language to acknowledge that
concern and state the following. The museum will be sensitive
in developing mission statements, museum activities and museum
content in order to respect the strongly held opinions of a
majority of Americans. To that end, the museum should strive to
highlight and encourage medical thought history, techniques and
technologies that are life-affirming and life-saving. The
museum shall develop and report to Congress a viable business
plan.
I want to interrupt myself here. The reason for the viable
business plan is, there were concerns raised about the
Government transferring the land, them building the museum, the
museum getting into financial trouble and there being some
presumption that by transferring the land there was an implicit
commitment to take over the operation and the funding of the
museum. So they added the following language.
Should the situation arise whereby the museum is unable to
sustain financial solvency, the museum shall not receive funds
from the Federal Treasury. So it makes it clear that in
transferring the land, which the U.S. Government owns, and the
taxpayers, the museum is assuming the financial responsibility,
not only for the construction, but for the operation.
So my request of the committee, when the time is
appropriate, is that we adopt the land transfer language, which
is in Senate Res. 2015, and accompany with it the report
language that the Members and the museum board have discussed.
Senator Inhofe. OK, I would say that Senator Jeffords and
the minority have agreed to this, so it won't take a UC, and it
is now on the agenda.
Senator Isakson. Thank you, sir.
Senator Inhofe. Senator Bond.
Senator Bond. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I never was one of the Singing Senators, so I would defer
to Senator Jeffords, if he wishes to lead us in Happy Birthday
to our Chairman. Do you want to try that, Senator?
[Chorus of Happy Birthday to Senator Inhofe.]
Senator Bond. Reclaiming my time before anybody gets hurt--
--
Senator Inhofe. Up to now, this has been a happy birthday--
--
[Laughter.]
Senator Bond. You see why the Singing Senators have
dissolved.
[Laughter.]
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, U.S. SENATOR
FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI
Senator Bond. In any event, I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for
holding this hearing and wish you well for this and all
succeeding coming years. I am delighted we are moving on the
authorization for this study today on rebuilding levees. I
think people who have fought against levee construction as they
did in Missouri after the 100 years floods of 1993 and 1995
will understand why adequate levees are critically important to
protect our people as well as property.
I trust, No. 1, that any authorization will come through
this committee as the authorizing committee. I think we ought
to demand that any projects be authorized, be laid out before
us before it goes to funding. Not that I am against
appropriators doing authorizing language, generally, but I
think that in this instance we should hold hearings. I think
the Corps should look at quite a few options, like filling in
the channel which brought the hurricane up to New Orleans. I
think they ought to take a look at determining whether there
are some parts of New Orleans that cannot be, some of the very
low areas, which cannot be effectively and efficiently
protected while we protect the very important core of New
Orleans. I think we owe that to New Orleans, but we cannot
protect the unprotected.
So I trust the Corps will examine those issues and I very
much appreciate, as we all do, the great work that Senator
Vitter has done, very responsibly bringing forth the need for
massive assistance. So I look forward to approving the items on
the agenda today and thank you very much for holding this
markup and hearing.
Senator Inhofe. Thank you, Senator Bond.
Senator Thune.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN THUNE, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
Senator Thune. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I also want to commend our colleague from Louisiana,
Senator Vitter, for the extraordinary work that he has done as
a very passionate advocate for his constituents in Louisiana,
but also for the very thoughtful way that he has gone about
this. I think it is important, and we all recognize that when
we go about this rebuilding process that it be done in the
correct way so that we can avert future disasters like this
down the road.
So I appreciate very much his efforts in shedding light on
this subject and helping us understand the implications of the
decisions that we make and the policies that we put in place.
So I want to join and echo what has already been said this
morning about the efforts of the Senator from Louisiana with
respect to this very, very important issue for him and for our
entire Nation.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Inhofe. Thank you, Senator Thune. I have been
informed that we do not have any other Democrats coming at this
time to attend this meeting, so we won't be able to do even the
amendment portion of the business meeting.
So what I would like to ask the Members to do is, let's
plan to meet in the President's Room after the first vote and
we will have a business meeting at that time, at which time we
will take up the amendments that are the manager's amendments
as well as the items that require 10 Members.
So with that, I would ask Senator Vitter, if he would come
over here and chair this meeting, and we will forego the
business meeting until after the first vote.
If you'd like, Senator Vitter, while you are getting
prepared, I will tell my birthday story. Would you like to hear
that?
Senator Vitter. Mr. Chairman, we'd all love to hear that.
[Laughter.]
Senator Inhofe. November 17 is not only important to me
because it is my birthday, not as important to me as it is my
20 kids and grandkids, but it happens that on November 17, 11
years ago today I also was sworn in as a Member of the Senate.
Because it was a special election, I was replacing someone who
had retired.
I remember it so well, and this will come as a shocker to
those on the left side of this meeting here, I used to be quite
a loudmouth, Senator Vitter. I remember the first day I was
sworn in, I saw Wendell Ford from Kentucky down on the floor
saying something that I disagreed with. I went down and I just
really lit into him and it was brutal. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
As I was going back, I went down into the basement to take
the train over to the Russell Building and there was Senator
Bob Byrd. Now, keep in mind, this was my 60th birthday and the
day I was sworn in.
He said, ``Young man, I admire your spunk, but we in the
Senate do not do it that way like you do,'' and he went on to
tell me about the history of the Senate and it takes unanimous
consent and you can't have all that. But I will always remember
that as being, my first day here was my 60th birthday, so it is
a very special day today. I have mellowed a lot during the
years.
[Laughter.]
Senator Vitter [presiding]. Great. Thank you again, Mr.
Chairman, for calling this hearing, very important hearing
about exactly what caused the levee breaches in the greater New
Orleans area immediately following Katrina and what we are
doing to solve those problems.
Our first panel is a panel of one, Dan Hitchings, who is
the Director of Task Force Hope with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. Dan, if you will come up. Dan is going to give us an
overview of the Corps work.
If I could ask everyone limit opening statements to 5
minutes, and also, Mr. Hitchings in particular, in addition to
giving your testimony and answering questions, I would like to
offer you the opportunity to respond, if you would like, after
hearing the testimony of the second panel.
STATEMENT OF DANIEL E. HITCHINGS, P.E., REGIONAL BUSINESS
DIRECTOR, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY DIVISION, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF
ENGINEERS
Mr. Hitchings. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the committee, I
am Dan Hitchings, Regional Business Director for the
Mississippi Valley Division of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. I am currently serving also as the director of Task
Force Hope, which is our task force that has been put together
to respond to the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in
the Gulf Coast area.
I am honored to be testifying before your committee today
on the efforts by the Corps of Engineers to incorporate
forensic findings into our ongoing repair of the storm damage
reduction projects in the New Orleans area.
With our contractors, we are working around the clock on
levees and floodwalls to reduce the risk of damage through the
remainder of this hurricane season, which continues until the
end of November, and the rainy season that area normally
experiences in December and January. Our goal is to complete
this phase of the effort before the start of the next hurricane
season, which is June 2006. Our teams are actively gathering
data and information from the recent storms, and we have also
begun an after-action assessment of the existing storm damage
reduction system.
The Corps takes its responsibilities for the safety and
well-being of the Nation's citizens very seriously. In the case
of the New Orleans area, we are determined to learn what
failed, how it failed, why it failed and to recommend ways to
reduce risk of failure in the future. There is no single answer
to the question as to why there were failures in the storm
damage reduction system, as there were multiple breaches of
levees and floodwalls at a number of locations, and the failure
mechanism or mechanisms are likely to vary. The answer to this
will follow from a thorough analysis of the data we are now
collecting. The physical process that caused the breaches will
be determined from the comprehensive analysis of the data that
we are collecting.
What we have to date is evidence of what happened. We can
see the final result of the structural behavior, but we cannot
yet determine why. That will require more understanding of the
design intent of each structure, its condition prior to the
storm or the forces to which it was subject, both the static
and dynamic, and how we would expect it to respond to those
forces. Understanding why this happened will also help us to
develop recommendations on ways to reduce the risk of failure
in the future.
The Chief of Engineers, Lieutenant General Strock, has
commissioned an Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force
to conduct an engineering evaluation. We call this IPET. The
IPET includes engineers and scientists from the Engineer
Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, the Institute for
Water Resources in Alexandria, VA, numerous universities and
the private sector, as well as from other Federal agencies,
such as the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
As the team deployed, the American Society of Civil
Engineers and the University of California team sponsored by
the National Science Foundation approached the Corps about
similar studies of infrastructure performance they were
undertaking in hopes of applying lessons learned to other levee
systems. In the spirit of openness and transparency, we invited
them to join our team and beginning on September 29, they
joined us for the inspections of the projects involved. On
September 30, we learned the State of Louisiana was also going
to establish a team of its own, of researchers from LSU and
their research center. We also invited them to join the team
and they have been participating with us since that time. We
are very grateful for their participation.
Over the next 8 months, the IPET will examine and analyze
the data and rationally test various hypotheses about the
behavior of the infrastructure. Through a thorough analysis of
the data we are collecting, we will explore whether human error
played any part in the performance of the infrastructure. The
IPET will use the collected data, laboratory testing and
modeling of activities in its analysis.
The work currently planned includes providing updated and
accurate vertical geodetic datum, performance of storm surge
and wave modeling, determining the hydrodynamic forces that
created the storm, analyzing the floodwall and levee
performance when subjected to these forces, conducting interior
drainage and flooding modeling, to include pump station
performance and conducting the consequence analysis and a risk
and reliability assessment.
We are making all the findings available to the public and
invite the public and scientific and engineering community to
share any information that they may have. On October 29, we
began releasing available data by posting it on a publicly
accessible Web site. Additional data will be added to the Web
site as it becomes available.
This includes all kinds of information, design and
construction drawings, soil sample records, post-Katrina
documentation, the hydrographic surveys and soil samples of the
data that we have collected in that analysis. It also includes
performance data resulting from eyewitness accounts and various
photographs of the area.
In addition to the IPET effort, the Secretary of Defense
has directed the Secretary of the Army to convene an
independent panel of national experts under the direction of
the National Academies to evaluate the performance of storm
damage reduction systems in New Orleans and the surrounding
areas. The National Academies is assembling a multi-
disciplinary engineering and atmospheric science team that will
be drawn from the public and private sectors and academia.
Until we can collect and analyze all the physical evidence,
we will not have a complete picture of what happened. The
results of our study will provide a better indication of the
extent to which the existing system can be expected to reduce
the risk of future storm damage. We will be examining and
providing analysis on the performance for the entire storm
damage reduction system to understand the failures that
occurred, to understand other components of the system that may
have degraded in their capacity to protect against future
storms and to understand where the system performed
successfully.
Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that we cannot wait until
the study is complete to begin applying what we have learned.
As we learn, we will immediately act to incorporate these
findings into the work in which we are now engaged. In the
interim, results are being shared on an ongoing basis with the
team responsible for the repair of the existing levees and
floodwalls. We have established a procedure to ensure efficient
transfer of information from designers and the IPET and from
the IPET to the designers.
The specific elements include that more than 20 key people
from the design team are assigned to work with the IPET. We
have established a liaison between IPET team members and
specific task force guardian project and technical managers.
The Task Force Guardian project and technical managers
coordinate all onsite meetings and visits with the IPET
members, they conduct joint meetings with the IPET team members
when they are onsite, and do trip reports documenting
observations and recommendations.
They have a regular weekly meeting to go over things they
have accomplished. One of the items on the agenda of this
meeting is, what have we learned that would benefit the
reconstruction effort currently underway in New Orleans. They
will absolutely be talking about this every week and will
ensure that we have got that information transferred. The IPET
will review all of the construction plans and specifications
and IPET will be involved in the engineering during
construction activities.
We will also be producing weekly reports to the Task Force
Hope Commander, Brigadier General Crear, on the design
improvements and changes made due to this process.
This concludes my statement. Again, I appreciate the
opportunity to testify today. I would be pleased to answer any
questions that you may have.
Senator Vitter. Thank you, Dan, and we will get to that. I
will start it off.
This hearing is about preliminary findings and thoughts
regarding why the levees failed. I have to tell you, I find
your testimony, even your written testimony pretty frustrating
and inadequate, because it does not say anything about that
topic. It lays out a process and it doesn't say anything about
your preliminary thoughts and findings about what failed and
why.
So let's get right down to that meat of the topic. I want
to take us through the map of metro New Orleans and move west
to east. It seems to me, based on what I read, the following is
correct, but please correct me if the Corps disagrees. Let's
start to the west, the east bank of Jefferson Parish. There,
there were no levee failures and there doesn't seem to be
overtopping of the levees. So there, the flooding seemed to be
primarily, if not exclusively, the result of rainwater with the
pumps not operating, is that correct?
Mr. Hitchings. That is correct.
Senator Vitter. OK. Then again, moving west to east, the
next area is in Orleans from the 17th Street Canal until you
get to the Industrial Canal, not including the Industrial
Canal. There you have three interior canals, drainage canals
and of course, significant breaches to those. There, there does
not seem to have been overtopping of the lake levees and there
does not seem to have been overtopping of the canal wall
levees. There was some failure from underneath the canal wall
levees where they breached. Is that a fair conclusion?
Mr. Hitchings. The conclusion of the overtopping is
correct. The exact failure mechanism for those floodwall
breaches, we still do not know exactly what happened to all
those areas, whether if it was a result of scour or some piping
underneath, or exactly what the problem was. As you know, we
have collected significant data about the existing conditions
in those areas. We have done extensive soil borings and
subsurface testing that will allow us to conduct that analysis
and really determine exactly what failed.
Senator Vitter. So you agree there was no overtopping?
Mr. Hitchings. That is correct.
Senator Vitter. So they failed from underneath in some way?
Mr. Hitchings. That is correct.
Senator Vitter. Now, some of the outside groups have
pointed to porous soil areas, areas of peat underneath which
caused the seepage and subsequent failure. What's the Corps'
current opinion about that theory?
Mr. Hitchings. We concur that those conditions exist. The
data shows that. We also concur that that is a possible
contributor to the failure. However, we do not know if that is
the only contributor or if it was the sole cause in those
particular cases.
Senator Vitter. What would other possibilities be? You
mentioned some piping areas.
Mr. Hitchings. There is some evidence of trees that had
grown up onto the edge of the embankment of the levees. There
is a theory, that of course is being examined, about whether or
not the growth of those trees and perhaps subsequent failure of
those trees during the wind storm that was generated as part of
the storm may have contributed to those areas.
So it may not just be the subsurface conditions in those
particular areas. It may also be other conditions. There is
data that Louisiana State University has that suggests that the
sheet piling is at a depth of minus 10 feet. That suggests that
that also may have contributed to the failure.
Senator Vitter. Have you confirmed that?
Mr. Hitchings. We have not yet confirmed that. We have done
testing to actually examine those areas, using a subsurface
probe that uses an echo type mechanism to do that. We do have
some data from that, but we have to validate that data to
determine exactly where those holes were, so we can try to
confirm with LSU if we are talking about the same location.
Senator Vitter. Does the data point to the 10 feet being
correct or incorrect so far?
Mr. Hitchings. The locations that were tested indicate that
the sheet piling depth was around 10 feet. What isn't confirmed
is whether or not this is in locations where the depth of the
sheet piling should be more than 10 feet.
Senator Vitter. My understanding was the whole design was
sheet piling depth to 17 feet. There was no area where the
design was only 10 feet, was there?
Mr. Hitchings. I do not know that to be true, that it was
all required to be at 17 feet. That is what we are trying to
confirm today, sir.
Senator Vitter. OK. Obviously that is very serious, because
the allegation is even the design, which was probably
inadequate, even the design was to 17 feet, and yet you go back
and look at it, and it went down to 10 feet, just to clarify
for everyone.
Mr. Hitchings. We agree that those conditions are serious.
Senator Vitter. Again, moving from west to east, the
Industrial Canal, seems there you had storm surge built up in
part by Mississippi River Gulf Outlet leading into the
Industrial Canal, channeling that storm surge, building it up
even higher, significant overtopping of the levees there, and
then failure at some points there. Is that an accurate summary?
Mr. Hitchings. Yes. The floodwalls and levees in that
Industrial Canal area were overtopped. The evidence shows
significant areas of scour on the back sides of those
floodwalls in particular, and it shows evidence that the water
was flowing over the top of them before they failed.
Senator Vitter. So you would say the best theory now is
that significant overtopping, scouring out of earth on the land
side of the wall and then the wall gave way?
Mr. Hitchings. That appears to be a likely scenario.
Senator Vitter. Then again, continuing to move to the east,
in eastern New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, which is closer
to the storm and the Gulf, seemed to have had major overtopping
in many, many places, which led to many breaches. Is that fair
to say?
Mr. Hitchings. That is correct. This map shows the Orleans
East area. You can see that the majority of the breaches
perhaps point out on the southeastern corner where the red
spots are is where the breaches would mostly occur. The area
that borders on the lake, Lake Pontchartrain, however, did
suffer one area that was damaged. But most of that was not
breached. It was overtopped but was not breached.
Senator Vitter. OK, my time is well past due, so I will
turn it over to Senator Isakson.
Senator Isakson. I do not know New Orleans as well as
Senator Vitter, so I can't follow directions as well. But it
appears to me that the overtopping occurred mostly on the east
and south and that the north breaches were somewhere down in
the levee, is that correct?
Mr. Hitchings. The breaches, to go back to that first
particular chart, the overall area, most of the breaches
occurred in the area that, if you would point to this area
above St. Bernard along the levee that was adjacent to the
Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and then also on the portion of
New Orleans East. It is important to note also that the levees
along the Mississippi River that protected the portions of
Plaquemines Parish were all significantly overtopped in that
area.
Senator Isakson. That is kind of what I observed. It leads
me to this question. Before Katrina, upon our election, I was
with some people from New Orleans who talked about the
tremendous erosion and loss of land in the barrier islands and
the wetlands south of New Orleans. I know we are talking about
the reconstruction of the levees and the reasons why there were
failures.
But I am becoming, and I am not an engineer by any stretch,
did some land development. But should we not, in tandem with
looking at the reasons for failure of the levee per se, also
look at what we need to do on these wetlands and barrier island
areas and other areas? Because the lessening of their ability
to take some power out of these storms is going to put
increased pressure on the levees. So it seems like it is a
tandem deal. Am I wrong?
Mr. Hitchings. No, I would agree with you. In fact, the
analysis that is being conducted on the storm surge is going to
be looking at the conditions that existed when the projects
were designed, and also the conditions that exist now. The
storms produced a significant loss to the wetlands and barrier
islands that do in fact provide some storm surge reduction. So
we are going to be looking to see what the impact is.
Obviously that has an impact into the future, and as we
look at risk and reliability of the existing system, after we
get it reconstructed to its pre-storm design level, we need to
know what level of protection that is under the existing
conditions.
Senator Isakson. Two other quick questions. One, can you
really go ahead and do the restoration without having the game
plan for the wetlands? Or should you? You could, but should
you, I guess.
Mr. Hitchings. I think the important thing that we are
working on right now is an extremely urgent matter, to get the
portions of the project that were damaged restored before the
next hurricane season. That is absolutely the top priority to
ensure that protection, at least to that level, is available.
Senator Isakson. At least to Category 3?
Mr. Hitchings. Well, it is to the design level. I know some
testimony earlier before this committee explained to some
degree, when the project was designed, the hurricane scale did
not exist. So it was designed to a standard project hurricane,
elements of which fall within Category 3.
Senator Isakson. I appreciate your making that observation.
Mr. Hitchings. People would suggest, a Category 3 storm, I
believe, goes up to winds up to 145 miles an hour. These
protection facilities were only designed for winds of around
100 miles an hour.
Senator Isakson. The levees have been temporarily repaired,
or have those huge sand bags holding back part of the water, is
that correct?
Mr. Hitchings. Right now, that is correct.
Senator Isakson. Out of curiosity, and I have thought about
this a few times, how you repair a levee and hold the water
back at the same time, is it going to mean that the existing
repaired levee walls and berms stay in place and you actually
move the levees slightly, the new construction is off that?
Mr. Hitchings. Each particular breach has its own answer to
that, and they are being looked at. I can show you an example
of one that we are working on, the floodwalls at the 17th
Street and the London Avenue Canals. If you would just show
that one section with the setback. There is another drawing in
there.
[Slide shown.]
Mr. Hitchings. What that shows basically is the canal
running across the page there. That black shaded area is
basically the area where the temporary berm has been
constructed. The heavy black line outlined with yellow shows
that we are going to be constructing a sheet pile wall to
protect that. So the first thing we did is plug the hole,
basically, we put sand bags and gravel and stone in that area
to stop the water from going back and forth. Then we reinforced
that so it would be a little bit stronger.
The next thing we are currently doing is putting the sheet
pile along that area. That will now allow us to remove that old
plug, and then rebuild that section to the correct design in
there. Each particular breach, depending on its physical
characteristics, has something like that. Some of them will in
fact have a setback levee, other ones will be done like this,
and in some of the areas, we actually can construct them in the
clear, because there is another line of protection available.
Senator Isakson. I know my time is up, but sheet pile, is
that the temporary metal?
Mr. Hitchings. Yes. It is long sheets that interlock on
their edges and go down side by side.
Senator Isakson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Vitter. Thank you, Senator.
I want to go back to the map and again move west to east
and talk about the work going on between now and next June and
exactly what that is. We will start with the 17th Street Canal.
As I understand it, you are driving sheet piling down to a
significantly deeper depth than the original design, and that
is to what, 40-plus feet?
Mr. Hitchings. I believe that the sheet pile length is
somewhere between minus 60.
Senator Vitter. Sixty, OK. For what span of the canal are
you doing that?
Mr. Hitchings. Currently, we are doing it for the areas
where the breaches are. That is part of the temporary closure.
There is a couple reasons for that. One of the most significant
is, as you know, when that levee area and floodwall breached,
there was a significant amount of scouring, not only in the
area of the breach, but also scouring from the bottom of the
canal itself, with the volume of the water that was flowing
through there. So the subsurface conditions have changed, so we
need to make sure the tips of those sheet piles are deeper.
Senator Vitter. In that area where it breached, what was
the depth of the sheet pile?
Mr. Hitchings. It is my understanding that the intent, the
design depth was minus 17.
Senator Vitter. What was it?
Mr. Hitchings. I do not know that. We have not got that
data. As you can imagine, that sheet piling is now buried under
that temporary closure. So as we build that new sheet pile
closure wall, we will be taking the earth and sand bags all
back out of there and actually have those sheet piles that were
in that area available as physical evidence.
Senator Vitter. Will you do this reconstruction with a far
deeper sheet pile in all other parts of the canal?
Mr. Hitchings. I do not have the exact answer for that.
What we are doing, we are examining the entire lengths of those
canals. As you can imagine, that is what would be prudent.
There are a number of other areas that didn't breach, but
that did receive some damage. So we are collecting all of that
data about the condition of those sheet piles and looking at
the design parameters. We have done an extensive amount of
subsurface examination, collecting additional data on what the
conditions are, and what the soils actually are in that area.
So we will have a design in that area that is appropriate
to provide the protection. It is possible that that design may
indicate that the entire lengths of those sheetpiles are not
adequate. I do not know the answer to that. But that is within
the range of possibilities.
Senator Vitter. Let me ask it another way. If this section
failed, what would cause you to believe that all sections would
not have to be redesigned and improved?
Mr. Hitchings. Well, trying to determine exactly what the
cause of failure was. If it was a tree, for example, that was
on the back side of that levee, and the tree fell over, which
created a hole in the back side, and that allowed the water to
percolate through, that would be a condition that probably
wasn't relevant to the design. It was a change to a condition
afterward.
Senator Vitter. Right, but Dan, as far as I know, nobody
thinks that is the leading theory for the cause. Everyone
thinks, as far as I know, that the leading theory for the cause
is the sheet piling not even going to the depth of the canal,
No. 1, and there being weak soil layers, No. 2, that
contributed to the seepage underneath.
Mr. Hitchings. If that is what we conclude, then we will
ensure that the design that is used for the future is adequate
to meet the design levels of that.
Senator Vitter. What's the timeframe for reaching that
conclusion? Because obviously, we are trying to reassure folks
that by next hurricane season this will be fixed. But if it is
fixed just for the area where there was a breach, that is not
terribly reassuring.
Mr. Hitchings. That's exactly correct. If the conclusion is
that that entire system needs to be reconstructed, it will not
be possible to do that by June 1. We are working on a
concurrent plan to put a more permanent temporary closure at
the mouth of the canals, at the lakefront. What that would do
is provide us the ability, when a surge occurs, to close the
lake off so those sections of floodwalls would not be subjected
to the surge.
We would also have to put in a temporary pumping system
that would allow the interior drainage pumps to pump so that we
didn't worsen that condition. So because we do not know the
exact answer, and believe me, the engineers are working as
quickly as they possibly can to get the answer on the design
adequacy of that floodwall system. We know that there isn't
sufficient time, so we are working on that plan for temporary
closure concurrently.
Senator Vitter. So again, going back to the primary
question, when do you think you are going to know whether the
areas that didn't happen to fail in this storm event are
designed and built adequately or not?
Mr. Hitchings. It will be within the next 30 days.
Senator Vitter. The next 30 days?
Mr. Hitchings. Yes, sir.
Senator Vitter. So presumably that will include some
analysis of where these weak peat layers are.
Mr. Hitchings. Yes. Based on the data that we have
collected, we will know and be able to make some assumptions.
As you can imagine, in this particular area where much of it
was previously a swampy area, the subsurface conditions vary
significantly. So we can't poke a hole everywhere, but we have
poked a significant number of holes that will give us a better
picture of what those conditions are.
Senator Vitter. Is it the Corps' preliminary conclusion
that the peat layer, if that exists, that is pretty general or
localized?
Mr. Hitchings. I do not know the answer to that.
Senator Vitter. Do you know how frequently you are boring
soil samples to test things like that?
Mr. Hitchings. I do not have the actual interval.
Senator Vitter. I mean in terms of distance.
Mr. Hitchings. I know how many of them that we have put in.
Senator Vitter. I have been told you have done about 60 so
far, and your standard is 300 meters.
Mr. Hitchings. Yes, sir, that is correct. We have done a
total of 60 Cohen penetrometer tests, with an additional 20
borings.
Senator Vitter. Three hundred meters strikes me as a pretty
significant distance not to test between. What's your reaction
to that?
Mr. Hitchings. Well, no, that is the normal design that you
would do. I mean, engineers are allowed to put it at closer
intervals if there is a reason to believe that they needed that
additional data.
Senator Vitter. OK. Senator Carper.
Senator Carper. Good morning, Senator Vitter.
Senator Vitter. Good morning.
Senator Carper. How are you?
Senator Vitter. Good.
Senator Carper. You looked kind of lonely in here, I
thought I would come in and join you.
[Laughter.]
Senator Carper. I want to welcome our witness, Mr.
Hitchings.
Mr. Hitchings. Thank you.
Senator Carper. Thank you for joining us today. I missed
your testimony.
Let me just ask you first of all, just take a minute and
what should be my takeaways from what you have had to say. If
you can just crystallize it in a minute or two, then I have a
couple of questions I am going to ask you.
Mr. Hitchings. OK. We have been immediately responding to
the storm. That required us to do some temporary measures, and
then also to do some things as rapidly as we could so we can
restore protection by June of next year before the hurricane
season.
Concurrently with that, we started a data collection effort
that is leading to an analysis of what happened, why it
happened, and what that means to the integrity of that storm
protection system. Those two things are on parallel paths.
However, the design and repair of the structures can't wait
until we get all the answers. That is the problem that we face.
It is a situation where if we wait until we have the answers,
we will never get it done in time.
So we have put a mechanism in place to transfer information
between the team that is doing the investigation and collecting
the data and doing the analysis and the teams that are doing
the redesign and construction of this, so that that information
can pass back and forth, basically on a zero time basis, that
they are moving, as soon as somebody knows something here, we
are passing it to the design team. As soon as the design team
encounters something, we are passing it to the investigative
team to know that.
I mean, that's essentially what the essence of my statement
is.
Senator Carper. Thank you. At a recent hearing of another
committee I serve on, Homeland Security and Government Affairs,
there was a fellow named Seed, Dr. Seed, do you know him? S-E-
E-D.
Mr. Hitchings. I do know him, yes.
Senator Carper. He was a witness who was representing, I
think, the National Science Foundation, their investigation
team. But anyway, he testified that there are some fairly
simple, fairly inexpensive floodwall improvements that could
have, in their view, prevented if not all then some of the
breaches that occurred. I do not know if you have any knowledge
of what he might be alluding to, and let me just ask, is it
possible for the Corps to incorporate some of those less
expensive modifications into the repairs to the floodwalls that
are currently underway?
Mr. Hitchings. Absolutely, and we have done that.
I have a chart here that lists some of the things that are
there. This is, probably for an engineer, this is easy to look
at. But for the designers, this is what it is, in the dashed
line on the front side of this----
Senator Carper. Let me just ask the gentleman who is
helping you, if he would maybe serve as a pointer and just
point out what you are referring to, that would be helpful.
Mr. Hitchings. Point to the eyewall construction on that if
you would, Zoltan.
[Slide shown.]
Mr. Hitchings. Start with that, the eyewall and the dash
line to the left. That is what the existing design was. The
suggestions, one of the suggestions that was made from the
investigative team suggested we have a different type of wall
there, a T wall. That T is what is shown in the darker lines.
You can see that that is a significantly stronger design. That
is what's being used in the area of the Industrial Canal.
Also on the landward side of that, they are putting scour
protection in. Because these floodwalls in fact didn't fail
from the water pushing against them, they failed because they
were scoured on the back side and then collapsed. So we are
putting scour protection on the back side of that.
[Slide shown.]
Mr. Hitchings. The next chart that is just a word chart
there lists a number of other things that we have incorporated
in the design already, results of the input that we have
received from not only Dr. Seed, Dr. Bee, Peter Nicholson, who
is part of the ASCE team and other Corps of Engineers and other
LSU team members who have been part of this. As they identify
things, we are incorporating them into the design.
I would suggest that it really doesn't matter how late it
is that they identify that. If it is a critical item that will
require strengthening or a different design of part of the
structure, even if it is in June of next year, we will go back
and make that correction.
Senator Carper. Good. Thanks. Our thanks to your assistant
here as well.
A second question, if I could, I understand they have these
levee boards, and I am not sure how they are structured. But in
your opinion, how does this levee board structure exist, with
separate board, I guess for each parish, how does that impact
the ability of the region to develop a comprehensive flood
control system for the metropolitan area, greater metropolitan
area? Does it improve or does it worsen the oversight of
spending?
Mr. Hitchings. I am not sure that it worsens it. It
obviously makes coordination a little bit more extensive when
you have to work with different groups. It also makes some of
the decisionmaking a little bit difficult, if they have
different opinions. We work also with the State of Louisiana.
Their State Department of Transportation and Development has
responsibility for the flood control measures. Normally, when a
particular project spans multiple jurisdictions, they have the
opportunity to come in and be the local sponsors. They then
sign, and they work the coordination with the individual levee
boards as part of it.
But we have worked with these levee boards for decades.
None of them are new. We have had relationships that go back a
very long way. So yes, it does complicate it, but it doesn't
create a situation that is untenable.
Senator Carper. My time is expired. Mr. Chairman, could I
ask one more, kind of a follow-up to this levee board structure
question?
One of the weaknesses identified in the current levee
system involves transitions in floodwalls from one type of
material to another, from concrete to sheet pile between the
different heights of floodwalls and levees. How can the
coordination between the various levee boards be improved to
address those perceived weaknesses?
Mr. Hitchings. One of the things obviously is to make sure
that as we go through the design process that we are more
cognizant of the impact of those transitions. I am not positive
that it is always a levee board issue as much as it is two
other things. One is, different parts of the structure require
different solutions, particularly where there is a crossing. If
you would have a crossing for either road or railroad or
pipeline, you normally may not put that through a levee
section, you would put a floodwall there, something that you
can put stop logs in to prevent the water from going through.
But you normally would leave it open.
That requires a concrete structure for those stop logs to
connect to. In the transition is where that concrete then goes
back to a levee section. So the awareness that we now have is
that we need to make that transition smoother. We need to, in
fact, embed that concrete deeper into that levee, rather than
have a shorter overlap of those. Also make sure that we
construct them to the same level.
Another complicating factor, of course, in this area, is
the settlement that occurs in these areas floodwalls and levee
sections will settle at different rates, just because of the
weight that is associated with them. So that settlement will
result in a section of levee that perhaps ends up being lower
than the top of the floodwall, which then creates a situation
where the erosion may be higher and result in a breach in those
areas.
So all of those require us to be more sensitive to those
issues as we go through this redesign process.
Senator Carper. Mr. Hitchings, we appreciate your being
here today. Thank you for your testimony and for responding to
my questions.
I have two other hearings that are going on simultaneously
in two other of my committees, so I am going to slip out. I
regret I can't stay longer. If I can get back here, Mr.
Chairman, before you are done, I will be back.
Senator Vitter. All right, thank you for being here.
Dan, to go back to our conversation first about the 17th
Street, I believe what you said is within a month, the Corps
will determine if conditions elsewhere along that canal where
it did not breach or substantially similar to conditions where
it did breach. If the answer is yes, they would reconstruct
those other lengths of the canal wall as well.
Mr. Hitchings. That is one option. There are several
options that we are looking at as opposed to just
reconstructing what was there in a stronger way. One of them
might be to eliminate the floodwalls portion of it and just
reconstruct levees.
The consequence of that is it requires a much larger
footprint that affects the real estate that is there, property
owners that are there. There is a plus because the levees
appear to be a more desirable solution than the floodwalls, but
the consequence is taking property.
Another option that could be considered would be that
permanent closure at the end of the lakefront area there, where
we have gates in place. Instead of just doing it with temporary
structures, do it with a permanent gate operation.
Another option to be considered is whether or not we just
want to put pumps, pumping stations at the lakefront to
supplement those, totally close that system off so that it does
not drain naturally into the lake, but install pumps into it.
Of course, all of those have cost consequences. We would have
to coordinate that with the local sponsor to get their input
into that process, and then also work to get the additional
funding for those.
Senator Vitter. The Corps will come to that conclusion
about whether one of those options is necessary within the next
month?
Mr. Hitchings. Yes, sir.
Senator Vitter. If the answer is yes, why wouldn't the
Corps, the Corps has authority, because it is acting on it
right now, rebuilding that section to a better design now at
100 percent Federal cost, why wouldn't that be true for the
whole length of the canal that needs to be designed and
constructed better?
Mr. Hitchings. Well, as soon as we determine what the
design needs to be, we will do that, absolutely.
Senator Vitter. And you will follow this precedent, which
is that you have the authority to do it now, no more
authorization, and it is 100 percent Federal cost?
Mr. Hitchings. Yes. The only question though that our
lawyers are looking at at this point in time is whether or not
putting those pump stations out at the lakefront would be
considered within the scope of the authority that we have.
Senator Vitter. But everything else, you would think, is
within the scope of your authority?
Mr. Hitchings. Certainly rebuilding the parallel protection
system as it was described and authorized is within the scope
of our authority, yes.
Senator Vitter. Now, going to the Industrial Canal, same
sort of question. You have a fundamentally different design, an
inverted T.
Mr. Hitchings. Right.
Senator Vitter. Are you doing that beyond the area of the
breach?
Mr. Hitchings. No, not at the this time.
Senator Vitter. OK. What if anything are you doing beyond
the area that breached?
Mr. Hitchings. Well, beyond the area of the breach we will
be putting the scour protection in, on the back side of those.
Again, the hypothesis being that those walls didn't fail until
after they were overtopped and scouring caused those failures.
Providing scour protection behind the existing eyewalls would
be an improvement that would prevent them from failing. So
because they were all scoured, we have to go in there and make
those repairs anyway, we are going to be doing it with
materials such that the scouring won't occur if it was
overtopped again.
Senator Vitter. Obvious question, if you think this new
design with an inverted T is necessary where the breached
happened to occur this time, how do we explain to residents
that we are not doing it everywhere else?
Mr. Hitchings. Well, there is no indication at this point
that the eyewall was in fact inadequate design. It failed, the
failures occurred because of the scouring. If we can prevent
the scouring, then the eyewall would be adequate.
Senator Vitter. Well, let me ask another obvious question.
If that is true, why are you using the inverted T where it
breached? Why do not you just go back to the original design,
if it is so great?
Mr. Hitchings. I understand your line of questioning, and
it is appropriate. The T wall is a stronger wall section. So
that is why it is being used in this particular place. As long
as we have an opportunity to reconstruct it.
Senator Vitter. Let me just, I guess it is clear, but let
me just express the concern that we are using a better design,
but only for the area that happened to breach this time. There
is no evidence that the circumstances that led to that breach
do not exist all up and down the canal on both sides. So that
is an obvious concern all of us have in the community.
Again, continuing to move east, what is the Corps doing in
the short term now, to June, et cetera, with regard to the New
Orleans East and St. Bernard levee systems that had pretty
massive overtopping and failures?
Mr. Hitchings. In each of those areas, the breaches are
being repaired. Some additional scour protection is being put
in in some of those areas where there is evidence that there
was damage and erosion at the toes of those sections. So we are
putting in some of the scour protection. But the sections that
were damaged themselves will all be repaired back to their
original design level.
Senator Vitter. In those areas, as well as other areas,
will the rebuild take account of subsidence that is occurred
since the design and construction?
Mr. Hitchings. Yes. We are rebuilding, it gets extremely
confusing to everyone when we talk about levels, because we
talk about design level, we talk about authorized level, we
talk about 17 feet. It tends to be different in each area.
To try to keep the confusion to a minimum, what we are
referring to is to the original design level for those
indications, which was what it was constructed to or authorized
to be constructed to when it was originally built. So that
would take into account previous subsidence.
We also tend to build those with a few feet extra on top of
them, because you know subsidence is going to continue. You do
not want to have something that 1 year after you finish it is
no longer at the design grade.
Senator Vitter. Will that be done throughout the metro area
in terms of the levee systems?
Mr. Hitchings. Right now, the emphasis for the June 1
effort is to do that for the areas that have been damaged, not
for the entire system.
Senator Vitter. What about beyond June 1?
Mr. Hitchings. For the Chief, we are now putting together a
total requirement. We are making an assessment of the entire
system from one end to the other and identifying what the scope
and cost of all those improvements would be. As you know, we
focused our attention on those areas that were damaged, so we
could get those breaches fixed as quickly as possible. So now
the next step is that assessment and identifying what the
requirements are to get the whole system up to its authorized
level.
I will point out as well that that authorized level also
includes a re-analysis of the storm surge.
Senator Vitter. OK. Well, again, to state a general
concern, of course we need to fix the breaches first. But to
improve the design only at the breached areas and stop there
makes no sense, because the same factors seem to obtain
everywhere else along the system. Now, I understand you can't
do everything at once and you can't do everything between now
and June. But it is important to do that all eventually. So
will the Corps do that same work all along the system, even
though it may take beyond June in other areas beyond where the
breach occurred?
Mr. Hitchings. We will in fact look at whether or not that
kind of work is required. It is really the concluding segment
of the IPET's work, is the risk and reliability analysis. What
we expect as a product from that is a recommendation that
communicates to us which we can work with the locals and with
Congress on what needs to be done for that entire system.
The expectation obviously is if it is a lot of money, then
as you know, the project was not finished being constructed.
There were still sections of it that needed its initial work,
as well as funding required to go back and raise those sections
that had had their first lift on them. So there is going to be
a substantial funding requirement associated with that.
So we will identify that requirement and communicate it, if
it is within our authority, then I am sure that we will request
the funding to get that moving.
Senator Vitter. Final question. You know many of the
outside groups have made the conclusion that there is a
particular weakness and vulnerability at transition points
where designs change.
Mr. Hitchings. Yes, sir.
Senator Vitter. Part of my concern is in that in fact with
this immediate work, you are increasing the number of
transition points. How do you address that?
Mr. Hitchings. The intent there is to be aware of the
vulnerability that exists at those transition points and to
mitigate that vulnerability to the maximum extent possible. One
way is to make sure there is a more smooth transition between
heights of existing sections. So if there is an existing
floodwall that didn't damage but there is a levee right
adjacent to it, let's make sure that we bring that levee up to
the same height.
Let's also ensure that the floodwall is embedded deeper so
that if there is some type of erosion around that soil at the
transition, that there will be floodwall underneath to
strengthen that area.
Senator Vitter. OK, thank you very much, Dan. I want to
repeat, we very much want you to stick around and listen to the
further testimony and then we will give you a chance to come
back and make any points in response to that.
Mr. Hitchings. Thank you.
Senator Vitter. Thank you.
Dan, if we could ask, if you could submit the Corps' list
of design revisions for the record, that is an important point
of information.
Mr. Hitchings. Yes, sir.
Senator Vitter. Thank you.
Now we will invite up our second panel. As they come up, I
will introduce them. A very distinguished panel, Mr. Thomas F.
Zimmie, Ph.D., professor and acting chairperson of the
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, and a key member of the National Science
Foundation Investigative Team; Mr. Sherwood Gagliano, Ph.D.,
president of Coastal Environments, Inc.; Mr. Larry Roth, deputy
executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers;
Mr. Joseph Suhayda, Ph.D., emeritus engineering professor with
LSU; and Mr. Robert Verchick, professor at Loyola University
Law School in New Orleans.
Thank you all very much for being here, and I would invite
you all to give opening statements of 5 minutes duration. Of
course, you can submit anything in addition for the record if
you so wish.
Dr. Zimmie.
STATEMENT OF THOMAS F. ZIMMIE, Ph.D., PROFESSOR AND ACTING
CHAIR OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT,
RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
Mr. Zimmie. Thank you. It is certainly an honor and a
pleasure to be here. I thank Senator Vitter and the rest of the
Members from the committee, the rest of the Senators, although
you seem to be it at the moment.
My comments will be kind of informal and they more or less
echo the statement I put in. You have already introduced me so
you know I am a professor of civil engineering at RPI up in
Troy, NY. I was a member of the National Science Foundation
sponsored investigative team. Of course, our boss was Ray Seed,
the professor at Berkeley whose name came up. So my comments
echo a lot of the team members' comments.
We produced the report, which I am sure you have, you saw
that preliminary report on the performance of the New Orleans
levee system. Of course, there was not just the National
Science Foundation sponsored team, but it was also an ASCE
sponsored team and other team members. So there was a wide
range of experience.
I should say that any opinions I express here today are
mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation or any other group or other agency.
I do not have any financial interest in a consulting firm that
is going to get contracts to repair the levees, etc. Our
efforts were volunteer efforts, considered to be a professional
contribution.
I spent about a week down there in about the middle of
October, although our teams were there from the end of
September, a good part of October. We were there in about four
different teams. Of course, we looked at all the major breaches
and probably saw several dozen breaches down there.
There is not one simple answer as to why the levees failed.
I think that is been covered pretty well by the previous
witness. We have various causes: overtopping, erosion, failure
in foundation soils, seepage, underlying, and that is not even
a complete list. The idea of our investigation, of course, was
to try to come up with some preliminary observations, and they
were preliminary, the report says preliminary, that is the
first word. We hope it will lead to better designs in the
future, that is the idea. Of course, we hope that the lessons
learned from this event will lead to improved protection in the
future, not just in New Orleans, but throughout the Nation and
around the world.
The emphasis today is New Orleans, but we really have
thousands of miles of levees in the United States, and I mean
thousands, not hundreds, thousands. We have hundreds right in
New Orleans, over 300 miles. Every State has some levees.
That is about all I have to say. I am basically here to
answer questions and hope I can be of assistance.
Senator Vitter. Thank you very much.
Dr. Gagliano.
STATEMENT OF SHERWOOD GAGLIANO, Ph.D., PRESIDENT, COASTAL
ENVIRONMENTS, INC.
Mr. Gagliano. Thank you, Senator Vitter. It is indeed a
pleasure and an honor to give testimony to this distinguished
committee. I want to particularly thank you for allowing me to
discuss a rather controversial and difficult topic. It is
controversial because it involves and challenges some of our
long-term concepts and theories about geology and engineering
design and other aspects of levee building and coastal
restoration. It is relevant to how we rebuild coastal
Louisiana.
I have been a geologist and have spent my professional
career working in the Mississippi River deltaic plan of
Louisiana on erosion and restoration problems. Particularly in
the last 5 years, I have focused on the effects of geological
fault movement on land subsidence and erosion. Underlying south
Louisiana is amaze of deep-seated, geological faults that are
experiencing accelerated movement during recent decades. This
movement is affecting surface land forms and features.
I have given you two handouts. In these handouts, I have
tried to demonstrate two things. No. 1, the nature of the fault
movements, and No. 2, the effects that the fault movement had
on levee breaches that occurred during Hurricane Katrina in
south Louisiana. The handout entitled ``Effects of Earthquakes,
Fault Movement and Subsidence on the South Louisiana
Landscape'' was published in February 2005, and deals with the
topic that is before us now.
I have evaluated a number of the Hurricane Katrina levee
and floodwall breach sites, not all of them and not all of them
in great detail. I have found evidence that confirms the
concept that these faults that extend deep into the subsurface
of the earth have been active in modern decades and may have
contributed to some of the breaches. Some of the failures were
clearly overtopping, because the levees were simply not high
enough to stop the surge. But there is evidence that the
breaches on the 17th Street Canal, the London Avenue Canal, and
the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal occurred at locales where the
levees were constructed across geological faults and that poor
foundation conditions associated with the fault planes
contributed to the levee and floodwall failures.
I have great concern that proposed and existing levee
alignments throughout south Louisiana cross many geological
faults that are known to be active. This has not been taken
into consideration in levee alignment and design simply because
the fault hazard was not previously recognized. This is
relatively new theory, new information, and new science.
I have greater concern that there has been resistance to
evaluation of the fault hazards. The resistance is a denial
process. We have uncovered the root cause of the disease that
is eating away coastal Louisiana lowlands. The effects of 50
years of accelerated fault movement that has caused massive
land subsidence and weakening of hurricane levees was made
apparent by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The fault cracks that
extend thousands of feet below the earth's surface are actually
affecting the works of man on the surface. Fault movement is a
natural hazard that has been seriously underrated and not
addressed. I hope that this committee will help bring it to the
attention of engineering and planning community as we repair
the levees and prepare Louisiana for the future.
The fault hazard notwithstanding, I strongly believe that
we can provide adequate storm protection around the perimeter
of the greater New Orleans area and for much of south
Louisiana. We possess the science and technology to design and
construct a sustainable flood protection system area that will
protect the area where the people who manage and harvest many
important resources for this Nation work and live. I also
believe that we can wrap a sustainable natural systems
management program around the protected areas of the Louisiana
coast.
We are all here to try and do that in the best possible
way. My testimony is not intended to be criticism of past
decisions. It is intended to be constructive input into the
rebuilding process. Thank you.
Senator Vitter. Thank you very much, Doctor.
Now Mr. Roth.
STATEMENT OF LARRY ROTH, P.E., DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
Mr. Roth. Thank you, Senator Vitter.
Good morning. My name is Larry Roth. I am the deputy
executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
I am very pleased to appear before you today to testify on
behalf of ASCE to discuss preliminary findings on the failure
of Gulf Coast levees during Hurricane Katrina, and also to the
degree to which levee repairs are incorporating these findings.
I am accompanied today by John Headland, P.E., principal
engineer with Moffatt and Nichol Engineers, and a member of the
ASCE Levee Assessment Team in New Orleans.
I am a licensed professional engineer and a licensed
geotechnical engineer in the State of California. Before
joining ASCE staff, I had 30 years experience in water
resources and geotechnical engineering working on issues such
as dams, levees and canals. Following Katrina, ASCE assembled
several teams of experts to examine failures of the New Orleans
levees as well as to examine shoreline damage along the Alabama
and Mississippi coastline.
Our New Orleans team was joined by another team from the
University of California at Berkeley. These teams were in turn
joined by employees of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers'
Engineers Research and Development Center, which provided
considerable insight and logistical support. The purpose of
this joint site visit was to gather information about the
failure of the levees, including data that would be lost during
the process of levee repair and the passage of time.
In the meantime, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
announced in October the creation of an independent panel of
national experts under the direction of the National Academies
of Science to evaluate the performance of the hurricane
protection systems in New Orleans and surrounding areas. This
panel will perform a high level review and issue a final set of
findings based primarily on the data gathered by the
Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, or IPET. The
IPET will include a broad interagency participation, the
private sector, and academic expertise. The IPET is to obtain
facts by collecting, analyzing, testing and modeling data and
information on the performance of the New Orleans hurricane
protection system during Hurricane Katrina.
Secretary Rumsfeld also authorized ASCE to convene an
external review panel to conduct continuing expert peer review
on the work of the IPET. The ASCE external review panel, of
which I am chief of staff, will also report findings to the
National Research Council. On November 7 and 8 of last week,
the external review panel met in New Orleans with the IPET and
was able to conduct its first onsite investigations of the
levee system from the air and on the ground.
Earlier in November, the ASCE and University of California
Berkeley teams released a joint report entitled, ``Preliminary
Report on the Performance of the New Orleans Levee Systems in
Hurricane Katrina'' on August 29, 2005. As the title clearly
indicates, this is a preliminary report. Final conclusions on
the failure of the New Orleans levee systems must await the
study being conducted by the Corps' IPET, which is scheduled
for release June 1, 2006.
Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophic storm that made
landfall in the Gulf Coast near the Louisiana-Mississippi
border with wind speeds near 150 miles per hour. But the damage
in New Orleans due to high winds and rain paled in comparison
to the devastation resulting from the flooding. Where the storm
surge was most severe, this cause massive overtopping and the
levees experienced a wide range of damage from complete
obliteration to those being intact with no signs of distress.
At some locations, the earth embankments were simply gone. Some
walls with embedded sheet piles fared only marginally better
and were often breached as well, even though they were not
always overtopped.
Another commonly observed problem was the frequent presence
of transitions between different sections of the levees, which
include inconsistent crest heights, changes in levee type,
changes in materials of construction and rights of way
penetration through the flood control system. As you know, the
Corps of Engineers began making emergency repairs to the levee
system in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. These
repairs were necessary to complete the evacuation of the city,
to aid in the removal of the floodwater and to restore order.
The Corps has now begun making longer term repairs.
Construction crews are installing temporary coffer dams around
the breached areas to keep water out while permanent repairs
are made. The initial temporary repairs are being removed.
The Corps will then install new sheet piles, presumably to
greater depths, and T walls to provide greater lateral support
and better protection against seepage. In addition, the Corps
will need to inspect distressed floodwalls to determine whether
to repair or to replace them. The Corps will also need to
inspect apparently undamaged floodwalls and levees to determine
if they have hidden structural damage or weaknesses.
Based on our observations, a number of initial comments are
warranted concerning the rebuilding and rehabilitation of the
levee systems. While levee failures may be expected when
overtopping occurs, the performance of many of the levees and
floodwalls may be significantly improved and the likelihood of
future failures prevented with relatively simple modifications
of the levee and floodwall system.
For example, the levees need additional overtopping
protection on their inboard sides to minimize erosion. The
crest heights of the levees need to be planned in a systematic
and deliberate way so that if and when overtopping does occur,
it occurs preferentially at desired locations where the walls
are more robust or designed to better resist overtopping.
Transitions should also be improved so they do not
represent locations of potential weakness. The storm surge that
was funneled through the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet was a
significant factor in the overtopping of the levee system. The
Port of New Orleans and the Corps must carefully consider
whether the danger posed to human life and property by future
storm surges down the outlet warrants keeping the channel open.
We believe Congress should enact a national levee
inspection and safety inspection program modeled on the very
successful Dam Safety Program. The levee program should include
a national inventory of levees, particularly those that protect
large, heavily populated urban areas.
We also must discourage new development in the flood
plains, unless there is a pressing need for that development
and adequate protection can be provided. Population centers on
the Gulf Coast must be given a higher level of protection than
now most have.
ASCE believes Congress should establish an independent
advisory panel to envision the future of the Gulf Coast and to
recommend ways to begin rebuilding of the areas that were
devastated by Katrina on August 29th.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony. I will be
pleased to answer any questions that you may have.
Senator Vitter. Thank you very much, Mr. Roth.
Now, Dr. Suhayda.
STATEMENT OF JOSEPH N. SUHAYDA, Ph.D., EMERITUS ENGINEERING
PROFESSOR, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
Mr. Suhayda. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for having
me here. I have written testimony that I would like to depart
from slightly, because many of the topics have been covered.
Two issues I would like to raise that I haven't heard
mentioned is the current authorization being Category 3
protection I think is inadequate. We have all recognized that.
I wanted to address that as an issue that I think Congress
directly has responsibility for.
The second issue is interim flood protection. Much of what
we heard is talking about the long-term, and these are
certainly strategic issues that need to be addressed. But what
are we going to do in the 10 to 15 years, or even this winter,
and what can we do?
My background is, I taught at LSU in the civil engineering
department for 20 years. I was at LSU for 30 years. I was a
senior consultant to the New Orleans district office of the
Corps of Engineers in hydrology and hydraulics. I have worked
extensively with FEMA, the Office of Emergency Preparedness and
the State of Louisiana and several of the levee districts. So
my experience has been really at the grass roots. I am not a
policy person. I have talked and given presentations to levee
boards and levee districts and levee meetings, trying to inform
people of the nature of the threat.
One of the things that I think has come out is that the
levee system is quite complex. The hurricane, which include
waves and storm surge itself was highly variable over the area.
Then third, the damage that was realized was quite complicated,
geographically and in terms of the types of damage that
occurred. So I think initially we have to go into this with the
idea that it is not a system, it is a bunch of individual
things that have in and of themselves their own threats and
their own capabilities to resist that threat.
So I think looking at the district level, looking at the
flood district level and integrating and making sure that there
is a consistency at that level, I think is a lot more
reflective of the actual nature of the problem. East Jefferson
Levee District, which protected Jefferson Parish, the east side
of Jefferson Parish, that area was not extensively flooded. I
think we need to look at that as a lesson learned. I will tell
you something about how we approach that.
But as far as the current situation, we do not know if we
have Category 3 protection or are going to get it by next
summer, and Category 5 protection is 10, 15, 20 or greater
years in the future. The first thing I would like to address is
just simply the authorization that the Corps operates under. It
has been repeatedly cited as the reason why the Corps can't do
more for the State. We heard years ago we would like to provide
Category 5 protection, but you can't afford it, and Congress
hasn't authorized it. Well, Congress needs to authorize, and
not necessarily fund, but authorize the Corps to look at
Category 5 protection.
Just as an example in terms of consistency, the river
levees running through the city are preventive of a one in 800-
year flood. The hurricane protection levees are one in 200-year
flood protection, a four times greater risk. Why? Why is one
side of the city protected to a four times higher level of
safety over the other?
Also the current authorization is really a 1965 document.
The city is different. It is obvious that things are different.
The wetlands are different. We need to update our whole
thinking about how to address these issues. As far as interim
flood protection, what I think can be done is to not focus on
the levees as exclusive flood protection mechanisms, but
consider redundancy in that, we don't have to have Category 5
levees to have Category 5 protection for certain parts of our
communities.
We actually could have prevented flooding of the Superdome
with a structure that encircled the Superdome. We can take that
principal of using interior drainage control features such as
the 17th Street Canal. That is a wall, now, that bisects
essentially the metropolitan area on the northern side of the
Metarie Ridge. If that were used in conjunction with the
Metarie Ridge, we could compartmentalize and localize the
flooding, which inevitably seems to be a possibility.
In terms of St. Bernard Parish, for example, I would like
to direct your attention there to where it says St. Bernard and
it is pointing to the wetland area. The red line there is the
Forty Arpent levee, and that is what is I think being
considered as a relocation point for the hurricane protection
levee, which would then put that levee behind about a mile to 2
miles of wetlands. There we are, we have wetland protection
right in front of us.
Other parts of St. Bernard Parish, you can see the little
red line running from the Forty Arpent levee to the River
levee, would also compartmentalize the flooding that might
occur in St. Bernard Parish. Maybe we could look into
protecting critical infrastructure within St. Bernard Parish,
such as police stations, hospitals, governmental buildings, to
allow it come back to Category 5 protection, but not
necessarily have to wait to protect the whole parish.
So those are the two issues I wanted to concentrate on, the
technology for doing the inner protection, as has been already
described, is there. We actually put 1.8 miles of flood
protection on top of the East Jefferson levee district levee in
July 2004, because the levees are about three feet below the
design grade. The parish knew that, the Corps knew that, the
emergency managers knew that we didn't have Category 3
protection. That project was accomplished in about 2 weeks, 1.8
miles.
So I think we have a number of options that should be
considered. Of course, I would like to have, any questions that
you have, an opportunity to answer them. Thank you very much.
Senator Vitter. Thank you, Doctor. We appreciate your
comments and would note that this committee today will pass out
authorization for a design for a higher standard, including
Category 5. So we are certainly taking your advice in that
sense.
Professor Verchick.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT R.M. VERCHICK, GAUTHIER-ST. MARTIN EMINENT
SCHOLAR CHAIR IN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY NEW
ORLEANS
Mr. Verchick. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman and Members of the committee, thanks for the
opportunity to appear before you today and testify. I am an
expert in environmental law and policy and a resident of New
Orleans. I hold the Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental
Law at Loyola University, and I am also a board member of the
Center for Progressive Reform. That Center actually has drafted
two different reports on Hurricane Katrina, one called, ``An
Unnatural Disaster,'' another called, ``Broken Levees: Why They
Failed.'' They are available on our Web site.
My written testimony I am going to deviate from, but I ask
of course that the written testimony be incorporated into the
record.
Today, I would like to focus on some of the things that we
have heard already about what we know, and then move on to some
policy lessons I think that we can learn from this. What we
know so far, and what we have heard, essentially the things to
point out are that we have the MRGO, the MRGO that funneled
that surge into the heart of the city. That is one thing that
we have to figure out how to take care of.
We also know that we had some levees, particularly the 17th
Street and the London Avenue ones, that just broke apart. LSU
is estimating that there are 20 separate breaches in those
levees in part where those transition areas are. We know that
historically there has been a lack of adequate maintenance and
funding for the levees and of the Corps in general. We know
that there is a lack of process to regularly assess levee
integrity, even though we know the levees sink on their own
because of subsidence.
We now have allegations from independent expert bodies of
poor levee design and bad construction, and now there are even
suggestions of corruption or malfeasance on the part of the
Corps itself and its contractors.
The other side of this is that we know we have coastal
wetlands in Louisiana, a quarter of all coastal wetlands in the
United States. They are like a patient dying on the operating
table and they have been for decades. We are losing 6,600 acres
a year. We lost 100 square miles just because of Hurricane
Katrina, and these are the buffers that are meant to protect us
in times of hurricane.
Well, what can we learn? Here are some of the things I
suggest, with a recommendation attached to each one. No. 1,
focusing only on levees is a fool's gamble. Any new hurricane
protection must be integrated and must consider simultaneously
levee and gate construction, wetland restoration, habitat
preservation, canal navigation, and patterns of residential and
commercial development.
Levees don't protect people. Flood protection systems
protect people. Those systems are made of multiple layers of
defenses all working together. Some of them are natural, some
are enhanced by human beings, some of them are completely
artificial. You have sand bars, barrier islands, marshes,
cypress swamps, levees and perhaps some day sea gates, and all
of those things have to be looked at at once. There is no way
you can protect the city from a Category 5 storm without the
coastal wetlands.
The Dutch, who revolutionized flood control, recognized
years ago that a levee strategy by itself will sink a city.
That is why their flood control programs incorporate the
natural features as well as the human-made features.
Also, it is cost effective. Because there are some types of
protection you get by preserving and maintaining barrier
islands that you wouldn't with dams or dikes.
The second point is that strong plans are adaptive plans. A
new hurricane protection vision should incorporate formal
mechanisms by which an independent, scientific board regularly
assesses the design, condition and performance of hurricane
protection features. This would effectuate the rebuilding or
the raising of levees as they sink.
The third, what's good for the environment is good for
hurricane protection. New hurricane protection visions must
adhere to current environmental and procedural standards,
including the National Environmental Policy Act. I can answer
questions about that as we go.
In my last 30 seconds, the Army Corps can't do it alone.
Effective hurricane protection in the Gulf may require the
establishment of an independent commission made up of Federal,
State and local officials, maybe something like the South
Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force. The No. 1 reason is,
we need integrated solutions that involve land use as well as
other things that the Corps doesn't have primary skill with.
No. 2, we need a body that has its full attention on this
ball. No. 3, the Corps is likely to be seriously distracted by
ongoing civil and criminal investigations that will prohibit it
from being as frank and forthcoming as it should about issues
involving flood protection.
With that, I thank you and I am open for questions.
Senator Vitter. Thank you very much, Professor. We
appreciate your being here.
Now we will get to questions. Dr. Zimmie, going back to the
17th Street Canal area in particular, what is the conclusion of
your preliminary study on whether the conditions, including the
peat layer, et cetera, that led to that failure, aren't more
widespread up and down that canal, such that we need to take
action beyond simply where the breach occurred, even in the
short term?
Mr. Zimmie. That is an excellent question. I think you have
hinted at it several times. They will repair that breach, and
they will make that breach very strong. Then the question is,
if we move away from there, do we have similar conditions. In
other words, repair the 17th Avenue breach, and then another
Katrina hits next year, and will a wall, say a quarter mile
away, fail. That is your question. How widespread is it?
We can't really answer that question at this point. That is
a big concern. The other parts of the levee system have not
been tested. So you may fix, it is like a chain. You have one
weak link in the chain and the whole chain has failed.
So now you have another link further down. You fix one link
and then the next link fails.
Senator Vitter. Specifically, do you all have any
conclusions about how widespread this porous peat layer is,
assuming that is a significant factor?
Mr. Zimmie. I suspect, peat is very common in the New
Orleans area. I don't think there is any question about that.
We have seen many cross-sections that the Corps provided us,
and peat is found throughout the New Orleans area. Is that any
surprise? It is a swampy area. So of course there is peat. The
question is, how widespread is it? I think that is what the
Corps is trying to answer now. They are going along taking
samples.
We talked about the normal being 300 meters apart. It is an
economic decision. You can't poke a hole in the ground every 10
feet. It is just not feasible. So the question is, how much
soil sampling do you do. So I don't think we know the answer at
this point in the game.
Am I worried about it? Yes, I certainly am. I think if they
just fix the breaches and just repair what is happening and
then Katrina comes along, I think you will probably have
another part that will fail. I think that is your concern. I
think with the investigation, securing soil samples, getting
more information to do a proper design should be able to answer
that.
Senator Vitter. Dr. Gagliano, in areas where levees cross
these faults, what can be done to counteract the negative
effects of that?
Mr. Gagliano. It is going to vary somewhat. The character
of the fault zone varies. In some places the actual plane of
the fault movement is pencil-line thin. In others it may be a
zone of several hundred feet or more wide that would consist of
broken clay particles and sand lenses and things of that sort.
In each instance, however, we have documented vertical movement
of fluids, primarily saltwater and gases, from these decaying
organic materials that underlie the area.
The bases of the faults are very deep, like 25,000 feet. So
clearly, we can't drive sheet piling down 25,000 feet. But the
risk of those fault plains allowing water to move and seep
under the levees is only as great as the water body that we are
trying to contain. So we are on the right track by driving
deeper sheet pilings.
The other factor is, in the greater New Orleans area, the
real foundation-bearing horizon is the top of the Pleistocene
formation, which is about 75 feet deep. So our first
consideration would be to make sure that where we use sheet
pilings, we anchor those into more solid material.
If I could comment on the question you asked Dr. Zimmie, we
really have great detailed knowledge of the distribution of
peats and buried sand bodies in the New Orleans area from
literally thousands of shallow borings that have been conducted
and geological studies that have been conducted over the years.
Geotechnical studies tend to be along lines and done
primarily to provide samples for laboratory analysis. We need
to crank more geology into that interpretation.
Senator Vitter. Thank you.
Senator Jeffords.
Senator Jeffords. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
For those of you on this panel impacted personally by the
storm, I want to express my sympathy. I have been focused
throughout our committee's work on Katrina on the question of
why do we need flood control in southern Louisiana. We have
heard a lot about people of this region of the country and the
unique culture of the region. I will never get tired of hearing
more about the treasures of southern Louisiana, and I invite
each of the members of this panel from Louisiana to answer this
question.
Why do we need to preserve the culture and the people of
southern Louisiana with good flood control? Mr. Gagliano?
Mr. Gagliano. Thank you for that question, Senator. I am a
native of Louisiana, born in New Orleans, and I love the place.
I love our culture, I love our landscape. People live in
coastal lowlands and deltas all over the world. The Dutch have
mastered the business of living in a deltaic area, and have the
most densely populated area in Western Europe. No one would
question whether or not the Dutch people and their culture
should be protected by adequate levees and drainage systems.
In Louisiana, our population density is less than that of
the Netherlands. But when European colonists settled our area
they recognized that this was a deltaic lowland. They selected
the highest ridges for the location of cities and communities
and the highest ridges for agricultural pursuits. We have
extended these land uses into areas that require flood
protection and drainage.
The area was settled becasue of its strategic location and
abundance of resources. We are now in the business of using the
land and its resources for the benefit of the State and the
Nation. Without a doubt, Louisiana is a net producer of
resources. It is an environmentally rich area, it is an area
that produces oil and gas, agricultural products and fisheries.
It has the largest port in the Nation, a rich cultural
heritage, and on and on. I would hope that the Nation will
recognize the need to allow us to continue providing these
values and services.
Thank you, sir.
Senator Jeffords. Thank you. Mr. Suhayda.
Mr. Suhayda. Yes, I have a list here, I will go over them
real quickly. These have been identified as part of the case
that the State has tried to make for preserving our wetlands.
But in particular, the ecosystem that we are dealing with
is unique. It is the largest wetland system, very productive,
provides a lot of recreational opportunities. So losing the
wetlands, which is part of our overall strategy to prevent, I
think would definitely be a loss to the country.
Energy, for example, the State supports and is one of the
most aggressive States in working with the Federal Government
to exploit energy resources. There are consequences to that.
They may not have dominated our wetland loss problems, but they
are certainly a factor such that we have paid a price and we
are in a sense suffering some of the consequences of allowing
navigation development and energy development to take place.
We are a gateway to South and Central America.
International trade and global economy is growing, and in spite
of the recent little speed bumps that we hit with South
America, I think we can expect to see that to be a focus of the
Federal Government for years to come.
We have the largest port activity by volume in the United
States in the Mississippi River corridor that is supported by
the culture and the economic activities in southern Louisiana.
Culturally, I think historically New Orleans was an entry port
for immigrants for years and years. We have a mixture of
historical architecture and cultural issues and food and all
the other things that are not to be found any place.
So I think real quickly, those are the types of things that
come off the top of my head that make the southern part of
Louisiana valuable to the country and worth saving in the
broadest context of what you described, flood protection and
environmental restoration.
Senator Jeffords. Professor Verchick.
Mr. Verchick. I can't improve on that. I think that is all
absolutely right. New Orleans is a city that I love and which
thousands of visitors do every year. It is a cultural gem in
the world, just like Venice, which again is having to master
its own sort of environmental issues and economics. The port
activity, the offshore oil, a fifth of all the fish that we eat
in the United States comes from the Gulf, which is supported by
those wetlands. It produces billions in nature's services,
ecosystem services down in that area. It can be preserved with
the engineering, and it should be.
Senator Jeffords. Thank you.
Senator Vitter. Thank you, Senator.
Mr. Roth, you had mentioned at one point some relatively
modest and simple and inexpensive add-ons that can greatly
reinforce the existing levee system. I think one of the main
things you were thinking of is scour protection on the land
side of levees, and the Corps has mentioned that for the
Industrial Canal in particular. Do you have an opinion about
how adequate that will be on the land side of the Industrial
Canal to the existing eyewall to provide greater strength in
the case of overtopping?
Mr. Roth. I was glad that Mr. Hitchings brought diagrams to
effectively show in pictures what we are trying to describe. I
think that as a scour protection, if properly constructed on
the inside, will provide a great deal of protection for
overtopping in the event of a future storm.
Senator Vitter. With that in mind, with that scour
protection, are you concerned that the new inverted T design is
only being applied, at least as of now, in a limited area of
the breach?
Mr. Roth. I think we have to consider your question to Dr.
Zimmie. We need to be assessing the geologic conditions using
the data and information that Dr. Gagliano has referred to. In
addition, we need to be taking additional soil borings and
Cohen penetrometer testings throughout the levee system to see
if we can identify other perhaps isolated areas where the soil
conditions are such that it causes that particular section of
wall to be in jeopardy.
But first of all, we really need to understand exactly how
or if the peat truly contributed to the failure. That is the
whole purpose of the IPET investigation. We think we have a
fairly good understanding of how things failed. I can
appreciate your frustration, Senator Vitter. We don't yet know
exactly why things failed. I think that is a good illustration.
If we made a poor assumption about why a particular levee
failed and then went and spent a great deal of money to
reinforce other levee sections and then later found out that
that was not really a contributing factor to the failure, we
would have perhaps wasted some resources that could be better
used to increase flood and hurricane protection in other
matters.
So I think we really need to understand the mechanisms of
the failure, and we need to look to see if those conditions and
those mechanisms occur elsewhere. If that is the case, then
more robust systems such as the T walls are definitely merited.
Senator Vitter. With that in mind, at the Industrial Canal,
not 17th Street, but the Industrial Canal, isn't it a fair
consensus at this point that the cause was overtopping and
scouring on the land side?
Mr. Roth. I believe so, yes.
Senator Vitter. Assuming that cause, how adequate is the
scour protection to avoid that in the future versus a whole new
wall design like the inverted T everywhere?
Mr. Roth. I think there are a number of factors that need
to be considered. We certainly need to look at the scour
issues. We need to look at the conditions and the IPET will be
examining the hydraulic modeling to determine the wave heights
and the potential surge heights. So we will have a much better
understanding of where these things possibly can occur.
There is another factor that we can take into consideration
as well, and that is, if there is going to be a storm surge
that does cause overtopping, perhaps we could direct some of
that overtopping to preferential areas where we know that the
wall is going to behave much better. It is like a fuse plug is
often built into small dams. That is a preferred failure mode
that in the event you get a high flood, the fuse erodes
quickly, but it prevent greater damage to the main structure.
So I think some preferential overtopping needs to be
considered in the design. I know there are a number of other
factors that the Corps is going to be looking at.
Senator Vitter. Dr. Suhayda, do you have any comments in
particular about the immediate term and what the Corps is doing
now until June? What should we consider doing differently,
particularly in the short term?
Mr. Suhayda. Well, the reason I brought that up is I think
it has been neglected. I haven't heard anyone talk about
localized flood protection that will allow the communities to
start to recover. The whole issue here is not engineering. It
is community development, economic development and protecting
people and property.
If the Corps and the Federal Government can advance that
along the lines of the levee issues, that is fine. I think that
is incomplete. I think we need to be looking at protecting
infrastructure that would be critical to recovery. It may be
years before the levee systems are able to do that. Yet we need
to have those online.
The idea of a fuse, for example, my reaction to that was
when a fuse blows, the lights go out. We have to have some way
of dealing with interior flood management. Levees are
susceptible to failure. So our thinking now, I think, should be
to look at how we can manage floodwaters that should get
through the Federal levee. Maybe that is not a Federal
responsibility at this point.
But once the water got through the 17th Street Canal, it
flooded all the way to the Superdome, miles away. But it did
not get to East Jefferson Parish because of the Metarie Ridge.
So we can take advantage of some of these things that are
clearly outside of the box of current thinking with regard to
focusing on the Corps of Engineers' responsibility and their
authorizations for perimeter levee protection. I am just
saying, we are neglecting other opportunities.
Senator Vitter. Senator?
Senator Jeffords. Professor Verchick, periodically on this
committee we hear discussion of the role of environmental
litigation on the selection of floodwall and levee designs
along the lake. Can you comment on this?
Mr. Verchick. I would like to, actually. There was an op-ed
early on from the Wall Street Journal and there has also been
testimony before the House Committee on Resources suggesting in
particular that one environmental lawsuit drowned New Orleans.
That is simply false, and I will tell you a little bit about
that.
If anything drowned New Orleans, it is likely to have been
the design and construction of the levees. In 1965, Congress
authorized what was called the Lake Pontchartrain Vicinity
Hurricane Protection Project, which was a project by which the
Corps had two options: one to build high grade levees, and the
other was to build a kind of a sea gate that would contain Lake
Pontchartrain, so the water wouldn't surge in there. That was
called the Barrier Option.
Well, the Corps at that time chose a barrier option, but it
didn't have a very big environmental impact statement, which
was required in the 1970's after the National Environmental
Policy Act. They had flow models that were 10 years out of
date, they had biological analyses based on a single phone call
from a marine biologist. It was very skimpy. There was nothing
to the EIS.
So a group of fishermen and an environmental group sued,
simply saying, we want a proper environmental impact statement.
Well, it went to the Federal courts. In 1977, a Federal court
said, ``You know, if you want to build something, Corps, come
back with an environmental impact statement that is proper.''
It happened all the time in those days. The Corps routinely
came back with a proper EIS.
But in this case, they didn't. In this case they looked it
over again and they decided on their own that the Barrier
Project was too expensive, mainly because it required
condemning a lot of land that was privately owned for the gates
to work. So they chose the high levee option, which was
probably the right option, although I am not an engineer.
Because it was an option that could have protected us, to some
degree, against Katrina, if the levees had not given way.
So they said, themselves, that they did it because it was
less expensive and because it was a better option for
protecting all of the lake. So the buck stops with the Army
Corps of Engineers. It was not a group of rag-tag
environmentalists that defeated the will of the U.S. Army in
this case. The thing to understand is that since these
hurricanes, the U.S. GAO and the Chief of Engineers has
testified before Congress, saying that those sea gates would
not have helped, and probably would have caused more damage.
The reason is those sea gates did close off, would have
closed off part of Lake Pontchartrain. But the water came
through MRGO, through the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. That
shot the water right into the heart of the city, an end run
around any barriers that would have been built.
So that is my version, and the true version of how
environmental litigation is related to these barriers. If
anything, those sorts of lawsuits help government make better
decisions. Because in this case, it did force the Corps to go
back and think about all of the options it had when choosing a
system.
Senator Jeffords. Mr. Roth, can you describe why you think
a national levee safety program is important, and why the
current inspection system is not adequate?
Mr. Roth. I think Dr. Zimmie alluded to it in one of his
responses, that there are literally thousands and thousands of
miles of levees in the United States. Almost all of them fall
under a variety of different jurisdictions. Many of them were
built many, many years ago, before modern design standards had
been in place. Really quite, just like occurred in New Orleans,
until a natural disaster does occur, many times features like
levees or dams are out of sight, out of mind. We don't think
about them until there is a problem associated with them.
In fact, they are a very important part of our
infrastructure. In fact, they need to be maintained and
periodically evaluated. We need to periodically check them to
make sure that they are adequate as our knowledge of hydrology
and natural disasters improves, and as we recognize that these
are a very critical part of defense against hurricanes and
floods in particular parts of the country.
We believe that we need a national policy regarding these.
We point to the National Dam Safety Act. The National Dam
Safety Act was enacted about 30 years ago, I believe, following
a series of dam disasters in the 1970's. Since that time, we
have gotten a much better handle on dams that are unsafe. We
have improved the general public health, safety and welfare by
having a knowledge of those unsafe dams and then taking steps
to make them, either take them out of commission or improve
their safety and their performance.
We believe the same thing needs to be done for levees. It
is a national issue, it is a national problem. The levees ought
to be designed to national standards. We need many things that
such a levee program would provide, not the least of which is
just an inventory, so that we know how many there are and in
what condition they exist in.
Senator Jeffords. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Vitter. Thank you very much. Thanks to all of you
for your very valuable testimony and your ongoing work. We
appreciate it.
Now to wrap up the hearing, I would like to invite, as I
promised, Mr. Hitchings back, if he has any reactions or
comments regarding this other testimony.
Mr. Hitchings. Thank you, Senator Vitter. Just a couple of
points.
I do want to reiterate the Corps' concern as you have
expressed for the vulnerability of the system after we make
those emergency repairs that we are doing under the Flood
Control and Coastal Emergency's authority. Our risk and
reliability study that we are conducting as part of the IPET is
really focused to identify those potential problems that are
still remaining that need to be addressed. We have started that
effort now and we will get the results of that just absolutely
as quickly as we can.
It is critically important and also important that you
can't make some conclusions without adequate data and analysis
in that particular area.
I would also like to correct one statement that was made
earlier, I believe it related to the previously proposed
Barrier Plan, in that it would not have made any difference.
That statement I believe was accurate, but it is accurate not
because it was an inadequate plan, and not because the storms
would have gone up the MRGO anyway. It would not have made any
difference because its authorized level was still the standard
project hurricane. All indications are that Hurricane Katrina
exceeded that level.
So if a Barrier Plan or any other alternate plan would have
been put forward and that would have been constructed, it still
would have been overwhelmed by the forces of Hurricane Katrina.
So subject to any additional questions, that is all I have
to add, sir.
Senator Vitter. Well, certainly to underscore some of my
earlier comments, we are very eager to hear the Corps'
conclusions within the next month about things like soil
samples, the condition and types of soil in different places
like the 17th Street Canal, what does that mean in terms of
addressing the canal walls on either side of the breach, in
fact, on the other side of the canal, how adequate the anti-
scouring fix will be on the Industrial Canal, since you are not
putting an inverted T everywhere.
So this has to be an ongoing discussion and conversation.
We need to reach some of those conclusions pretty quickly in
order to do some things that are adequate for next hurricane
season. So I will look forward to that.
Mr. Hitchings. Absolutely.
Senator Vitter. Thank you very much. With that, the hearing
is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:35 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]
[Additional statements submitted for the record follow.]
Statement of Hon. Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senator from the State of Alaska
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All Americans can appreciate the
committee's work on this important subject. I will be very brief.
I want to go on record in support of the purpose behind this
hearing, because it is critical that we learn from the mistakes of the
past. It is clear that the levees in and around New Orleans were not up
to their task. The political and economic causes for that failure will
be debated for a long time. But the mechanical causes are already
becoming clear, and the immediate concern is the need to ensure that we
prevent the same failures from being repeated in the future.
If we are to rebuild the city, we must also rebuild its
protections. If we are to do so with Federal money, we must do so in a
way that will make the use of Americans' tax dollars meaningful.
Anything else would be criminal.
It has been suggested that we need to empanel additional advisors
for the Corps of Engineers. Frankly, Mr. Chairman, while I agree that
an integrated, interdisciplinary approach is probably needed, I also
believe firmly that it is also important to have ``a place where the
buck stops.''
We are all familiar with the motto President Truman kept on his
desk. We all know what happens when we exercise ``design by
committee.'' I respect the views of those who feel an independent
oversight group is needed. Personally, I may even be in agreement.
But I also want to remind my colleagues that when disasters strike,
there is often a call to bring in the military and it's not because we
want a committee. It's because we know there's a need for a clear,
unquestioned chain of command with the ability to see what's needed,
give an order, and have it obeyed.
Mr. Chairman, I think there's a corollary in construction,
especially where we are dealing with critical facilities that mean life
and death to entire communities. Committees are not accountable, but
individuals can be and our job is to ensure that they are. We need
strong leadership with the determination to do the job right, without
cutting corners, and with the courage to speak out if the resources
available are insufficient for the task.
In the long run, Americans will support rebuilding but only if
their money is not wasted.
__________
Statement of Daniel Hitchings, P.E., Regional Business Director,
Mississippi Valley Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department
of the Army
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the Committee, I am Mr.
Daniel Hitchings, Regional Business Director for the Mississippi Valley
Division, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. I am honored to be testifying
before your Committee today, on the efforts by the Corps of Engineers
to incorporate forensic findings into our ongoing repair of the storm
damage reduction projects in the New Orleans area.
REPAIRS TO THE EXISTING SYSTEM
With our contractors, we are working around the clock on the levees
and floodwalls to reduce the risk of damage through the remainder of
this hurricane season, which continues until the end of November, and
the rainy season that the area normally experiences in December and
January. Our goal is to complete this phase of the effort before the
start of the next hurricane season, which begins in June 2006. Our
teams are actively gathering data and information from the recent
storms, and we have also begun an after action assessment of the
existing storm damage reduction system.
INVESTIGATING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM
The Corps takes its responsibility for the safety and well-being of
the Nation's citizens very seriously. In the case of the New Orleans
area, we are determined to learn what failed, how it failed, why it
failed, and to recommend ways to reduce the risk of failure in the
future. There is no single answer to the question as to why there were
failures in the storm damage reduction system, as there were multiple
breaches of levees and floodwalls at a number of locations and the
failure mechanism or mechanisms are likely to vary. The answer to this
will follow from a thorough analysis of the data we are now collecting.
In some cases, e.g., the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, we have
observed evidence of overtopping. In other cases, e.g., the 17th Street
Canal, we have observed evidence of massive soil movement. The physical
processes that caused the breaches will be determined from the
comprehensive analysis of the data that we are collecting. What we have
to date is evidence of what happened; we can see the final result of
the structural behavior, but we cannot yet determine why. That will
require more understanding of the design intent of each structure, its
condition prior to the storm, the forces to which it was subjected
(static and dynamic) and how we would expect it to respond to those
forces. This is the objective of our current interagency analysis
efforts. Understanding why this happened will also help us to develop
recommendations on ways to reduce the risk of failure in the future.
The Chief of Engineers, Lieutenant General Carl A. Strock has
commissioned an Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) to
conduct an engineering evaluation. The IPET includes engineers and
scientists from the Engineer Research and Development Center from
Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Institute for Water Resources in
Alexandria, VA, numerous universities, and the private sector, as well
as from other Federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Reclamation and
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As the team
deployed, the American Society of Civil Engineers and a University of
California team sponsored by the National Science Foundation approached
the Corps about similar studies of infrastructure performance they were
undertaking in hopes of applying lessons learned to the levee systems
in California. In the spirit openness and full transparency, we invited
them to join our team beginning on September 29, 2005, for inspections
of the projects involved. On September 30, 2005, we learned that the
State of Louisiana would soon establish its own study team and the
researchers from the Louisiana State University Hurricane Research
Center were invited to join our team in advance of this official
establishment. The Corps gratefully acknowledges the assistance
provided by these teams in the collection of the data.
The data collection teams have been performing field work in the
New Orleans area to obtain as much data as possible related to the
performance of the levees and floodwalls and to ensure that data is
collected before it is covered over or lost by cleanup or as a result
of repair efforts. They have been diligently recording the damages and
measuring the post-Katrina conditions. They have examined physical
evidence to establish the maximum water elevations at various
locations. To establish the timeline of events, they have conducted
detailed interviews with about 70 people who sat out the storm. To
establish the soil properties, they have pushed a state of the art
instrumented cone to a depth of 80 feet at 56 locations. They further
collected samples of the soil at depth in 10 locations. They have also
electronically scanned boxes of documents dealing with the design,
construction, and maintenance of the projects involved.
Over the next 8 months, the IPET will examine and analyze the data
and rationally test various hypotheses about the behavior of the
infrastructure. Through a thorough analysis of the data that we are
collecting, we will explore whether human error played any role in the
performance of the infrastructure. The IPET will use collected data,
laboratory testing, and modeling activities in its analysis. The work
currently planned includes providing an updated and accurate vertical
geodetic datum, performing storm surge and wave modeling; determining
the hydrodynamic forces created by the storm, analyzing the floodwall
and levee performance when subjected to these forces; conducting
interior drainage/flooding modeling to include pumping station
performance; and conducting a consequence analysis and a risk and
reliability assessment.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is supporting our
efforts with an External Review Panel, which will provide an
independent oversight of the IPET evaluation. The final IPET report
will be released in June 2006. However, any important findings will be
shared on an ongoing basis before then with those who are involved in
the repair of the existing New Orleans levees and floodwalls.
We are making all findings available to the public and invite the
public and the scientific and engineering community to share any
information they may have. On October 29, the Corps began releasing
available data by posting it on a publicly accessible Web site, https:/
/ipet.wes.army.mil. Additional data will be added to the Web site as it
becomes available. The IPET is collecting pre-Katrina documentation
(design and construction drawings, soil sample records, etc.), post-
Katrina documentation (hydrographic surveys, soil samples, concrete
cores, etc.) and other performance data (eyewitness accounts,
photographs, etc.). The data being released includes design memorandums
dating back to the 1960s, and the associated reports for the Lake
Pontchartrain, Louisiana and Vicinity High Level Plan, which includes
the 17th Street Outfall Canal and the London Avenue Outfall Canal. This
information includes the project plan, hydrology and hydraulics,
geology, foundation investigation and design (including the field
exploration, soil borings, and laboratory testing) and the structural
design.
In addition to the IPET effort, the Secretary of Defense has
directed the Secretary of the Army to convene an independent panel of
national experts under the direction of the National Academies to
evaluate the performance of the storm damage reduction system in New
Orleans and the surrounding areas. The National Academies is assembling
a multidisciplinary (e.g., engineering, atmospheric sciences, etc.)
panel drawn from the public and private sectors and academia.
The National Academies Panel will perform a high-level review and
issue findings and recommendations based primarily but not solely on
the data gathered by the IPET and the ASCE Independent Review Panel.
The findings of the National Academies Panel will be subject to a peer
review process before being released under the imprimatur of the
National Academies.
The National Academies Panel will produce a forensic study that
focuses on the existing levees and/or floodwalls that were overtopped,
breached, or failed during Hurricane Katrina, and whether such
situations were the result of design, construction, or operation and
maintenance issues, soil and geo-technical conditions, changed
assumptions upon which the design or construction were based, the
severity of Hurricane Katrina, or other factors. The National Academies
Panel is expected to produce its final report by July 2006. All reports
generated by these panels will be made available to the public.
coordination of post-storm analyses with ongoing repair efforts
Until we can collect and analyze all the physical evidence, we will
not have a complete picture of what happened. The results of our study
will provide a better indication of the extent to which the existing
system can be expected to reduce the risk of future storm damage. We
will be examining and providing analysis on the performance of the
entire storm damage reduction system, to understand the failures that
occurred, to understand other components of the system that may have
been degraded in their capacity to protect against future storms and to
understand where the system performed successfully. We will be
developing information on risk and reliability of the system as it will
be following the current repairs. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize
that we do not need to wait until the study is complete to begin
applying what we learn. As we learn we will immediately act to
incorporate those findings into the work in which we are engaged. In
the interim, results are being shared on an ongoing basis with the team
responsible for the repair of the existing levees and floodwalls.
As the data collection teams have been completing their work, they
have been convening exit briefings with representatives of the New
Orleans District. This week, the team charged with the repair of the
existing system, identified as Task Force Guardian, will be provided
with a formal summary report with recommendations to improve the
system's performance based on the information collected and analyzed to
date. The team is already at work increasing the depth of sheet piling
and providing armor stone protection in some areas. The summary report
will be made available on the publicly accessible Web site.
This concludes my statement. Again, I appreciate the opportunity to
testify today. I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
__________
Statement of Thomas F. Zimmie, Professor and Acting Chair of Civil and
Environmental Engineering Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
My name is Thomas Zimmie, and I am a Professor of Civil and
Environmental Engineering and the Acting Chair of the Civil and
Environmental Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. I have a PhD in Civil Engineering, am a
licensed professional engineer, and my specialty area of practice is
geotechnical engineering. I have about 40 years of professional
experience.
I was a member of a National Science Foundation sponsored
investigative team that was formed to investigate the levee failures in
the New Orleans area, caused by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005.
As a result of the investigation a report was produced containing the
observations and findings of a joint investigation between independent
teams of professional engineers with a wide array of expertise.
Any opinions I express here today are mine alone and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or any
other group or agency.
The report ``Preliminary Report on the Performance of the New
Orleans Levee Systems in Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005'' was
dated November 2, 2005 and was presented to the Senate Homeland
Security Committee. A second version of the report is being finalized.
However there are only minor changes from the original report.
The investigative teams spent much of October 2005 in the New
Orleans area visiting the levee system. I was in the New Orleans area
for about a week in the middle of October, visiting miles of levees,
including the highly publicized levee breaches such as the 17th Street
Canal, London Avenue Canal and the Industrial Canal.
There is not one simple answer as to why the levees failed. Field
observations indicated various causes: overtopping of the levees,
erosion, failure in foundation soils underlying the levees, seepage
through the soils under the levees causing piping failures, and this is
not a complete list.
It was a pleasure and an honor to be a member of the investigative
team, although at the same time it was a sobering and sad experience to
see the damage to life and property caused by Katrina.
Hopefully the results of our study will lead to a clear
appreciation of what happened in Katrina, and that the lessons learned
from this event will lead to improved protection in the future, not
just in the New Orleans area, but throughout the Nation and around the
world.
I consider it an honor and a privilege to appear before this
committee, and hope I can be of assistance.
______
Responses by Thomas F. Zimmie to Additional Questions from Senator
Vitter
Question 1. On the Industrial Canal, the Corps has determined to
use a different design to replace the floodwall that failed. At this
time, I understand that they do not intend to replace the remaining
floodwall. Based upon the preliminary reports, it seems that this may
be a mistake. What standard should the Corps use to determine when to
improve versus replace a design that failed?
Response. The repaired sections of the Industrial Canal should be
even stronger than the original floodwall, since they will consist of
embankment levees at about the same top elevation as the original
walls, with additional sheet piles driven on the canal side of the
embankments. The determination of when to improve versus replace a
design that failed utilizes sound engineering practice and judgment.
When a failure occurs, the cause of the failure must be determined. We
learn through failures how to improve our designs and prevent future
failures. The Corps is carrying out investigations to determine the
causes of the levee failures; including subsurface investigations, soil
sampling and testing, and computer and physical modeling of the levees.
I am confident that as a result of these investigations the causes of
the levee failures will be determined, which in turn will lead to
improved levee designs and construction. That is, safer and stronger
levees.
Question 2. Do you believe that there are problems with using
different designs on the same floodwall? Specifically, do these
additional transitions establish additional ``weak links'' in the
system?
Response. Transitions between different types of floodwalls can be
a problem, and indeed did cause problems during Hurricane Katrina. This
was pointed out in the NSF/ASCE sponsored report dated November 17,
2005, dealing with the performance of the levees. The Corps is well
aware of these types of problems.
There are several main types of designs utilized for the New
Orleans flood protection system: for example, earth levees, concrete
walls, and sheet piles. Thus there are numerous transitions in the
several hundred miles of levees in the system. The real problem was not
the transitions between different designs (with a few exceptions), but
transitions such as road cuts, railway cuts, floodwalls and similar. We
saw several places where sandbags were to be placed in these openings
but the sandbags were never placed. Some floodwalls were never closed,
and in at least one case we observed, the floodwall was damaged and
could not be closed. This is a serious problem, and a problem of levee
management and logistics. It must be addressed. After all, what good is
the best levee system if floodwalls are not closed and gaps remain open
during floods.
Question 3. With our unique geography and geology, is it possible
to provide protection from a Category 5 storm surge in south Louisiana?
Response. There is absolutely no question in my mind that the New
Orleans flood protection system can be improved to provide protection
from a Category 5 storm surge, from a technical standpoint. The flood
protection system for the Netherlands is an excellent example of a very
complex and expensive system, and is probably the best in the world.
However such improvements in the New Orleans system will not be
simple, nor inexpensive. It would take many years to construct such a
system, and likely hundreds of billions of dollars. Will the resources
be provided to construct such a system? An excellent question. Should
the resources be provided? In my opinion, yes.
Question 4. You used to work for the Corps. Do you believe that the
current project process should be modified for efficiency? How?
Response. Although I have never worked as a civilian for the Corps
I was a U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Officer (combat engineer), and as
an engineering professor have often worked with Corps research
laboratories, mostly Vicksburg and the Cold Regions Lab in Hanover, NH.
I have a great deal of respect and confidence in the Corps. It appears
they have been given a considerable amount of resources to carry out
the levee investigations and reconstruction. Thus I feel confident they
have the capability to do a good job. A potential problem is the tight
schedule. Can the flood protection system be repaired in time for the
next hurricane season? I am in no position to answer that question.
However from the anecdotal evidence I have gathered by talking to
designers, contractors and the Corps, everyone is working hard to
achieve the goal, and the general attitude seems very positive. I am
optimistic the deadline will be met.
Statement of Sherwood M. Gagliano, Ph.D.,\1\ President, Coastal
Environments, Inc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ President of Coastal Environments, Inc., 1260 Main Street,
Baton Rouge, LA 70802. Dr. Gagliano is a coastal geologist and
environmental scientist. He received formal training at Louisiana State
University and has over 40 years of coastal research experience in
Louisiana and other parts of the world.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
During Hurricane Katrina, a number of breaches occurred in
hurricane levees and floodwalls in southeastern Louisiana in locations
where the structures were built across deep-seated geological faults.
Fault related breaches along the 17th Street Canal, the London Avenue
Canal, and the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal in the Greater New Orleans
area caused flooding in densely populated urban areas resulting in
catastrophic loss of life and property. Along the Mississippi River
below the City of New Orleans in Plaquemines Parish, flood levees were
breached as storm surge moved up the river channel. In addition, levees
in the vicinity of Montegut, south of Houma, Louisiana were also
breached. At many, if not most, of these locales major regional
geological faults are known to underlie the levees.
Recent studies indicate that ancient deep-seated regional faults,
long-believed to be dormant, have exhibited surface movement during the
past 50 years. Some of these faults extend down 25,000 feet and have
been active for 100 million years or more. Fault planes and fault plane
zones are deep cracks that result in poor foundation conditions where
they reach the surface. The fault planes and zones are conduits of
fluid and gas movement which contribute to poor foundation conditions.
The active faults are part of a linked tectonic system that underlies
the region. Most fault movement within this system is driven by natural
geological processes. The fault system is an expression of, a massive
``continental margin gravity slump'' extending from the latitude of New
Orleans to the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The faults underlying
the levees are elements of the linked tectonic system within this
slump.
Fault hazards were not recognized at the time of the levee design
and construction, but are now known to pose a significant natural
hazard. The fault hazards are not insurmountable obstacles to the
restoration and maintenance of a sustainable coastal zone in Louisiana,
but must be a primary consideration in planning, and design of all
aspects and elements of the restoration effort. All existing and
proposed levee alignments in south Louisiana should be evaluated for
potential fault hazards.
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INTRODUCTION
Hurricane Katrina slammed into the northern Gulf of Mexico coast on
August 29, 2005, exposing numerous low and weak spots in the levee
system surrounding New Orleans and other southeastern Louisiana
communities. In some areas the levees were overtopped by elevated water
and/or wind-driven surge, but in other places in the Greater New
Orleans (GNO) area breaches occurred along navigation and drainage
canals causing flood devastation to densely populated inner-city
neighborhoods. Some, if not most, of the breaches that occurred are in
places where the levees were built across geological faults. This
statement focuses on failures where there is an apparent relationship
to faulting, a largely overlooked natural hazard. Figure 1 shows the
spatial relationship between existing and proposed levee alignments and
major geological faults in southeastern Louisiana. Figure 2 shows the
locations of the Hurricane Katrina levee and floodwall breaches in the
GNO area.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.002
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.003
I have conducted field inspections at the breach sites in the GNO
area, but have not had an opportunity to conduct detailed site-specific
study. However, the findings and interpretations presented in this
statement are based on a 5-year research effort regarding fault
movement and resulting landform change in south Louisiana and southeast
Texas. Results of the work have been published in geological journals,
engineering journals and technical reports and have been presented at
numerous meetings of professional associations and public bodies. For
additional information on fault hazards see Publications at
www.coastalenv.com.
FAULTS AND THE TECTONIC FRAMEWORK
South Louisiana is underlain by a maze of faults, which are known
primarily from information gathered during a century of exploration for
oil and gas. Most of these east-west trending features are classified
as growth faults because the sedimentary beds cut by the faults are
usually thicker on the down-dropped block, indicating that the faults
moved during deposition. The faults are components of a regional linked
tectonic framework that has been in motion for more than 100 million
years and is still moving. Many subsurface faults within this system
have been correlated with surface faults (Figure 3). Characteristics of
growth faults are shown in Figure 4, and surface effects of their
movement on landforms and near-surface deposits are shown
diagrammatically in Figure 5.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.004
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.005
Fault-driven submergence is responsible for more than half of the
total land loss that has occurred in south Louisiana since the 1930's
(Figure 6). Fault movement affects surface landforms and infrastructure
including ridges, barrier islands, wetlands, flood protection levees,
highways, and coastal communities. Depressions along faults and
fractures, and tilting of fault-bound blocks also strongly influence
the alignment and channel-meander configuration of the Mississippi
River and its distributaries in the deltaic plain. Barrier island
breakup, as well as river bank failure have been linked to fault
movement. A cause and effect relationship has been established between
modern fault movement and the catastrophic land submergence and loss
that has occurred in coastal Louisiana during the last 50 years
(Gagliano et al. 2003a, 2003b.)
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.006
The GNO area lies along the upper margin of the Eastern Tectonic
Province of the Gulf Coast Salt Dome Basin (Figure 7). Movement is
occurring on deep-seated faults that are part of the tectonic framework
of this province. The Eastern Province is in effect a giant gravity
slump block, the toe of which lies in the deep waters of the Gulf of
Mexico and the crown fault underlies the GNO area (Figures 7 and 8).
The faults within the tectonic framework are moving in response to this
massive continental margin slumping, which is driven primarily by basin
sinking, sediment loading, gravity, and movement of underlying salt
deposits. Onshore components of the linked framework are expanding or
pulling apart and thus creating surface depressions and block tilting,
while offshore components are contracting into folds and thrust faults
that are piling up at the base of the continental slope.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.007
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.008
The crown faults at the head of the Eastern Province slump underlie
the GNO area and have controlled the trends of ancient Mississippi
River distributaries. For example, the position of the Metairie-
Gentilly ridge, which is made up of a pair of natural levee ridges that
mark a 3,000 year old course of a now extinct Mississippi River
distributary is controlled by the crown faults. In addition, the trends
of shallow buried barrier island sands, which underlie parts of the
Lakeview, Little Woods and the New Orleans East areas are also
controlled by the crown faults. The breaches that occurred on levees
along the 17th Street and London Avenue Canals are at places where the
levees were built across the crown faults and may be the cause of the
floodwall breaches. Secondary processes, yhat may result in localized
subsidence include sediment compaction, soil de-watering and fluid
withdrawal (ground water, hydrocarbons and produced water).
Figure 9 shows the depth to the weathered surface that marks the
top of the Pleistocene formation. The weathered surface is important
from the geotechnical standpoint as this is a load-bearing horizon and
above it lies poorly consolidated Holocene deposits. Depth to the top
of the Pleistocene is less than 100 feet throughout the GNO region.
Figure 9 also shows geofractures, subsurface faults, and salt domes.
The top of the Pleistocene is displaced by many of these deep-seated
structures. In most geotechnical studies, the top of the Pleistocene is
considered to be a stable foundation bearing horizon.
The Baton Rouge Fault Zone is a major regional feature that marks
the northern boundary of the Gulf Coast Salt Dome Basin. This is a
hinge line fault. That is, the land surface north of the fault is
rising, and south of the fault the land surface is sinking. This fault
zone is marked by a pronounced topographic escarpment that separates
Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas and their surrounding wetlands from
the pine-covered terrace lands of the ``North Shore.'' Segments of this
fault zone are known to be active. Highway pavement cracks must be
frequently repaired and railroad tracks must be frequently adjusted
where they cross this fault zone.
The Lake Sand-Thibodaux Fault, one of a series of Oligocene growth
faults that underlie Lake Pontchartrain and the GNO area, is the crown
fault of the Eastern Province. Displacement of the top of the
Pleistocene Formation has been identified from correlations of boring
logs and on sub-bottom acoustical profiles across several of the
Oligocene faults under Lake Pontchartrain. Highway and railroad bridges
across the lake are also cracked, offset and displaced where they cross
these faults. These offsets have been documented in the geological
literature (Lopez et el. 1997). It should be noted that salt domes,
which are associated with many of the faults of the region, are absent
or rare in the GNO area geofractures constitute another important
category of structural features that have surface expression and may
affect foundation conditions. An extension of the northwest-
southeastern trending Terre aux Boeufs Geofracture cuts through the GNO
area (see Figure 9). This feature segments the blocks between some of
the regional growth faults.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.009
Many of the east-west trending growth faults terminate at their
intersection with this geofracture. The Lake Borgne Geofracture (Fault)
Zone strikes northeast-southwest and has played an important role in
determining geometry of river courses in the area as well as the
formation of lakes and bays. Fault segments in this zone may have
contributed to the floodwall breach along the Inner Harbor Navigation
Canal (IHNC, also known as the Industrial Canal).
Although some regional faults have been active for millions of
years, contrary to common belief, not all movement has occurred during
the dim geological past. Some faults have moved during, prehistoric
Native American times (the last 12,000 years), historic times (the last
300 years) and modern decades (the last 50 years). Surface effects of
fault movement have been reported from numerous locales across south
Louisiana (Lopez et al. 1997, Gagliano 1999, Keucher et al. 2001,
Morton et al. 2002, Gagliano et al. 2003a Gagliano 2005, and others).
Figure 10 shows dates of surface movement of faults in southeastern
Louisiana, as determined from comparative studies of aerial images and
maps. For example, comparison of aerial photographs taken in 1976 and
1982 show surface displacement along a fault segment at Bayou Long
(Gagliano et al. 2003a). Lake Lery is a fault depression that is
depicted on the earliest historic maps of the region and is shown in
Figure 10 as pre-1803 surface fault movement. Modern fault events occur
along fault segments from 1 to 5 miles in length with vertical
displacement of a few inches to 5 feet or more. Fault events result in
the formation of lakes and bays, submergence and breakup of marsh,
submergence of natural levee ridges, and submergence and breakup of
barrier islands.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.010
FAULT MOVEMENT AND EARTHQUAKES
Earthquake occurrences indicate locations of active faults. Two
categories of earthquakes have been reported in south Louisiana. The
first is caused by random slippage on subsurface faults. Figure 11
shows locations where this type of earthquake has occurred. Those
within and near the GNO region are aligned along the Lake Sand-
Thibodaux Fault Zone. On November 6, 1958 an Intensity IV earthquake
occurred within a 5- to 7-mile radius of downtown New Orleans. The area
where effects of the earthuake were felt extended from Lake
Pontchartrain on the north to Gretna on the south and from Harahan on
the west to Arabi on the east. The earthquake was recorded on the
Loyola University seismograph located in New Orleans as a 15 second
vibration. The earthquake caused windows to shake and doors to rattle
(Brasseaux and Lock 1992:319, Stevenson and McCulloh 2001:6)
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.011
The second type of earthquake occurs when shock waves from distant
earthquakes trigger slippage along local faults, which in turn may
cause a secondary earthquake (Gagliano 2005) (Figure 12). An event
particularly relevant to the Hurricane Katrina IHNC floodwall breach
occurred on March 27, 1964 at 10:00 PM when ``. . .swells were reported
in the Industrial Canal [IHNC] NEAR new Orleans. . .'' UPI, New
Orleans, 1964. `` `It caused our docks and vessels moored in the yards
to go crazy-like, bobbing up and down, moving sideways, back and
forth.' Said Leon Poche 47, superintendent of Avondale Shipyards.'' AP,
New Orleans 1964a. `` `The water rose about 6 feet above normal all at
once,' said O.C. Boxton, night watchman at New Orleans Industrial
Canal. `It was one of the wildest scenes that I've seen in a long
time,' he said. The water was rolling, barges began to move in and out
and the lines (holding the barges) began to turn and break.'' AP, New
Orleans, 1964b. ``One marine company at New Orleans said the waves in
the Intracoastal Canal were `at least 4 or 5 feet.' Several boats were
torn loose, including a line holding an 83-foot Coast Guard vessel.''
AP, New Orleans, 1964.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.012
This Industrial Canal event was apparently triggered by arrival of
shallow shock waves from the Alaskan Earthquake of Prince William Sound
of the same date and 12 minutes earlier. It took the shallow seismic
waves approximately 12 minutes to travel 3200 miles from the epicenter
of the Alaskan earthquake to south Louisiana. The intensive water
disturbances indicate the presence of an active fault. During Hurricane
Katrina in 2005, the two breaches that occurred in the floodwall along
the east bank of the Industrial Canal were in the same location as the
1965 earthquake induced water disturbances. It was these breaches that
caused extensive flooding in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and
adjacent areas of Arabi and Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish.
MEASURING MOVEMENT
Rates, magnitude and frequency of movement have been determined for
some faults. Several data sets have been used to measure vertical
movement of land surfaces in south Louisiana, including tide gauge
records, differential elevations of re-surveyed topographic bench
marks, movement of historic and archaeological features and structures,
land loss, habitat change and radiometric dating of buried deposits.
These measurements have been related to known faults. Tide gauge
records indicate that the Little Woods area along the Lake
Pontchartrain shore in New Orleans, in the general vicinity of the
London Avenue Canal Breach, has one of the highest rates of subsidence
in the state. Records from a tide gauge at Little Woods show a total
relative sea level rise (subsidence plus eustatic rise) of 1.84 feet
for the period between 1940 and 1976, for a rate of 0.51 feet per year.
Further, the record is distinctly ``stepped,'' suggesting episodic
fault movement.
Resurveyed bench marks at the NASA-Michoud facility, located near
the IHNC breach, likewise show exceptionally high subsidence rates. The
NASA-Michoud measurements also indicate accelerated movement during
recent decades.
Recently, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) in conjunction with
the Spatial Data Center at Louisiana State University (LSU) has re-
evaluated vertical change data from benchmarks. Dr. Roy Dokka, director
of the LSU team, reports that ``. . .loss of elevation ranges from 0.3
to 0.13 feet per year across south Louisiana. . .'' (NOAA Magazine
2003). The NGS-LSU findings are generally consistent with those
presented herein.
TYPES OF FAULT IMPACTS
There are three categories of fault impacts. The first is
subsidence and tilting of the surface near and between faults. This
effect is most pronounced on the downthrown block in the immediate
vicinity of the fault. On a larger scale, entire fault-bound blocks
tilt and subside. Large areas become inundated creating lakes and bays
within short time intervals. As stated previously, fault induced land
submergence is the primary cause of land loss in southeastern Louisiana
(Figure 6).
The second category of impact relates to foundation instability
along and within the immediate vicinity of the fault plane or zone.
Movement may be instantaneous or slow and imperceptible. Even when slow
and imperceptible, fluids and gas may migrate toward the surface along
the fault plane (Keucher et al. 2001, Gagliano et al. 2003a). Some
fault planes are pencil line thin with surfaces that exhibit
slickensides (smoothed and striated surfaces that result from friction
along fault planes) and/or clay and mineral films. Other faults exhibit
multiple, parallel planes. Another type is characterized by brecciated
zones, where clay particles are broken into pellets as a result of
movement along the fault zone. Sand and silt dikes that may be several
feet wide may also mark fault planes. In all cases, the fault plane or
fault plane zone is a deep crack in the earth's surface. Foundation
conditions across the crack are poor and if a levee or floodwall is
built across the fault, the fault plane may become a conduit for piping
or seepage under the levee base or under the bottom of interlocking
steel sheet piles. Since the faults are deep-seated, the depth of the
cracks may be greater than the bottom of the longest sheet piles.
The third category of instability relates to minor earthquakes and
related phenomena such as liquefaction. As previously discussed,
earthquakes may result from sudden release of pent-up stress or may be
triggered by shock waves from remote earthquakes. When accompanied by
earthquakes, fault movement effects may include liquefaction, breakup
of floating marsh mats and other damage to landforms and human-made
structures (Figure 5). Liquefaction occurs when earthquake vibrations
cause buried sand deposits to become more compact and in the process
expel pore water. The expelled water may form ``sand fountains'' in
which sand-charged water shoots up above the surface through fault
crevices.
Hurricane waves are known to cause slumping along the unstable
delta front area offshore from the active outlets of the Mississippi
River. It is conceivable, though it has not been proven, that the
weight of the elevated water column in the canals combined with the
pounding of wind-generated waves during Hurricane Katrina could have
caused release of pent-up stress on active faults.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAULT AND FLOODWALL BREACHES IN THE GNO AREA
Available data suggests that the breaches along the 17th Street
Canal, the London Avenue Canal (2 breaches) and the IHNC (2 breaches)
were at least partially caused by underlying faults. The 17th Street
Canal and London Avenue breaches appear to be on the same fault zone.
This fault controlled the location of a series of southwest-northeast
trending barrier islands that formed through what is presently the
Metairie-Lakeview area about 5,000 years ago. It was sand from one of
these barrier islands that was expelled to the surface at the breach on
the London Avenue Canal during Hurricane Katrina.
Surface inspection of the larger IHNC breach site revealed evidence
of a possible fault (Figure 13). The site was inspected after a long
drought. Aligned desiccation cracks and water seeps called attention to
what appears to be a silt dike. As shown in the photographs in Figure
13, the feature runs under the emergency levee that was constructed to
close the breach and apparently under the base of the failed floodwall.
Could this silt dike have formed as a result of liquefaction during
the 1964 earthquake event? While the evidence is not conclusive, it
demands further investigation.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.013
Figure 14 is a schematic representation of a canal with floodwalls
constructed across a fault. As shown, the stability of the levees and
floodwalls could be affected by the poor foundation conditions within
the fault plane zone, by piping of water under the levees and sheet
pilings along the fault plane or within the fault plane zone, and by
sagging of the levee crown.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.014
Breaches along the MRGO hurricane protection levee southwest of
Lake Borgne (Figure 2) at the Bayou Bienvenu and Bayou Dupre floodgates
are most likely the result of levee overtopping and return surge flow.
FAULT HAZARDS ALONG EXISTING AND PROPOSED LEVEE ALIGNMENTS
As shown in Figure 1, proposed levee alignments in southeastern
Louisiana cross major known faults at a number of locations. Breaches
in the flood levees along the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish
below New Orleans may have been caused by underlying faults. The levees
are constructed across several major fault zones including the large
and active Lake Hatch and Golden Meadow fault zones. At some of these
fault crossings, steel sheet pilings had been installed to reinforce
the earth levees prior to Hurricane Katrina because of chronic
foundation problems.
Breaches in levees have also occurred during two hurricanes where
levees were constructed across known faults in the vicinity of
Montegut, south of Houma, Louisiana.
As shown in the photograph in Figure 15, a flood levee was
constructed across the Montegut Fault. Surface expression of this fault
is distinguished by a marsh-water break.
The surface expression of this fault appeared between 1972 and
1976. Field studies at this location showed 3.3 feet of change in
elevation from the marsh surface to the pond bottom and a comparable
amount of displacement of near-surface beds as determined from borings.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.015
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Evidence from a number of different data sets indicates that faults
in the GNO area and throughout southeastern Louisiana have been active
during recent decades. Levees and floodwalls have been built across
these active faults. Strikes of known subsurface faults are parallel to
lines projected between levee breaches along the London Avenue and 17th
Street Canals. Converging lines of evidence suggest that floodwall
breaches along the IHNC are fault-related. There are numerous other
problem areas where existing and proposed levee alignments cross known,
active faults.
Hurricane protection and wetland restoration have been regarded as
a battle against the erosive forces of the sea, a horizontal
engagement. Findings of the tectonic studies indicate that the dominant
processes are geological and the changes are vertical, thus requiring a
fundamental shift in battle strategy.
While faults represent serious geological hazards in southeastern
Louisiana, they do not present an insurmountable obstacle in our quest
for adequate storm and flood protection. However, fault hazards must be
taken into consideration in planning and design of protection levees
and all other infrastructure (including floodgates), as well as in the
coastal restoration program.
The issue that fault driven subsidence is the major cause of land
loss and coastal deterioration in south Louisiana has been on the table
for more than 5 years and has largely been circumvented by the coastal
restoration community and most public officials. This is partially due
to the fact that fault processes and effects have only recently been
understood. This is new science and it takes time to be absorbed.
However the main reason is the difficulty of informing citizens and
businesses that their property is on the wrong side of a fault, and
therefore, may be impossible to protect and maintain. Fault movement
and related land subsidence are natural processes and there is no
institutional or corporate villain. We are in denial. (Figure 16).
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T9525.016
If our efforts to protect the Louisiana coast are to succeed, we
must test each hypothesis and not arbitrarily reject those that predict
outcomes that are difficult to resolve or hard for the public to
accept. We can't cure the disease if we don't know the cause. This
testimony deals with a controversial and sensitive topic and is
advanced in the hope of stimulating solutions and not to stifle a
program of protection and restoration of coastal Louisiana.
REFERENCES
AP, New Orleans. 1964a. State's Twitch of Earth Said `Weird.' Lake
Charles American Press, March 29, 1964. Lake Charles, LA.
AP, New Orleans. 1964b. Tremors Churn 6-Foot Waves in Louisiana.
March 27, 1964. Beaumont Enterprise, March 28, 1964. Beaumont, TX.
AP, Houston 1964. Resident Warned. Beaumont Enterprise, March 28,
1964. Beaumont, TX.
Brasseaux, C. A. and B. E. Lock. 1992. The Opelousas Earthquakes of
1823 and 1870. Louisiana History, Louisiana Historical Association. V.
134, No. 3, pp. 317324.
Britsch, L. D. 2001. Geologist, U.S. Corps of Engineers New Orleans
District. Personal communication with Sherwood Gagliano in 2001.
Gagliano, S. M. 1999. Faulting, Subsidence and Land Loss in Coastal
Louisiana. Pp. 21-72 In Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and
Restoration Task Force and Wetlands Conservation and Restoration
Authority, Coast 2050: Toward a Sustainable Coastal Louisiana, the
Appendices, Appendix B-Technical Methods. Louisiana Department of
Natural Resources, Baton Rouge, LA.
Gagliano, S. M. 2005. Effects of Earthquakes, Fault Movements, and
Subsidence on the South Louisiana Landscape. In the Louisiana Civil
Engineer Journal of the Louisiana Section of The American Society of
Civil Engineers. V. 13, No. 2, pp. 5-7, 19-22.
Gagliano, S. M., E. B. Kemp, K. M. Wicker, and K. S. Wiltenmuth.
2003a. Active Geological Faults and Land Change in Southeastern
Louisiana. Prepared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans
District, Contract No. DACW 29-00-C-0034.
Gagliano, S. M., E. B. Kemp, K. M. Wicker, and K. S. Wiltenmuth.
2003b. NeoTectonic Framework of Southeastern Louisiana and Applications
to Coastal Restoration. Transactions of the Gulf Coast Association of
Geological Societies; v 53: 262-276.
Kuecher, G. J., H. H. Roberts, M. D. Thompson, and I. Matthews.
2001. Evidence of Active Growth Faulting in the Terrebonne Delta Plain,
South Louisiana: Implications for Wetland Loss and the Vertical
Migration of Petroleum. Environmental Geosciences; 8:2:77-94.
Lopez, J. A., S. Penland and J. Williams. 1997. Confirmation of
Active Geologic Faults in Lake Pontchartrain in Southeast Louisiana.
Transactions of the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies,
47th Annual Convention; 47:299-303.
Morton, R. A., N. A. Purcell, and R. Peterson. 2001. Field Evidence
of Subsidence and Faulting Induced by Hydrocarbon Production in
Southeast Texas. Transactions of the Gulf Coast Association of
Geological Societies 51: 239248.
NOAA Magazine. 2003. NOAA-LSU Study: Portions of Gulf Coast Sinking
at Significant Rate. April 16, 2003. http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/
stories/s1128.htm.
Peel, F.J., Travis, C. J. H. and Hossack, J.R. 1995. Genetic
Structural Provinces and Salt Tectonics of the Cenozoic Offshore U.S.
Gulf of Mexico: A Preliminary Analysis. Pp. 153-175 In Jackson, M.P. A,
D.G. Roberts, and S. Snelson, (Eds.) Salt Tectonics, A Global
Perspective, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 65.
UPI, New Orleans. 1964. South Louisiana Shakes Like Bowl of Jelly.
Opelousas Daily World, March 29, 1964. Opelousas, LA.
______
Responses by Sherwood M. Gagliano to Additional Questions from
Senator Jeffords
Question 1. I have read some of your statements in the press
regarding the need to consider relocating people out of some low-lying
areas of the city. A theme we have heard throughout our hearings on
Katrina is that local redevelopment plans must drive federal
investment.
Response. It is becoming clear that a significant part of the total
population of the Greater New Orleans area seriously affected by
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have already been displaced and the total
population will not be as large as it was before the storms. Further,
it is likely that the population density will be most significantly
reduced in the areas of lowest elevation that were hardest hit. Some of
the lowest, hardest hit areas should not be rebuilt. The property
owners there should be compensated for their losses and provided with
re-location assistance. The plan proposed by Representative Richard
Baker addresses the compensation part of the problem.
From the flood protection standpoint, these very low places should
become water retention areas in a revised pumping and drainage plan.
They would absorb part of the runoff during intense rainfall events and
thus provide lead-time for the pumps to remove water from the urban
drainage districts.
An alternative approach would be to fill and build up these low
areas with silt and sand pumped in from the Mississippi River with
hydrologic dredges. After allowing for settlement, the raised areas
could be re-developed. This would provide a long-term solution to the
subsidence problem.
Question 2. The Mayor and the Governor both have processes underway
can you give me your opinion on how those processes are going and what
we need to know about their progress so far?
Response. Too many commissitons and too many outside experts are
only adding confusion to the process of planning and re-building.
______
Responses by Sherwood M. Gagliano to Additional Questions from
Senator Vitter
Question 1. Most people do not associate faults with Louisiana or,
at least geological faults. Otherwise, we are well known as being
perfect. According to the information you provided to the committee,
faults crisscross the southern part of the state. Are you suggesting
that we avoid faults in the construction of our protection systems? Is
this possible?
Response. Faults are fixed, permanent features of the setting of
South Louisiana and we know where most of them are. They present two
types of hazards: (1) failure of structures built above or across the
fault plane or zone, and (2) subsidence and tilting of the large land
blocks between major faults. We can mitigate the first type of hazard
by avoidance to the greatest extent possible, and by good engineering
design where avoidance is not feasible. Subsidence and tilting of large
blocks presents a greater challenge. Unfortunately, there are large
blocks of land in the extreme southern parts of Louisiana that lie on
the down-dropped sides of regional faults, and we know where these
areas are, that will become increasingly submerged. If we refuse to
recognize this process, we will waste huge numbers of tax dollars and
huge amount of human effort in a battle against nature that cannot be
won.
We have discovered the cause of the ``disease'' that is changing
coastal Louisiana as we have known it during most of the historic
period. We must now apply this knowledge in re-shaping the coast so
that we can provide a sustainable infrastructure for essential coastal
communities and services and, at the same time, develop a program for
managing natural delta lobes and estuaries wrapped around the protected
areas of human activity. Such a plan for true multiple use and
sustainability is achievable, but it does not presently exist.
Louisiana will always have a coastal zone, but we must accept the fact
that it dynamic and subject to change.
Question 2. What design features should be incorporated into our
levees and floodwalls to address the movement of the faults?
Response. First, we must identify those places where existing and
proposed levee alignments are along, or across faults. A risk analysis,
based on sound geological and geotechnical data should be conduced on
levee alignments and specific locations where fault hazards are found.
In some instances, existing and proposed levee alignments and floodgate
locations should be changed. Clearly, it is easier to do this on
proposed projects than existing ones, yet there is resistance to making
these changes when some planning and engineering work has already been
done. Floodgates and other water control structures should never be
built above fault or on the immediate down-dropped side of faults.
There are a number of locations in south Louisiana where existing and
proposed water control structures are located above fault plane zones
or on the down-dropped block of faults in close proximity to fault
plane zones.
Second, where levees or floodwalls cross faults, sheet piling is an
effective tool provided that it is significantly deeper than the water-
body on the outside of the structure. If foundation conditions are
particularly poor along the fault plane zone, a second row of sheet
piles should be considered.
Expansion joints should be provided where rigid floodwalls cross
fault plane zones.
Levee and floodwall locations across faults should be continuously
monitored. While movement on most faults in south Louisiana is slow and
imperceptible, stresses build up and may be released spontaneously or
as a result of shock waves. When such releases occur, there may be a
rapid vertical movement of several feet and possible minor tremors.
Conventional geotechnical engineering borings and laboratory
testing do not identify faults. Conventional geotechnical data must be
analyzed and interpreted by a trained geologist. Our understanding of
liquefaction processes is poor. This process needs further research.
Question 3. Is it possible to retrofit our existing levees and
floodwalls to address this issue?
Response. In most cases existing levees and floodwalls can be
retrofitted to prevent failures related to slow and imperceptible fault
movement. There may be one or more floodgates that need to be re-
located.
Question 4. What role did geologic faults play in the floodwall
failures in New Orleans?
Response. SMG Response A lengthy answer to this is provided in my
written testimony. There is evidence that the floodwalls that failed on
the 17th Street Canal, the London Avenue Canal and the Inner Harbor
Navigation Canal were built across active, deep-seated geological
faults. Poor foundation conditions within the fault plane zone and
piping of water along the fault plane zone under the levees and sheet
pilings could have caused the failure. Also, slow and imperceptible
movement may have caused the crests to sag, and separations to occur in
the sheet pilings
Question 5. Could you explain the relationship between faults and
subsidence in Louisiana?
Response. The primary cause of subsidence in south Louisiana are
geological processes of basin down-warping, salt movement, and
continental margin gravity slumping, which occur on a massive regional
scale and have been continuous for several hundred million years.
Additional processes contributing to local subsidence include sediment
compaction and fluid withdrawal. Faults are the breaks in the
underlying rocks and near surface sediments along which adjustments to
subsidence occur. For all practical purposes they are permanent
features of our land.
The subsidence that causes land submergence and loss is mainly the
result of downward movement and tilting of blocks of land lying between
faults (fault bound blocks). Usually, the subsidence is most pronounced
on the down-dropped block in a zone along the fault plane.
__________
Statement of Larry Roth, P.E., Deputy Executive Director, American
Society of Civil Engineers
Good morning. My name is Larry Roth. I am the deputy executive
director of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).\1\ I am
pleased to appear before you today to testify on behalf of ASCE to
discuss the preliminary findings on the failure of the Gulf Coast
levees during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and the degree to which
levee repairs are incorporating those findings. I am accompanied today
by John Headland, P.E., M.ASCE, Design Manager, Moffatt & Nichol
Engineers, and a member of the ASCE Levee Assessment Team in New
Orleans.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ ASCE, founded in 1852, is the country's oldest national civil
engineering organization. It represents more than 139,000 civil
engineers in private practice, government, industry, and academia who
are dedicated to the advancement of the science and profession of civil
engineering. ASCE carried out Building Performance Assessments of the
World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Murrah Federal Building, and
technical assessments following earthquakes, hurricanes, and other
natural disasters. The New Orleans levee technical group includes
representatives appointed by the ASCE Geo-Institute and ASCE Coasts,
Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute. ASCE is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
educational and professional society.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am a licensed Professional Engineer and a licensed Geotechnical
Engineer in the state of California. Before joining the ASCE staff, I
had 30 years' experience in water resources issues such as dams,
levees, and canals.
I. ASCE NEW ORLEANS LEVEE ASSESSMENT TEAM
After the storm, ASCE assembled several teams of experts to examine
the failures of the New Orleans levee as well as to examine the
shoreline damage along the Alabama and Mississippi coastline. Our New
Orleans team of coastal engineers was joined by another ASCE team of
geotechnical engineers and one from the University of California,
Berkeley. These teams were joined there by a team from the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center, which
provided considerable insight and logistical support.
The purpose of this joint site visit was to gather information
about the failure of the levees, including data that would be lost
during the process of levee repair and the passage of time, such as
evidence of high water lines and wave overtopping, and evidence of any
foundation movement or failure.
One of the goals of the assessment team was to gather data in an
attempt to determine why certain sections of the levee system failed
and why others did not. These determinations will help to answer the
question of whether the failures were caused by localized conditions or
whether surviving sections of the system may be only marginally better
prepared to withstand the type of loads that were generated by this
event.
The team assembled consisted of professional engineers from ASCE
with a range of geotechnical engineering expertise in the study,
safety, and inspection of dams and levees. While in New Orleans and the
surrounding areas between September 29 and October 15, ASCE examined
levee failures as well as distressed and intact portions of the levee
system.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced in October the
creation of an independent panel of national experts under the
direction of the National Academies of Science to evaluate the
performance of hurricane protection systems in New Orleans and the
surrounding areas. Under the National Academies, the National Research
Council will assemble a multi-disciplinary, independent panel of
acknowledged national and international experts from the public and
private sectors and academia. This panel will perform a high-level
review and issue a final set of findings based primarily on the data
gathered by another organization, the Interagency Performance
Evaluation Task Force (IPET).
The IPET will include a broad interagency participation, private
sector and academic expertise. The IPET is to obtain the facts by
collecting, analyzing, testing, and modeling data and information on
the performance of the New Orleans hurricane protection system during
Hurricane Katrina.
Rumsfeld also authorized ASCE to convene an external review panel
to conduct continuing expert peer review of the work performed by the
IPET. The ASCE external review panel, of which I am the chief of staff,
will also report findings directly to the National Research Council.
On November 7-8, the external review panel met in New Orleans with
the IPET and was able to conduct its first on-site observations of the
levee system from the air and on the ground.
II. OBSERVATIONS
On November 2, 2005, the ASCE and University of California/Berkeley
teams released a joint report, ``Preliminary Report on the Performance
of the New Orleans Levee Systems in Hurricane Katrina on August 29,
2005.'' As the title clearly indicates, this is a preliminary report.
Any final conclusions on the failure of the New Orleans levees must
await the study being conducted by the Corps' IPET scheduled for
release on July 1, 2006.
The complete preliminary report by the ASCE levee team and the NSF
can be found at http://www.asce.org/static/hurricane/orleans--
report.cfm.
The following observations are based largely on the joint
preliminary report, as well as my own recent observations. What ASCE
found in the field was very different than what we had expected, given
the media reports. Rather than a few breaches through the floodwalls in
the city caused largely by overtopping, we found literally dozens of
breaches throughout the many miles of levee system. A number of
different failure mechanisms were observed, including scour erosion
caused by overtopping, seepage, soil failure, and piping.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Piping, sometimes referred to as internal erosion, is a channel
caused by the flow of water through a dam or embankment. It may
increase rapidly and cause catastrophic failure of the embankment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As geotechnical engineers, team members were particularly
interested to find that many of the levee problems involved significant
soil-related issues.
A. 17th Street Canal
At the 17th Street Canal breach, we observed intact soil blocks
that had experienced large translation and heave. This movement would
be consistent with a failure either of the soil embankment or the
foundation soils beneath. There was no evidence of overtopping at this
site. While we cannot yet determine conclusively the cause of the
breach itself, this type of soil failure may well have been a
significant contributing factor. Further investigation, together with
analyses and review of the design and construction documents, should be
of tremendous assistance in ultimately making these kinds of
determinations.
B. London Avenue Canal--North
At the north breach on the London Avenue Canal, we observed a large
displaced soil mass, which had been heaved nearly vertically over six
feet, apparently indicating the toe of a rotational-type soil failure.
Again, there was no evidence of overtopping at this site. Field
inspection also showed a large amount of sandy soil deposited in the
neighborhood landward of the breach, which is believed to be material
from the foundation beneath the embankment together with material
scoured from the canal bottom. This is consistent with the soil
profiles provided to us which showed sand in the subsurface near this
location. Under high water pressure, the flow through this type of
material can be significant, which is known to cause internal stability
problems.
C. London Avenue Canal--North, Across from Breach
Of particular interest was the levee section almost directly across
from the north breach on the London Avenue Canal, where we observed a
floodwall and underlying embankment that was in severe distress.
This site provided an excellent case study demonstrating multiple,
concurrent failure mechanisms. It was observed that this section of
floodwall was distressed to the point that it appeared that it might
have been approaching failure when the water loading was relieved as
the other breaches occurred. The wall was badly out of alignment and
tilting landward; as a result of the tilt, there were gaps between the
wall and the supporting soil on the canal or waterside. Also observed
were evidence of soil movement, seepage and piping, as indicated by a
series of sinkholes near the crest, together with ``boils''\3\ and
heave at or near the inboard toe\4\ of the embankment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ A boil (or ``blow'') is a flow of soil, usually in the form of
fine sand or silt, into the bottom of an excavation. The flow is forced
in by water or water and air under pressure. It may increase rapidly
and cause catastrophic failure.
\4\ In the case of a dam or levee, the toe is the base of the slope
on the side away from the water.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
D. London Avenue Canal--South
To the south was another breach on the London Avenue Canal. That
breach had apparently cut so deeply that huge volumes of sandy material
had been scoured from the canal bottom and then deposited up to five
feet deep extending hundreds of feet into the neighborhood. Very little
evidence remained to be gathered at this site and the causes and
mechanisms of the breach may never be known. It was, however, again
demonstrated by high water marks that the floodwall most likely was not
overtopped at this location.
E. Outside New Orleans
It is important that the impact of the levee breaches outside of
the city of New Orleans not be overlooked. Many sections of the system
were severely tested by overtopping from a direct onslaught of the
storm surge. Many portions of these levees were breached or severely
distressed, causing severe flooding and, in many cases, complete
destruction of thousands of neighborhood homes. Some of the levee
sections were nearly obliterated and were observed to have been
constructed of highly erodable materials.
III. HURRICANE KATRINA: WHY DID THE LEVEES FAIL?
A. The Levee Failures
Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophic storm that made landfall in
the Gulf Coast near the Louisiana and Mississippi border with wind
speeds near 150 mph. But the damage in New Orleans due to the high
winds and rain paled in comparison to the devastation resulting from
the flooding.
The hurricane produced a storm surge that varied considerably
depending on location, including the combined effects of orientation,
geography, and topography with respect to the forces of the passing
storm. Hydraulic modeling of the surge, verified for the most part by
our own field observations of high water marks, show that essentially
two significantly different levels of storm surge impacted the levee
system.
As the storm passed to the east of New Orleans, the
counterclockwise ``swirl'' of the storm generated a large surge from
the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Borgne that impacted the eastern facing
coastal areas of the New Orleans area and lower Mississippi delta. The
surge was then concentrated into the channels of the Mississippi River
Gulf Outlet (MRGO) that fed into the Inner Harbor Navigational Channel
(IHNC). The funneling of the surge in these channels resulted in
widespread overtopping of the levees.
In contrast, a somewhat separate surge that originated in Lake
Pontchartrain was generated in part by the flow in from the Gulf of
Mexico but also from the north winds across the lake. As shown by the
models and field evidence, this surge, which impacted the lakefront and
three canals within the central part of the city, was notably less
severe. Field data indicated that the surge levels from the lake did
not reach the elevation of the lakefront levees and was well below the
top height of the floodwalls bordering the interior canals where three
notable breaches occurred.
Where the storm surge was most severe, causing massive overtopping,
the levees experienced a range of damage from complete obliteration to
intact with no signs of distress. Much of the difference in the degree
of damage can be attributed to the types of levees and the materials
used in their construction. The majority of the most heavily damaged or
destroyed earthen levees that we inspected were constructed of sand or
``shell fill'' which was easily eroded.
At some of these locations the earthen embankments were simply
gone. Those with embedded sheetpiles faired only marginally better and
were often breached as well. Further inland, in the western portion of
the MRGO and along the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, the degree of
overtopping was less severe but again resulted in a number of breaches.
Many of these breaches occurred through I-wall structures that were
severely scoured on the landside as a result of overtopping. These
scour trenches undermined the support of the levee floodwalls and
reduced the ability of the walls to withstand the forces of the water
on their outer surfaces. Localized concentrations of overtopping water
flow or possible localized weaker soils may have been responsible for
why certain portions of the system were breached while others remained
intact.
Another commonly observed problem was the frequent presence of
``transitions'' between different sections of the levees. There were a
number of different types of these transitions that appeared to have
caused problems, including inconsistent crest heights, change in levee
type (I-wall vs. T-wall), change in material (concrete, steel
sheetpile, earth), and transitions where certain rights-of-way resulted
in penetrations of the flood control system.
Where levees were overtopped, the weaker material at the point of
transition (i.e., earth to concrete, sheetpile to concrete, earth to
sheetpile) would be more susceptible to failure. Many of the problems
we observed appear to have been related to transition details and were
often exacerbated by inconsistent crest heights, particularly where the
weaker material had the lower height. Many of these transitions were
found at sections where infrastructure elements designed and maintained
by multiple authorities, and their multiple protection elements, came
together, and the weakest (or lowest) segment or element controlled the
overall performance.
Finally, three major breaches, and at least one significantly
distressed levee-floodwall section, were investigated at sites along
the 17th Street and London Avenue canals which, as explained before,
were clearly not overtopped.
Obvious soil failures within the embankment or foundation soils at
or below the bases of the earthen levees had occurred at two of the
breaches. At the distressed section, seepage and piping were evident.
These types of soil instabilities appear likely to have been
responsible for failure of these wall systems.
Evidence of piping erosion at one these sites serves to illustrate
the severity of the underseepage at high water stages. Another
possibility that also needs to be investigated, however, is the
potential presence of a weak soil unit (either within the lower
embankment, or in the underlying foundation soils) with sufficiently
low shear strength that it may have failed.
Additional studies will need to be performed at these breached and
distressed locations to better determine embankment and foundation soil
conditions, and appropriate seepage flow and shear strength
characteristics, so that the mechanisms that led to the observed
failures at these sites can be conclusively determined.
B. Levee Repairs
As you know, the Corps of Engineers began making emergency repairs
to the New Orleans levee system in the immediate aftermath of the
hurricane. These repairs were necessary to complete the evacuation of
the city, aid in the removal of the flood water, and restore order.
The Corps now has begun making longer term repairs to the levee
system.
Construction crews are installing temporary cofferdams around the
breached levees to keep water out while permanent repairs are made. The
initial, emergency repairs are being removed.
The Corps then will install new sheet walls, presumably to greater
depths than the original walls. The sheet walls will be T-walls, not I-
walls; these will provide greater lateral support and better protection
against seepage.
Not all repair issues appear to have been dealt with, however.
<bullet> The Corps will need to inspect the distressed floodwalls
to determine whether to repair or replace them. It is our understanding
that no decision has been made on how to manage the distressed and
damaged flood protection systems at present.
<bullet> The Corps also will need to inspect apparently undamaged
floodwalls and levees to determine if they have hidden structural
damage or weaknesses.
C. Recommendations
Preparing the levees for the next hurricane season should include a
review of how the system performed during Hurricane Katrina, so that
key lessons can be learned to improve the performance of the system.
Based on our observations, a number of initial comments are warranted
concerning the rebuilding and rehabilitation of the levee system.
While levee failures may be expected when overtopping occurs, the
performance of many of the levees and floodwalls may be significantly
improved, and the likelihood of future failures prevented, with
relatively inexpensive modifications of the levee and floodwall system.
The following specific points need to be dealt with immediately in
New Orleans:
<bullet> The levees need additional overtopping protection at the
inboard sides of the floodwalls to minimize erosion.
<bullet> Crest heights of the levees need to be planned in a
systematic and deliberate way, so that if and when overtopping does
occur, it occurs preferentially at the desired locations along any
given section of levee's floodwall frontage where the walls are more
robust or designed to better resist overtopping.
<bullet> Transitions should be improved so that they do not
represent locations of potential weakness in otherwise contiguous
perimeter flood protection systems.
<bullet> The storm surge that was funneled through the Mississippi
River Gulf Outlet was a significant factor in the overtopping of the
levee system. The Port of New Orleans and the Corps must carefully
consider whether the danger posed to human life and property by future
storm surges down the Outlet warrants keeping the channel open,
notwithstanding the already large investment in it.\5\
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\5\ The 76-mile Mississippi River Gulf Outlet accounts for an
estimated 3 percent of all shipping traffic in southeastern Louisiana.
It was authorized by Congress in 1956 and built between 1958 and 1965
at a cost of $92 million. Last year the Corps spent an estimated $17
million to dredge the MRGO. Repairs to the Outlet in 1998 after
Hurricane Georges totaled nearly $42 million, according to one
estimate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, larger issues should be addressed as well.
<bullet> ASCE believes that Congress should enact a National Levee
Inspection and Safety Program modeled on the successful National Dam
Safety Program. The levee program should include a national inventory
of levees, particularly those that protect large, heavily populated
urban areas.
<bullet> ASCE supports the efforts to reduce coastal land loss in
the Louisiana coastal area, an area that has been named America's
Wetland because of its national importance. ASCE urges continued
support of the existing program for Louisiana coastal wetlands, funded
by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Prevention, and Protection Act
(CWPPPA). ASCE also supports the ongoing effort to implement the
comprehensive Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) Program, which will further
reduce land loss and provide additional preservation.
<bullet> We must discourage new development in the floodplain
unless there is a pressing need for it and adequate protection can be
provided. Population centers on the Gulf Coast must be given a higher
level of protection than most now have.
<bullet> We must use all the tools available to reduce damages.
This means use of not only structural means such as levees, floodwalls,
and dams, but also non-structural approaches such as flood resistant
design, voluntary relocation of homes and businesses, revitalization of
wetlands for storage, and use of natural barriers such as the Louisiana
wetlands.
<bullet> Congress needs to consider seriously whether to establish
a more stringent national flood control policy that emphasizes the need
to protect human life from a 500-year flood.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ A 500-year flood is so big and rare that it will normally
happen only once every 500 years. That doesn't mean that a 500-year
flood can't happen the year after a 500-year flood. Every flood season
has exactly the same chance--one in 500--of producing a 500-year flood,
even in area that experienced a 500-year flood the season before. In
other words, it is the flood that has a 0.2 percent chance of occurring
every year. A 100-year flood, on the other hand, is used by the
National Flood Insurance Program as the standard for floodplain
management and to determine the need for flood insurance. A 100-year
flood is based on a 1 percent chance of a flood's occurring in a given
year.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
<bullet> ASCE believes Congress should establish an independent
advisory panel to envision the future of the Gulf Coast and to
recommend ways to begin the rebuilding of the areas that were
devastated by Hurricane Katrina on August 29. The panel should consist
of technical experts from a number of disciplines who would provide an
objective review of all design and construction issues relating to the
reconstruction of the areas covered by the President's major disaster
declarations for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The unpaid body
would cooperate with and advise all Federal, State, and local agencies
involved in the reconstruction effort in the affected region.
As we see it, the Advisory Group charter would:
<bullet> Work as the primary advisor to all state and local
governments on the rebuilding of the region, with the primary goal of
helping hundreds of thousands of present and future residents of the
areas to enjoy a secure and prosperous future.
<bullet> Consist of experts from engineering, architecture, urban
planning, and other design and construction-related fields.
<bullet> Develop recommendations that would include strategies to
minimize the impact of future storm events and other natural hazards.
<bullet> Provide expert advice on the design and construction of
the region's damaged public facilities, including port and harbor
installations; lifelines; wastewater and drinking-water plants;
airports and airfields; waste-management and disposal facilities; mass
transit and public transportation services; roads, bridges, and
tunnels; public buildings; and other key infrastructure.
<bullet> Ensure that the reconstruction efforts take into account
the latest technologies in the prevention and mitigation of future harm
to public and private buildings from severe windstorms and floods.
<bullet> Serve as link to Federal Agencies working in support of
the reconstruction effort.
<bullet> Function in an advisory capacity only, having no authority
to mandate particular design, construction, or environmental solutions.
IV. CONCLUSION
Other potentially important lessons will be learned in the months
ahead, and some of these are also likely to be useful in moving forward
with the ongoing repair and long-term rebuilding of the New Orleans
regional flood protection systems.
As much of the population is currently being permitted to re-occupy
portions of the New Orleans area, doing everything possible to ensure
the safety of these people and their neighborhoods must continue to be
the highest priority.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony this morning. We would be
pleased to answer any questions you may have.
______
Responses of Larry Roth to Additional Questions from Senator Vitter
Question 1. Do you believe that there are problems in the current
Corps of Engineers project process that may have contributed to the
failures in south Louisiana?
Response. There do not appear to be problems in the Corps process
right now. There is a problem with the organizational and institutional
communication and coordination that occurs between the Corps and the
local levee boards.
The Corps has a very robust quality- control and quality-assurance
process. At this time we cannot blame the Corps for a communications
breakdown. There will not be enough information available until the
Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) report is
completed in June 2006.
Question 2. In the media, some investigators suggested that the
Corps was less than forthcoming with some of the requests for
information and interviews. Could you share the experiences of the ASCE
team in this regard?
Response. The Corps was extremely cooperative in granting access to
the sites in a timely fashion. While there were requests for
information that were not immediately handled, the Corps was under
pressure to get the levees back up and running. Much of the information
in question is now published on the Corps Web site at https://
ipet.wes.army.mil/.
Question 3. On the London Avenue Canal, there were a number of
failures on one side of the canal but not the other. Can you explain
why this could have occurred?
Response. It's not possible at this time to explain why the failure
was one-sided. That question will have to be answered by the IPET
report.
Question 4. Your testimony cites composition of soils as an
important consideration in ASCE's investigation. What role do you think
soil played in the floodwall failures?
Response. The erosive nature of the soils around the levees was a
major factor in the floodwall failures where sever overtopping
occurred. In the case of foundation failures, we understand the ``how''
but we do not yet understand the ``why'' of the failures. The ``why''
will be answered by the IPET report.
Question 5. What are your recommendations on how the drainage
canals are redesigned in future protection systems?
Response. The best way to redesign the canals would be to
effectively eliminate them. If the pumping stations were moved from the
south end of the canal and rebuilt on the lakeshore so that the canals
were no longer necessary, it would prevent any storm surges from the
lake moving down the canals and causing problems.
Question 6. You referenced the highly-erodable materials used in
composition of some levees outside of New Orleans. If there is
widespread use of these materials in our levee systems, what steps
could be taken to strengthen these structures?
Response. This problem stems from the fact that when levees are
built the materials used in construction come from nearby due to the
high cost associated with hauling building materials in from far away
sites. Since levees are built in a floodplain then the local soil used
in construction is, generally speaking, a fine-grained alluvial soil
that is not the best suited for levee construction.
That said, levees could be hardened for protection from erosion by
adding stronger materials such as rock, stone, or concrete.
______
Response by Larry Roth to an Additional Question from Senator Jeffords
Question. It appears that there is virtually unanimous agreement
that the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) should be closed. Even
the Louisiana legislature has passed resolutions in support of closing
the MRGO. In your testimony, you explain that this channel accounts for
only THREE PERCENT of all shipping traffic in southeastern Louisiana.
It appears to be an antiquated project that presents a serious hazard
to New Orleans. Can you give me your perspective on what barriers there
are to closing MRGO?
Response. There are no engineering barriers to closing the MRGO.
The decision whether to leave the Outlet operating or not will be based
on the economics of the region, the closing's impact on the
environment, and political considerations of the public and government
officials.
__________
Statement of Joseph Suhayda, Emeritus Engineering Professor, Louisiana
State University
My name is Joe Suhayda and I pleased to appear before you today to
testify about incorporating the preliminary findings about the failures
of the levees protecting New Orleans and adjacent areas into a plan for
restoring hurricane flood protection to the area. This is certainly a
critical and timely issue since, while there is a need for immediate
action to rebuild the now non-functional system, recreating the
vulnerabilities of the past only guarantees future disasters.
I would like to describe some of the suggestions I have been making
to provide interim flood protection for the city that will bridge the
gap between the current condition of the flood protection system and
the future improved conditions that may be decades away. These
suggestions result from my having been involved with hurricane flood
prediction and flooding issues in Louisiana for several years. I worked
for 30 years as a faculty member at Louisiana State University
including 20 years in the Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department teaching hydraulics, coastal engineering and marine
geotechnology. I was a senior consultant to the Hydrology and
Hydraulics Branch of the New Orleans District of the Corps of Engineers
for 4 years in the late 1990s and I have also worked under contract to
the FEMA, the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness and several
individual parishes concerning hurricane flood preparedness.
I would first like to review a few significant points about the
preliminary findings concerning the levee failures. These findings have
been presented in testimony before Congress and in a recent report
prepared by the American Society of Civil Engineers, to which I refer
you for details. What I want to emphasize are three the major findings
which I feel have particular relevance to the restoration of hurricane
flood protection for the City of New Orleans and the surrounding area.
These significant findings are:
1. The hurricane flooding protection system protecting the city and
the adjacent areas consisted of a complex array of canals, levees and
floodwalls that were geographically and administratively distinct.
Subcomponents of this system, the levee districts, existed for the
Jefferson Parish Lakefront, the Orleans Parish Lakefront, Orleans
Parish (New Orleans East), St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish.
The levee system was designed to provide variously 100 year and
Category 3 flood protection. The Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity
Project was initially authorized by Congress in 1965 and had not been
completed prior to Kartrina.
2. The hurricane surge and waves produced by Katrina varied
considerably over southeastern Louisiana, so that no two levee
districts were subject to the same hurricane conditions. In locations
south of the city the hurricane conditions exceeded the project design
capabilities, while along the Lake Pontchartrain the hurricane
conditions appeared to be at or lower than the project design
conditions.
3. There were dozens of breaches of levees and floodwalls
throughout the system resulting from overtopping, seepage, soil failure
and piping causing miles of levees and floodwalls to be either severely
damaged or destroyed.
4. It is currently not certain that all of the levee and floodwall
breaches requiring rebuilding can be repaired to the pre-Katrina
Category 3 protection before the start of the hurricane season in 2006.
Furthermore, raising all floodwalls and levees to a greater level of
protection greater than Category 3 will take many years, perhaps
decades, to accomplish.
Reviewing these findings raises two issues. The first issue is the
appropriateness of the current authorization by Congress limiting the
city to Category 3 flood protection. This authorization has been
repeatedly cited by the Corps of Engineers as the primary factor
limiting their future actions. However, this level of protection has
been looked at for some time as being inadequate. A higher level of
hurricane flood protection can be justified on a consistency argument
alone. The river levee system in the city is designed to protect from a
1 in 800 year flood, while the current hurricane protection system was
designed to protect from a 1 in 200 year flood, or about 4 times the
riverine risk. The current authorization for hurricane protection
projects is now out of date because the City of New Orleans and the
surrounding areas have undergone major changes. The landscape
surrounding the city has been extensively altered due to continuing
wetland loss and accelerated by Katrina. Also, the demographics and
economy of the city have been changed considerably due to Katrina. A
commitment by Congress now to authorize the Corps to begin to develop
Category 5 flood protection for the City of New Orleans and adjacent
areas would show that we have truly learned that the Category 3
protection was inadequate. It would also eliminate the current
uncertainty about what the long-term Federal commitment is to providing
hurricane flood protection to the city.
Because of the time delays in providing either Category 3 or higher
flood protection, the second issue I want to raise is the consideration
of some form of immediate interim flood protection. Interim flood
protection would supplement the long term plans for rebuilding of the
levee/floodwall system. This interim protection could act as an
incentive to bring people back into the protected areas and establish
the physical basis for economic and cultural recovery. Interim flood
protection would be done to give us time to carefully develop a long
term plan and would not interfere with the implementation of the long
term plan. The interim flood protection approach is based upon the fact
that flood protection can be achieved by augmenting the traditional
levee and floodwall system with new approaches. These approaches
include:
1. Recognizing the fact that the various levee districts comprising
the hurricane flood protection system now have different problems,
needs and opportunities for rebuilding and should be treated separately
rather than as one big system.
2. Additional flood protection needs to be added existing levees
and floodwalls that were not extensively damaged to minimize future
damage to these structures.
3. Internal flood control barriers need to be created that would
take advantage of existing roadways and natural ridges to
compartmentalize areas within a levee district and prevent flood waters
from a single overtopping or breach from flooding the entire district.
4. Flood proofing of critical individual infrastructure facilities
needs to be accomplished with flood barriers in areas where district
wide protection cannot be achieved. These flood proofing activities
would concentrate on those facilities critical to recovery including
governmental buildings, hospitals, schools, businesses and densely
populated residential areas.
These approaches could be implemented selectively to meet the
specific needs of the various levee districts. For example, the
Jefferson Parish Lakefront levee district received little flooding and
the floodwalls, levees and pumps survived essentially intact. To
increase the protection of this undamaged area, flood barriers could be
placed atop the lake shore levees to immediately increase the flood
protection to Category 3 or higher. The flood water passing through the
canal breaches in Orleans Parish did not flood Jefferson Parish because
it was prevented by the 17th Street Canal floodwall and by a
topographic feature called the Metairie Ridge. A flood barrier should
be placed on the ridge to provide increased protection from flooding
originating in the Orleans Parish.
In the Orleans Parish Lakefront district the emergency action taken
by the Corps to close the canals at the lake with sheet piling should
be continued. This would eliminate the currently suspect floodwalls in
the district as a part of the hurricane protection system. Additional
pumps could be placed at the lake shore to reduce to loss of drainage
capacity during the summer months. The height of lakeside levees could
be increased using flood barriers to obtain Category 3 or greater flood
protection. Barriers could also be used along the natural Metairie and
Gentilly Ridges to protect the Central Business District and French
Quarter from any from flooding coming from Lake Pontchartrain. The
floodwalls along the Industrial Canal can be protected from scouring
that would result from overtopping by armoring the landward side of the
floodwalls. For the New Orleans District, St. Bernard Parish and
Plaquemines Parish, where extensive levee damage occurred, interior
flood protection barriers could be deployed to establish flood free
areas and protect critical infrastructure.
The designs and structures needed to achieve interim protection are
readily available. Flood barriers that could be used for interior flood
protection and flood proofing have been recently tested by the Corps of
Engineers in both field and laboratory settings. These flood barriers
are rapidly deployable and removable and are being developed as a
replacement for sand bags. This same technology is already been used in
repairing floodwalls along the London Avenue and Industrial Canals to
make them less prone to erosion. These barriers have also been used at
a variety of location nationwide and have been deployed in Louisiana
prior to Hurricane Katrina along the East Jefferson Levee District
levees at the lakeshore and in Slidell.
This concludes my testimony and I will be pleased to answer any
questions you have.
______
Responses by Joseph N. Suhayda to Additional Questions from
Senator Jeffords
Question 1. In your testimony you state that you believe that the
levee districts should be treated individually as the rebuild
continues. That seems counter-intuitive when you consider the findings
that in many cases, the transition spots between levee systems were
found to be weaker points in the design. This seems to suggest that a
more comprehensive approach to levee design and construction would make
sense. Can you explain?
Response. I was using the term ``levee district'' to refer to each
of the separate structural components that make up the levee system
protecting New Orleans and the surrounding area, not the administrative
agencies, i.e., the levee boards. Organizationally I believe that the
levee boards should be either replaced by a statewide agency or be
required to adhere to a statewide, unified levee plan and standard. In
terms of the physical subdivisions or components of the levee system,
the ``polders'', I wanted to emphasize the each polder has a distinct
location, protects a unique mix of people, businesses and residences,
and has a different exposure to the hurricane flooding threat. What we
learned is that levees and floodwalls in the various polders did not
receive the same type or amount of damage, and that the threat to
public safety varied greatly among the polders. Therefore, I think the
polders should by treated distinctly in terms of their priorities for
rebuilding, the levels of short term and long term protection , and
schedule of rebuilding and improvement. For some polders Category 3
protection may be appropriate, while for others Category 5 may be
justified. Since we have so many polders, i.e., levee system
subdivisions, in Southeast Louisiana and may actually be adding more
polders across the state, I strongly believe we should not take the
approach that ``one size fits all'' that is, that the same level of
protection is necessary for all of the separate polders.
Question 2. I have been reading some of your previous analysis of
the potential risk to New Orleans should a major storm arrive there. I
am particularly interested in your predictions about the mix of toxic
chemicals that would occur should the entire city become flooded,
allowing the mixing of industrial and household chemicals. Given what
you have observed in New Orleans, do you believe your prediction has
come true, to what extent, and do you believe the actions taken by the
EPA to identify the problem and warn people are adequate?
Response. The prediction was overstated. There was some initial
concern about water pollution that adversely affected rescue
operations. The most widely reported health effect of being in the city
right after the hurricane was a respiratory irritation named the
``Katrina Cough''. The quality of the vast amount of the water in the
city and that was pumped into Lake Pontchartrain appears to have been
no worse than that associated with a heavy rainfall. There were a few
locations, such as at the Murphy Oil refinery, where there were very
high levels of contamination. I think EPA and the State of Louisiana
did an exemplary job of quickly and openly providing information about
the problem.
Question 3. In your testimony, you state that you believe that the
levee districts should be treated individually as the rebuild
continues. That seem counter-intuitive when you consider the findings
that in many cases, the transition spots between levee systems were
found to be weaker points in the design. This seems to suggest that a
more comprehensive approach to levee design and construction would make
sense. Can you explain?
Response. See 1 above for answer.
______
Responses by Joseph N. Suhayda to Additional Questions from
Senator Vitter
Question 1a. In your testimony, you suggest that an improved
hurricane protection system for south Louisiana may be decades away.
What makes you believe that this will take decades?
Response. This is based upon the performance of the Corps of
Engineers in designing and constructing the levees, and Congress
willingness to fund the construction. The authorization for the Lake
Ponchartrain and Vicinities Project was in 1965, with an initial
estimate of about 15 years to complete the project. The Corps was still
redesigning the project into the 1990's and the most recent pre-Katrina
estimate of a completion date was 2015. Thus the original Category 3
project was extended to about a 50-year duration. Improving to a
Category 5 level of protection will present even more difficult
engineering and construction challenges than did the Category 3 system.
Although the numbers have varied, I have heard members of the Corps
themselves say it will be as long as 30 years before the improvement to
Category 5 protection could be accomplished. Another problematic issue
is the consistency of the Congressional appropriations to fund the
improvements. According to the New Orleans District the funding for the
Category 3 project for 2005 were ``insufficient to fund new
construction contracts'' and that the 2005-2006 funding shortfalls
``will prevent the Corps from addressing pressing needs''. If the levee
improvements have a cost of $ 6 billion over a 30 year period, this
requires and average annual appropriation of $ 200 million. Given that
the outlook for the next several years for the federal budget is a
dire, I think it realistic to anticipate some funding problems.
Question 1b. What suggestions do you have for streamlining or
expediting the process to allow for this goal to be accomplished more
quickly?
Response. There are some physical limitations on the rate that
levees can be constructed that derive from the properties of the soils
used in constructing the levees. Levees just take decades to be
completed. However, changes in the design or delays in funding could
also significantly delay completion of a project, and these are
controllable. I think it is important initially to carefully develop
the plan for the improved protection so that we can avoid procedural
delays. Also, if it were possible to commit federal funding on a longer
cycle than annually, then the Corps could maintain a more consistent
construction pace.
Question 2a. If I understand your testimony, you are advocating the
continued use of the levee board concept. The state legislature
recently took steps to centralize this authority. Could you explain
your support for the levee district concepts?
Response. See my answer above to Senator Jefford's first question.
To repeat, I think the levee districts, i.e., the ``polders'', need to
be considered as separate and unique geographic entities, but should be
planned, constructed and managed to statewide standards. I think the
levee boards should be reorganized and/or held to state and federal
performance standards.
Question 2b. Based on your investigation and knowledge, do you
believe the actions of the Orleans Levee Board contributed to the
floodwall failures in New Orleans?
Response. I don't know of any specific actions of the Orleans Levee
Board that contributed to the failure of the 17th St. and London Ave.
floodwalls. In both cases there were reviews of the designs by several
engineering companies and several levels within the Corps of Engineers
that also supervised and approved the design and construction.
Maintenance of the floodwalls by the levee board may have been and
issue that could have been improved upon, but I don't know of any
specific evidence that a maintenance deficiency caused the failures.
The reason for the failures is being investigated and I think many of
the initial explanations have been shown to be wrong.
Question 3. Your testimony states that you are uncertain if it is
possible to restore the levees and floodwalls in south Louisiana to a
Category 3 level of protection before next hurricane season in June.
The Corps of Engineers has stated that they intend to restore
protection by June. What causes your reservations?
Response. Since the situation on the ground is changing so rapidly,
I must qualify my answer. First, it appears that the Corps has recently
indicated a completion of the restored protection will be in late
August 2006. Second, it also appears that the 17th Street, Orleans and
London Ave. canals will be closed at the lake. So fixing the floodwalls
lining the canals may be unnecessary. Third, in general the levee
system was not at a Category 3 level of protection before Katrina, and
it was estimated that it would take several years of work to bring the
system to the authorized level of protection. The commitment by the
Corps I understood was to return the levee system to the pre-Katrina
level of protection and not to a never achieved Category 3 level.
Question 4. Your written statement suggests that, ``a higher level
of hurricane flood protection can be justified on a consistency
argument alone''. Could you please explain this statement?
Response. The city is protected from river flooding to the level of
threat of a 1- in 800-year flood, called the Project Flood. This
equates to an annual risk of .125 percent. The protection from
hurricane flooding was to a level of a 1- in 200-year surge, which
equates to an annual risk of .5 percent. Thus the risk to the city of
flooding from hurricanes was about 4 times greater than for river
flooding. The hurricane levees and floodwalls are in general about 10
feet lower than the river levees. I think the level of risk that the
federal government is willing to subject the city to should be the same
for both sources of flooding.
Question 5. You suggested that the hurricane protection system
designed for the New Orleans area is out of date. Could you share with
the committee your vision of a new protection system?
Response. A new protection system would be along the lines of the
Dutch system, that is, redundant flood protection. Keep in mind that
the hurricane flood threat includes both surge and waves. The new
hurricane flood protection system would consist of barrier islands,
wetlands, wave breakwaters, levees and floodwalls, interior flood
control, and flood proofing of individual high value facilities. At the
shoreline would be the barrier islands which would limit the amount of
water and wave action moving inland. Inland of the barrier islands
would be specially restored sections of dense wetlands. Inland of the
wetlands would be a wave breakwater structure and then a surge levee.
The surge or main levee would define the boundary of the ``polder''
area. Inside of the levee system would be interior structures to limit
and control the spread of any flood waters that either overtop or
breach the main levees. Finally, high value facilities such as
shelters, governmental buildings, hospitals, refineries, etc., would be
flood proofed with local flood barriers. Structures to temporarily
close navigation channels and natural passes to prevent movement of
flood waters inland would also be a feature.
Question 6. You appear to support the concept of ``interim flood
protection'' while the Corps continues to work on a long term plan for
greater protection. Could you expand upon this concept?
Response. The estimates are that the Category 5 flood protection
will not be achieved for decades. This would leave the city, the
population and any rebuilding that occurs again vulnerable to Category
4 and 5 flooding for many years to come. I think we will need some kind
of improved hurricane flood protection that can be accomplished in a
few years and function to provide more than Category 2-3 protection
until the Corps projects are completed. This could be done by providing
interior flood control and flood proofing of selected facilities.
__________
Statement of Robert R.M. Verchick, Gauthier-St. Martin Eminent Scholar
Chair in Environmental Law, Loyola University New Orleans
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to appear before you today to testify on how preliminary
findings on the failure of the levees should be incorporated into
future plans for hurricane protection. I testify today as an expert in
environmental law and policy and a resident of New Orleans.
As you know, I am an evacuee. My wife and children are living this
fall in the state of Washington, and I have taken up temporary
residence in Houston, Texas, where my Law School, Loyola New Orleans,
is continuing its fall semester in space donated by the University of
Houston.
I hold the Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola
University New Orleans, where I teach on issues concerning
environmental law and natural resource management. One of my primary
areas of research and teaching concerns resource issues in southern
Louisiana, including the state's coastal wetlands and levees. I have
also been a visiting professor of law at Aarhus University in Denmark
and a guest professor at Beijing University in China. I hold an A.B.
degree from Stanford University and a J.D. degree from the Harvard Law
School. My expertise is in environmental law and property law. I am the
Chair of the Environmental Law Section of the Association of American
Law Schools (AALS) and immediate-past Chair of the Property Section of
the AALS.
Finally, I am a scholar and board member of the Center for
Progressive Reform (CPR). Founded in 2002 as the Center for Progressive
Regulation, CPR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational
organization dedicated to protecting health, safety, and the
environment through analysis and commentary. CPR is a network of
university-affiliated academics with expertise in the legal, economic,
and scientific issues related to regulation of health, safety, and the
environment. CPR believes sensible safeguards in these areas serve
important shared values, including doing the best we can to prevent
harm to people and the environment, distributing environmental harms
and benefits fairly, and protecting the earth for future generations.
CPR further believes that people play a crucial role in helping the
private and public sectors make decisions that result in improved
protection of consumers, public health and safety, and the environment.
Last September, CPR published two reports on Hurricane Katrina, the
first titled ``An Unnatural Disaster: The Aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina,'' and the second titled, ``Broken Levees: Why They Failed.''
Both are available on CPR's Web site at: http://
www.progresivereform.org.
A. INTRODUCTION
My testimony today focuses on how preliminary findings on the
failure of the levees should be incorporated into future plans for
hurricane protection. After reviewing what we now know about the
failures of Louisiana's levees and the destruction of its protective
wetlands and barrier islands, I draw four lessons, each accompanied
with a recommendation:
1. Focusing only on levees is a fool's gamble. Any new hurricane
protection vision must be integrated and must consider simultaneously
levee and gate construction, wetlands restoration, habitat
preservation, canal navigation, and patterns of residential and
commercial development.
2. Strong plans are adaptive plans. A new hurricane protection
vision should incorporate a formal mechanism by which an independent,
scientific board regularly assesses the design, condition, and
performance of hurricane protection features (from levees to barrier
islands) to call attention to areas in need of maintenance or
improvement.
3. What's good for the environment is good for hurricane
protection. A new hurricane protection vision must adhere to current
environmental and procedural standards, including the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
4. The Corps can't do it alone. Effective hurricane protection in
the Gulf may require the establishment of an independent commission
made up of Federal, State, and local officials, with expertise in
policy, land use, science, and engineering to supervise the work of the
Corps and other governmental and private entities whose work relates to
hurricane protection.
B. BROKEN LEVEES: PREDICTIONS THAT CAME TRUE
The failure of the levees in New Orleans was catastrophic for the
city and for its most vulnerable citizens. In the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, it is important to understand why the levees failed
and what actions, had they been taken, would have prevented, or
reduced, the flooding of New Orleans.
1. The Facts: Inadequate Levees
New Orleans is protected from Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne,
which are located almost side-by-side on the North side of New Orleans,
by an interconnected series of levees that extends along the lakes. (A
map of the lakes and levees by the Times Picayune can be found at
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/popup/nolalevees--jpg.html.) These levees
are considerably smaller than the ones that protect New Orleans from
flooding of the Mississippi. While the levees on the Mississippi
average 25 feet above sea level, these levees range from 13.5 to 18
feet above sea level in height. Another series of somewhat lower levees
provides protection to St. Bernard Parish, which is located to the
north and east of New Orleans, from Lake Pontchartrain on the north and
from Lake Borgne and the Gulf on the east. Parts of the parish are
located between the two lakes.
Because New Orleans is below sea level and rapidly sinking,
rainwater that flows into the city must be removed not by natural
drainage, but with huge pumps that force the water to move along three
man-made canals, called ``outfall canals,'' to Lake Pontchartrain. The
canals are lined with concrete walls that prevent the water from
spilling into the city. Water flowing through the canals is nearly as
high as the rooftops of some houses adjoining the canals.\1\ All of the
levees were built by the Corps and are maintained by various local
levee districts.\2\
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\1\ Graphic, First Line of Defense: Hoping the Levees Hold, TIMES-
PICAYUNE (New Orleans), available at http://www.nola.com/hurricane/
popup/nolalevees--jpg.html.
\2\ Id.
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In addition to the drainage canals, the Corps of Engineers
constructed two very large canals that permit ocean-going vessels to
move from the Mississippi River through the city to Lake Pontchartrain
or the Intracoastal Canal near Lake Borgne. The Industrial Canal slices
north/south across the city between the river and the lake at the point
where they are closest to each other. The MRGO canal bisects the
Industrial Canal and travels east/west to the Intracoastal Canal near
Lake Borgne. The shipping canal levees consist primarily of concrete
floodwalls and earthen levees.
The water that flooded New Orleans did not flow over the levees
situated between the lake and the city. Instead, it appears that the
surge flowed up the 17th Street and London Avenue canals and caused
floodwall breaches along the 17th Street canal and the London Avenue
canal.
The city also flooded because the levee system did not protect it
from the ``end around'' exposure that occurred during Hurricane
Katrina. The hurricane surge entered Lake Borgne from the Gulf of
Mexico and proceeded up the MRGO canal to the Industrial canal in the
heart of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina appears to have destroyed as
much as 90 percent of the levees and floodwalls along the MRGO canal in
St. Bernard Parish as it pushed up the narrowing canal from Lake Borgne
to the conjunction of the MRGO canal with the Industrial canal. Colonel
Richard Wagenaar, the Corps head engineer for the New Orleans district,
reported that the eastern levees were ``literally leveled in
places.''\3\
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\3\ Ralph Vartabedian, Much Wider Damage to Levees Is Disclosed,
L.A. TIMES, September 13, 2005, available at http://www.latimes.com/
news/nationworld/nation/la-na-corps13sep13,0,5962987.story?coll=la-
home-headlines (last visited September 21, 2005).
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2. We Knew This Would Happen
Not long after the levees broke and water from Lake Pontchartrain
on the north and Lake Borgne on the east began to fill New Orleans,
President Bush told television correspondent Diane Sawyer that no one
could have foreseen the breach of those levees.\4\ In fact, over a
period of many years, scientists had predicted that a strong storm
could also breach the levees. Scientists especially feared that even a
relatively weak storm coming from the right direction would push a wall
of water into the heart of New Orleans from Lake Borgne through the
funnel-shaped MRGO canal and into the Industrial canal, destroying the
levees along the canal and flooding much of St. Bernard Parrish and the
Lower Ninth Ward. It now appears that this is exactly what happened.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Dan Froomkin, White House Briefing: A Dearth of Answers, WASH.
POST, September 1, 2005, available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/blog/2005/09/01/BL2005090100915.html?nav=rss--politics
(last visited September 21, 2005).
\5\ Michael Grunwald, Canal May Have Worsened City's Flooding,
WASH. POST, September 14, 2005, at A21.
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Moreover, the risks posed by the MRGO canal were evident. In 2002,
the Corps of Engineers acknowledged that ``[t]he MRGO levee is more
likely to be affected than the area on the lake itself.''\6\ Proponents
of closing the canal pointed out that, with the erosion of the wetlands
in the unleveed stretches south and east of the city, it had ``evolved
into a shotgun pointed straight at New Orleans.''\7\
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\6\ Jerry Mitchell, E-Mail Suggests Government Seeking to Blame
Groups, CLARION-LEDGER (Miss.), September 16, 2005, at A1, available at
available at http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20050916/NEWS0110/509160369/1260 (last visited September 21, 2005)
(quoting Corps of Engineers spokesperson John Hall); John McQuaid &
Mark Schleifstein, Evolving Danger, TIMES-PICAYUNE (New Orleans), June
23, 2002, at J12.
\7\ McQuaid & Schleifstein, Evolving Danger, supra note 31.
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3. Bad Planning and Skewed Priorities
The failure to protect New Orleans resulted from inadequate
planning by the Corps to save the city, and from the failure of Federal
Government to fund badly needed improvements once those limitations
were recognized. Neither the Corps nor Congress adequately accounted
for the loss of life and property that would occur if a catastrophic
hurricane hit New Orleans.
The hurricane protection plan that was implemented after 1985 by
the Corps was designed to protect the city against the ``standard
project'' hurricane that roughly corresponds to a fast-moving Category
3 storm.\8\ Scientists had for years prior to the storm predicted that
the levee system could not withstand a Category 4 or Category 5
storm.\9\ Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana/Mississippi coast as a
Category 4 storm, although its force had weakened to a Category 3 storm
when it hit New Orleans.
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\8\ Mitchell, supra; McQuaid & Schleifstein, Evolving Danger,
supra.
\9\ Mitchell, supra; McQuaid & Schleifstein, Evolving Danger,
supra.
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Moreover, although the MRGO canal was a primary cause of the
flooding, it is seldom used and heavily subsidized by taxpayers. The
canal, which was completed in 1968, is a deep draft seaway channel that
extends for approximately 76 miles east and southeast of New Orleans
into Breton Sound and the Gulf of Mexico. It was designed to shorten
the distance for ships from the eastern shipping lanes of the Gulf to
New Orleans, but it has never lived up to its predicted economic
expectations. Less than 3 percent of the New Orleans port's cargo
traffic uses the MRGO; this amounts to less than one ship per day.\10\
According to one estimate, the government spends $7 to $8 million per
year (about $10,000 for every large vessel that uses the canal) just to
maintain the canal.\11\
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\10\ Grunwald, supra.
\11\ LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN BASIN FOUND., MARTELLO CASTLE WETMAAP,
Background Information, available at http://wetmaap.org/Martello--
Castle/Supplement/mc--background.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although the vulnerability of New Orleans to a catastrophe was well
known and widely predicted, the Corps floundered in its efforts to
enhance the protection of New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain. In an
award winning series of articles on the levee system, The Times-
Picayune concluded that the Corps of Engineers declined to move forward
with enhancements to the levee and floodwall system because ``no clear
bureaucratic mandate exists for reassessing the blueprints once levees
are built.''\12\ For example, an attempt in 1996 to reevaluate the Lake
Pontchartrain levees broke down in disputes over modeling and other
bureaucratic disagreements.\13\ When Congress appropriated money to
protect New Orleans better, the Corps was not been in a hurry to get
the job done. For example, Congress in 1999 appropriated money for a
$12 million study to determine how much it would cost to protect New
Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane, but the study had not even been
launched as of September 2005.\14\
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\12\ McQuaid & Schleifstein, Evolving Danger, supra.
\13\ Id.
\14\ Andrew Martin & Andrew Zajac, Corps: Lack of Funds Did Not
Contribute to Flooding, CHI. TRIB., September 2, 2005, at 1.
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In addition, the Bush administration failed to fund Corps requests.
Mike Parker, a former Republican Congressman from Mississippi who was
until 2002 the chief of the Corps, was forced to resign when he
publicly stated to the Senate Budget Committee that the national
interest was being harmed by President Bush's proposal to cut over $2
billion from the Corps' $6 billion budget.\15\ The Bush administration
rejected an Corps request for $27 million to pay for hurricane
protection projects along Lake Pontchartrain and proposed a budget of
only $3.7 million. Congress ultimately appropriated $5.7 million for
the projects, but the Corps still had to delay seven levee improvement
contracts.\16\ After Hurricane Katrina struck, Mr. Parker stated that
President Bush had not adequately funded improvements to the very
levees in New Orleans that had been breached; indeed, Mr. Parker stated
that had full funding been authorized ``there would be less flooding
than you have.''\17\ An official Corps memo dated May 2005, long after
Parker left the agency, seemed to corroborate this possibility. It
stated that the Bush administration's funding levels for fiscal years
2005 and 2006 were not enough to pay for new construction on the New
Orleans levees.\18\
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\15\ John McQuaid & Mark Schleifstein, Shifting Tides, TIMES-
PICAYUNE (New Orleans), June 26, 2002, at 14.
\16\ Andrew Martin & Andrew Zajac, Flood-Control Funds Short of
Requests, CHI. TRIB., September 1, 2005, at 7.
\17\ Id.
\18\ Reuters, Andy Sullivan, Budget Cuts Delayed New Orleans Flood
Control Work, September 1, 2005, available at http://www.alertnet.org/
thenews/newsdesk/N01279059.htm (last visited September 21, 2005).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although the current administration bears blame for the failure to
fund critical levee improvement projects, the truth is that improving
the Lake Pontchartrain levees has been a low priority for many
administrations, Democratic and Republican, and for Congress. The Bush
administration and Congress have had other priorities over a longer
period of time than the last four years. In fact, it seems clear that
even the Louisiana congressional delegation has on occasion insisted
that the Corps direct its resources to projects like a $194 million
project for deepening the Port of Iberia and replacing the lock on the
Industrial canal.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\19\ Michael Grunwald, Money Flowed to Questionable Projects, WASH.
POST, September 8, 2005, at A1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bush administration and Congress are influential in setting
budget priorities because the Corps is very reluctant to participate in
the process of setting priorities for its projects. Moreover, once the
Corps has determined that the benefits of a proposed project exceed its
costs, the Corps leaves it to Congress to decide through the
appropriations process which projects receive funding and which do
not.\20\ Congress is ordinarily willing to consider passing
appropriations for large public works projects, however, only in the
wake of major disasters or after years and years of study.\21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\20\ Id.
\21\ McQuaid & Schleifstein, supra.
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4. Poor Design and Construction
Sadly, it now appears that one of the most direct causes of levee
failure was faulty design and construction. There are now strong
indications that the critical floodwalls along the outlet canals on
17th Street and Industrial Avenue did not breach because the water
surged over them and eroded away their support but because they were
not capable of withstanding even the surge of a Category 3
hurricane.\22\ (In contrast, evidence suggests that the Industrial
Canal levee was, in fact, topped.) According to Ivor van Heerden,
Deputy Director of Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center, his
investigative team found no fewer than 27 major breaches in the of the
canal levees.\23\ The 17th Street levee appears to have ruptured in
response to storm surges no stronger than those associated with a
Category 1 storm.\24\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\22\ Michael Grunwald & Susan B. Glasser, Experts Say Faulty Levees
Caused Much of Flooding, WASH. POST, September 21, 2005, at A1.
\23\ Remarks by Ivor van Heerden, Deputy Director of Louisiana
State University Hurricane Center, at Annual Conference of Louisiana
Environmental Action Network, Baton Rouge, LA (Nov. 12, 2005) (notes on
file with the author).
\24\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Independent engineers have said that pockets of swampy soil and
shallow steel pilings contributed to ruptures in the levees' earthen
walls.\25\ Preliminary findings suggest that while the Corps's design
for the 17th Street levee required steel pilings buried 17 feet below
sea level, the actual pilings were buried only 10 feet below sea
level.\26\ Earlier this month, an engineering expert told a
Congressional panel that ``malfeasance'' may have also played a role in
levee failure.\27\ As a result, the Corps and its contractors are now
targets of civil and criminal investigations.\28\
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\25\ Christopher Drew, Inquiry to Seek Cause of Levee Failure, N.Y.
TIMES, Nov. 9, 2005.
\26\ Brett Martell, Prosecutor to Follow up on Tips of Corruption
in Levee-Building, PHIL. INQUIRER, Nov. 11, 2005 (from Associated
Press).
\27\ Drew, supra.
\28\ See Drew, supra, Martell, supra.
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C. WETLANDS POLICY AND EROSION: DECADES OF NEGLECT
1. The Importance of Coastal Wetlands
It is impossible to think about hurricane protection in Louisiana
without also thinking about coastal wetlands. Just as any discussion of
automobile safety must go beyond seatbelts, any discussion of hurricane
protection must include discussions of marshes, swamps, and
navigational channels.
Louisiana's coastal plain contains one of the largest expanses of
coastal wetlands in the contiguous United States.\29\ Sadly, 90 percent
of the nation's coastal wetlands loss occurs here too.\30\ Built by the
deltaic processes of the Mississippi River, Louisiana's coastal plain
hosts an extraordinary diversity of coastal habitats, ranging from
natural levees and beach ridges to large swaths of forested swamps, to
freshwater, intermediate, brackish, and saline marshes. These features
which nourish wildlife, filter water, and dampen storm surges help make
the coastal plain, to use the Corps' words, one of ``the most
productive and important natural assets'' in the country.\31\
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\29\ Twenty-five percent of the Nation's coastal wetlands reside in
southern Louisiana. MIKE TIDWELL, BAYOU BLUES: THE RICH LIFE AND TRAGIC
DEATH OF LOUISIANA'S CAJUN COAST 6 (2003).
\30\ U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENG'RS, 1 LOUISIANA COASTAL AREA (LCA),
LOUISIANA: ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION STUDY, FINAL Sec. 1.1 (Nov. 2004),
available at http://www.lca.gov/final/main--report1.aspx.
\31\ Id.
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While most people do not realize it, one of the most important
services provided by coastal marshes involves storm protection. Imagine
blasting water through a garden hose at full force onto a cement
driveway. The water splashes and surges, fanning out in many
directions. Now imagine spraying water from the same hose onto a thick,
dense lawn. The difference between the cement and the lawn is the
difference between a storm path composed of open water and denuded
coast and one composed of lush forests and marsh. Louisiana's coastal
wetlands act as vast sponges, absorbing billions of gallons of rainfall
and shielding people and property from storms. The effect is
impressive, even for city dwellers who have never seen a marsh: every
two miles of wetlands south of New Orleans reduces tropical storm
surges there by half a foot.\32\ Louisiana's coastal wetlands and
barrier islands also help shield an internationally significant
commercial-industrial complex from the destructive forces of storm-
driven waves and tides.\33\
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\32\ Sydney Blumenthal, No One Can Say They Didn't See It Coming,
SALON, Aug. 31, 2005, available at http://www.salon.com/opinion/
blumenthal/2005/08/31/disaster--preparation/ (last visited September
21, 2005).
\33\ U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENG'RS, supra note 2, at Sec. 1.1. A
complex of deep-draft ports, including the Port of South Louisiana,
handles more tonnage than any other port in the Nation. Id. Five years
ago, ``Louisiana led the Nation with production of 592 million barrels
of oil and condensate (including the outer continental shelf), valued
at $17 billion, and was second in the Nation in natural gas production
with $1.3 billion (excluding the outer continental shelf).'' Id. In
addition, more than 29 percent of the country's crude oil supply and
nearly 34 percent of its natural gas supply moves through Louisiana,
which, incidentally, also hosts about half of the nation's refining
capacity. Id. This relationship helps explain the dramatic surges in
fuel prices that immediately followed Katrina.
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In addition to storm protection services, the Louisiana coastal
plain also provides numerous other benefits. It offers habitat for
countless species, including commercially significant sea life and
waterfowl.\34\ With more than five million birds wintering in
Louisiana, the Louisiana coastal plain provides crucial rest stops to
migrating birds.\35\ Finally, Louisiana's coastal marshes provide
services vital to water quality. The marshes function as giant ``water
treatment plants,'' filtering out vast quantities of nitrogen,
phosphorous, and other pollutants from incoming water bodies.\36\ Taken
together, the many services of Louisiana's coastal wetlands make them a
treasure every bit as unique and breathtaking as the city of New
Orleans itself. The coast's storm protection, habitat, and water
treatment services, while impossible to precisely quantify, surely
amount to billions of dollars of commercial benefit per year.\37\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\34\ Fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico provide about 20 percent of
all seafood consumed in the United States. Nearly all of that catch is
dependent, in some way, on the universe of microscopic plant and animal
life first nurtured in the Louisiana Coastal Plain. Oliver A. Houck,
Land Loss in Coastal Louisiana: Causes, Consequences, and Remedies, 58
TUL. L. REV. 3, 84-86 (1983).
\35\ About 70 percent of all birds that migrate through the United
States use the Mississippi and Central flyways. U.S. ARMY CORPS OF
ENG'RS, supra note 2, at Sec. 1.1. The coastal plain also supports
several endangered or previously endangered species, including bald
eagles, brown pelicans, alligators, and various kinds of whales. Houck,
supra note 6, at 90. The birdlife moving through southern Louisiana
supports significant commercial enterprises, including tourism,
birding, and hunting. Houck, supra note 6, at 88-90.
\36\ Id. at 78-79. The marshes' natural store of fresh water also
acts as a bulwark against intruding salt water, which, were it allowed
to flow uninhibited up the bayous, would destroy crucial shellfish
habitat and poison groundwater supplies south of New Orleans. Id. at
80-81.
\37\ Id. at 99 (estimating an annual value of around $10 billion in
1983, using two different valuation methods).
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2. The Failures of Wetlands Law and Policy
Unbelievably, this giant of all coastal wetlands, this biotic and
commercial treasure, is disappearing before our very eyes. Since the
1930s Louisiana has lost more than 1.2 million acres of coastal
wetlands.\38\ Before Katrina, the Corps has estimated that Louisiana
was losing about 6,600 acres per year, a rate that if unchecked would
result in a net loss of 328,000 acres--or an area roughly the size of
Rhode Island--by 2050.\39\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\38\ U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENG'RS, supra note 2, at iii. In the 1970s,
Louisiana was losing an estimated 25,200 acres per year from a
combination of natural and human process. Id. From 1990 to 2000, the
rate slowed to 15,300 acres per year. Id.
\39\ Id. That loss would represent 10 percent of Louisiana's
remaining coastal plain. Id.
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Why is this happening? The effect is partly due to natural
subsidence: the soft soils of the coastal plain naturally shift and
sink over time.\40\ But this phenomenon, at best, explains only a small
fraction of the loss.\41\ The real culprits are human-made: Louisiana's
vast network of levees, navigational channels, and oil-and-gas
infrastructure. While all of these things are important to safety and
commerce, their significant effects on Louisiana's wetlands require
intense study, mitigation, and remediation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\40\ Id. Sec. 2.1.1.4.
\41\ Houck, supra, at 15.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The levee system accelerates coastal land loss by reducing the
natural flow of a river's freshwater and sediment to wetland areas
where lost land would then naturally be replenished.\42\ Instead, that
valuable water and sediment is funneled down the Mississippi and shot
into the Gulf, toward the outer continental shelf, where the formation
of barrier islands is impossible.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\42\ U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENG'RS, supra note 2, Sec. 2.1.1.4.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Louisiana's coastal plain is crisscrossed with a vast matrix of
navigational canals, including 10 major navigational channels\43\ and
literally thousands of smaller access canals serving navigation,
allowing oil rig access, and cradling oil and gas pipelines.\44\ This
network severely disrupts the natural flow of water and nutrients in
wetland areas, isolating and starving them.\45\ The major navigational
channels pose their own special threat to flood control by sometimes
acting as ``hurricane highways,'' allowing storms to sweep inland, past
marshland, like liquid bulldozers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\43\ Id. Sec. 2.1.2.2.
\44\ Hydraulic forces erode the banks of such canals, causing them
to widen at sometimes alarming rates. The surface area of the coast's
artificial waterways may, itself, account for ``2 to 4 percent of [the
coast's] total land mass.'' Houck, supra, at 37.
\45\ Id. at 39-40.
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In the 1980s, prompted by scientific studies documenting
Louisiana's land loss, local groups made up of environmentalists,
shrimpers, scientists, and business people began pushing for plans to
save what would later be called ``America's Wetland.''\46\ One result
of such efforts was the Federal Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection
and Restoration Act of 1990 (the ``Breaux Act''), which created a
Federal and State task force to implement wetlands restoration projects
with annual funds of around $40 million.\47\ Although the projects
saved hundreds of acres of wetlands, advocates soon realized that a $40
million program was insufficient. A much more ambitious plan was needed
if the coast would ever be saved.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\46\ See TIDWELL, supra, at 131-32.
\47\ The projects included restoring wetlands near New Orleans with
mechanical pumps, shoring up the eroding coast of Cameron Parish, and
revitalizing beaches on select barrier islands. Id. at 132-33.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1998, state and Federal Agencies, with the participation of a
diverse group of local churches, scientists, environmentalists, and
fishermen, developed a book length plan called ``Coast 2050: Toward a
Sustainable Coastal Louisiana,'' which offered a host of ecosystem
restoration strategies.\48\ The underlying principles of the Coast 2050
Plan were to restore or mimic the natural processes that built and
maintained coastal Louisiana. The complete plan, to be implemented over
the next 50 years carried a price tag of $14 billion, more than twice
as much as the Everglades restoration project (nearly $8 billion) and
about the same as Boston's new underground highway, ``The Big Dig.''
Though expensive, Coast 2050 actually seemed a bargain, considering the
costs of doing nothing threatened to exceed $100 billion in lost jobs,
lost infrastructure, lost fishing, and increased hurricane damage.\49\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\48\ TIDWELL, supra, at 134.
\49\ Id. at 134.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
But Coast 2050 was never funded. In 2004, hamstrung by climbing
deficits, the White House demanded, under pressure from the Office of
Management and Budget and the Council for Environmental Quality, that
the Corps lower its sights and propose a scaled-down 10-year plan that
focused only on a few projects that would cost between $1 to $2
billion.\50\ That proposed plan, which would take 10 years and cost an
estimated $1.9 billion, is now known as the Louisiana Coastal Area
(LCA) plan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\50\ Mark Schleifstein, Corps Seeks Help to Scale Down Plan, TIMES-
PICAYUNE (New Orleans), Apr. 10, 2004. Money was not the only thing
siphoned off from Louisiana's coastal restoration efforts. In the
spring of 2004, New Orleans's Times-Picayune reported that Army Corps
officials involved in restoring Louisiana's wetlands had ``been sent to
assist those fighting in and rebuilding Iraq, including oversight of a
similar wetlands restoration project there'' at the mouth of the Tigris
and Euphrates River. Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Still, state officials had hopes of securing more funds to restore
the wetlands' storm-shielding capabilities. Louisiana Governor Kathleen
Blanco pleaded with the Federal Government to grant her state ``just a
fraction'' of the $5 billion it annually received from oil and gases
leases on the outer continental shelf off of Louisiana's coast.\51\
Louisiana, of course, never received a greater share of oil and gas
royalties for wetlands protection. Indeed, it has not yet receive the
anticipated $1 to $2 billion. The President's 2005 Energy bill provided
only $540 million for Louisiana's coastal restoration over 4 years.\52\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\51\ Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Saving America's Wetland, WASH.
POST, Dec. 8, 2004, at A31 (op-ed).
\52\ Michael Scherer, Bush Fought Funding in Energy Bill for Gulf
Coast Protection, SALON, September 1, 2005 available at http://
www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/01/against--funding/ (last visited
September 21, 2005).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This month a report by the National Research Council (NRC) of the
National Academy of Sciences reviewed the LCA plan and recommended its
approval, although it cautioned that the proposed plan was, alone,
insufficient to address the full scope of erosion concerns.\53\ The NRC
report also recommended that the Corps consider more comprehensive,
long-term plans, perhaps 20-30 years in duration.\54\ Perhaps most
importantly, the report emphasized the point that wetlands restoration
projects be planned in conjunction with levee projects and land use
planning.\55\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\53\ Mark Schleifstein, Report Gives Nod to Plan for Coast, NEW
ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE, Nov. 10, 2005.
\54\ Id.
\55\ Id.
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D. Lessons and Recommendations
What should we learn from these events? With the help of experts
across the country now studying the issues, a few lessons become
apparent. I list these lessons below, each accompanied by a
recommendation.
1. Focusing only on levees is a fool's gamble. Any new hurricane
protection vision must be integrated and must consider simultaneously
levee and gate construction, wetlands restoration, habitat
preservation, canal navigation, and patterns of residential and
commercial development.--Levees don't protect people, flood protection
systems do. Those systems are made of multiple layers of defense all
working together--some natural, some enhanced by human engineering, and
some completely artificial. Moving from the Gulf toward the land, South
Louisiana's system begins with the outer continental shelf (which cuts
surge dramatically), sand bars and barrier islands, marshes, cypress
swamps, and finally levees (and, perhaps one day, surge barriers).
Canal placement protects or destroy the integrity of those barriers.
Residential and commercial development in threatened areas control the
risk of disaster. A levee system, without these other layers of
protection, could never protect New Orleans from the ravages of a
Category 5 storm. And engineers designing levees cannot predict the
burdens on their structures without being able to predict (and thus
control) the integrity of the outer lines of defense.
The Dutch, who have revolutionized flood control, recognized years
ago that a levee strategy, by itself, cannot protect a sinking city.
Thus they have learned to design systems of flood control that are
consistent with the natural features of the land, using islands, lakes,
grassy plains, dikes, gates, and smart development policy to protect
residents and commercial infrastructure.\56\ The NRC report, based on
expert science, agrees.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\56\ See John McQuaid, Beating Back the Sea: How the Dutch Fight to
Save their Low-Lying Land, NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE, Nov. 14, 2005,
at A1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking at hurricane protection in an integrated way will not only
save lives, but will save money, by allowing designers to choose lines
of defense that make the most sense and that are cost-effective.
2. Strong plans are adaptive plans. A new hurricane protection
vision should incorporate a formal mechanism by which an independent,
scientific board regularly assesses the design, condition, and
performance of hurricane protection features (from levees to barrier
islands) to call attention to areas in need of maintenance or
improvement.--Such a scientific board might be patterned after the
Environmental Protection Agency's Scientific Advisory Board. The goal
would be to create a means of regular independent, scientific review of
hurricane protection features and requiring the Corps to respond to
such reviews. Such a review board could be made part of the independent
hurricane protection commission offered later in Recommendation 4.
3. What's good for the environment is good for hurricane
protection. A new hurricane protection vision must adhere to current
environmental and procedural standards, including the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).--An effective hurricane protection
strategy must rely on the health and effectiveness of natural features
like marshes, swamps, and barrier islands. Laws like NEPA and the Clean
Water Act's wetlands protection program, when followed faithfully, help
to protect natural resources and their important ecological services.
The procedural standards in such laws insure public notification and
involvement, while making sure that large and expensive proposals are
debated and thought through upon before being enacted.
4. The Corps can't do it alone. Effective hurricane protection in
the Gulf may require the establishment of an independent commission
made up of Federal, State, and local officials, with expertise in
policy, land use, science, and engineering to supervise the work of the
Corps and other governmental and private entities whose work relates to
hurricane protection.--There are three main reasons for an independent
commission. First, an integrated approach to hurricane protection will
involve areas of expertise outside primary Corps functions, such as
land-use planning. Second, such a large, ongoing project probably
requires the full attention of a single organization whose sole
function is to monitor its effectiveness. Third, the Corps is likely to
be seriously distracted by ongoing civil and criminal investigations
that are likely to result in lawsuits. These events will make it
difficult for the Corps to be open and forthcoming with its own levee
assessments, particularly if they find faults in the Corps's
implementation. Whatever the results of such lawsuits or
investigations, the Corps will have lost public credibility. An
independent commission could bring needed direction and credibility to
flood protection efforts.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before your committee
today.
______
Response by Robert R.M. Verchick to an Additional Question from
Senator Inhofe
Question. When answering Senator Jeffords question at the hearing
you reference GAO testimony given before the House of Representatives
as further proof that the Barrier Plan ``would not have helped, and
probably caused more damage.'' Are you aware that before you referenced
this GAO testimony, GAO had already gone back and retracted its own
testimony?
Response. My statement about the barrier project was based on two
opinions one from Ivor van Heerden, Deputy Director of Louisiana State
University Hurricane Center, the other from Anu Mittal, GAO's Director
for Natural Resources and Environment.
You ask if I was aware that Ms. Mittal has retracted her opinion. I
am not aware of such a retraction. On September 28, 2005, Ms. Mittal
testified before the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development of
the House Appropriations Committee on the subject of the original
barrier plan. She stated: ``In fact, Corps staff believe that flooding
would have been worse if the original proposed design had been built
because the storm surge would likely have gone over the top of the
barrier and floodgates, flooded Lake Pontchartain, and gone over the
original lower levees planned for the lakefront area as part of the
barrier plan.'' On November 9, 2005 eight days before my testimony--Ms.
Mittal testified before your Committee on the same subject with
substantially similar testimony. Unlike her testimony of September 28,
2005, Ms. Mittal's prepared testimony before your Committee did not
state an opinion about what would have happened had the barrier project
been in place at the time of Hurricane Katrina. But she did not retract
the former statement in her written testimony. If Ms. Mittal or another
GAO official has retracted the statement, it has not been reported
widely in the press. My electronic searches through news stories after
her House testimony reveal no mention of such a retraction, though Ms.
Mittal's original statement on September 28, 2005, was reported. In
addition, I understand that Ivor van Heerden continues to stand by his
opinion.
______
Responses by Robert R.M. Verchick to Additional Questions from
Senator Jeffords
Question 1. In your testimony, you note that land use planning is a
critical part of the redevelopment process, but outside of the normal
area of expertise for the Corps. Can you articulate how you believe
land use planning can be used to drive federal investment, possibly
reducing the cost of hurricane protection, and how much progress you
think the state and local governments are making in producing a
comprehensive redevelopment plan?
Response. It is critical that the Federal Government incorporate
land-use planning into its levee and coastal restoration projects. Such
planning would allow the government to protect natural hurricane
barriers and flood plains, give the developers fair warning of what is
off limits, and insulate necessary protection projects from local
opposition. The authority to designate future land-use for purposes of
storm protection and coastal restoration, including the development of
planning maps, could be shared by the Army Corps (or a supervisory
body) and the state. The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation is
developing such a map for advisory purposes. Still, the Corps has not
been given explicit authority by Congress to follow such a map or to
develop its own.
Question 2. In your testimony, you describe the need for adaptive
management. In the Water Resource Development Act of 2000, Congress
enacted the first authorization for adaptive management with an
authorization of 10 million dollars. Is this the type of action you
would like to see us take in response to Katrina specifically
authorizing the Corps to spend money just for the purpose of
continuously reviewing and revising its hurricane protection plans?
Response. Reviewing and revising its hurricane protection plans are
the most important things it should being doing. Had the Corps had its
requested budget and had it the authority to spend resources ``just
for'' that purpose, the disaster in New Orleans might never have
happened. Barrier islands change. Coastal wetlands change. Sea levels
rise. Land sinks. If our protection projects do not adjust with these
changes, we are fostering a false sense of security and wasting our
money.
Question 3. Did the barrier plan under consideration by the Corps
of Engineers in the early 1970s include features that may have reduced
the storm surge that entered the city through the MRGO Canal?
Response. I am not aware of any feature of the barrier plan that
would have reduced the storm surge that entered the city through the
MRGO.
Question 4. With regard to the 1977 district court ruling by Judge
Schwartz in the ``Save our Wetlands'' v. Rush case, how and why did the
Corps decide not to pursue the barrier option to protect Lake
Pontchartrain from coastal surges rising from the Gulf?
Response. The Corps was encountering strong opposition to the
barrier plan from local citizens who did not want to pay a very high
price for a project that might endanger the vitality of Lake
Pontchartrain and from representatives of areas on the Lake Borgne side
of the barrier who would have been at greater risk of flooding during
hurricanes. By 1982, the New Orleans district of the Corps of Engineers
had changed its mind and favored the high level plan ``because it would
cost less than the barrier plan'' and ``have fewer detrimental effects
on Lake Pontchartrain's environment.'' One of the factors underlying
the changed cost assessment was no doubt the escalating cost of
acquiring rights of way from property owners who opposed the barrier
project.
Question 5. It is worth noting that the barrier plan experienced
significant local opposition at the time, documented in part by an
informal poll conducted by Congressman Livingston, which showed that 62
percent of New Orleans residents either opposed the barrier or wanted
to wait to construct it until studies were completed. Can you describe
your understanding of the reasons the Corps abandoned the barrier plan?
Response. Please see answer to previous question.
Question 6. Mr. Verchick, in the opinion of the lawsuit in
question, the judge wrote, ``The foregoing opinion should in no way be
construed as precluding the Lake Pontchartrain project as proposed or
reflecting on its advisability in any manner. The Court's opinion is
limited strictly to the finding that the EIS of August 1974 for this
project was legally inadequate. Upon proper compliance with the law
with regard to the impact statement this injunction will be dissolved
and any hurricane plan thus property presented will be allowed to
proceed.'' Can you comment on whether or not this finding precluded the
Corps from proceeding with the barrier plan?
Response. This ruling did not preclude the Corps from proceeding
with the barrier plan. It merely required the Corps to produce an
adequate Environmental Impact Statement before doing so. In the 1970s
the Army Corps often encountered challenges to its EISs. It regularly
returned with improved EISs and proceeded with its projects in
substantially original form.
Question 7. One of the items in question in the EIS for the barrier
project was the fact that the biological analysis in the EIS relied
only on one phone conversation with a single marine biologist. Another
item in question was that the benefits assessment included the benefits
of destroying wetlands for urban development but failed to consider
that the area had been designated as a protected wetland. Can you
comment on what these points demonstrate about the NEPA process and its
application to the barrier project?
Response. NEPA is a ``stop and think'' provision. It requires the
federal government to stop and think about large projects before
embarking upon them. The NEPA process helps government identify
ecological issues as well as economic issues. In the case of the
barrier project considered at a time when NEPA was relatively new the
Corps's EIS was woefully inadequate. In reconsidering the proposal, the
Corps saw both ecological and economic challenges to the proposal. It
then chose another option the levee option which it believed would be
more efficient. Indeed, that option would have protected New Orleans
from most of Katrina's devastation had it been designed and constructed
properly. It is the Corps's failure to properly design and construct
the levees that apparently resulted in the flooding of most of the
city. The NEPA process had nothing to do with that failure.
______
Responses by Robert R.M. Verchick to Additional Questions from
Senator Vitter
Question 1. You suggest that our hurricane protection system must
have ``adaptive plans''. Are you familiar with the current Corps
authorization process? Do you believe that this system provides the
adaptive structure needed?
Response. It clearly does not. The Corps needs an explicit mandate
and a budget earmarked for such review and maintenance.
Question 2. You stated that ``what is good for the environment is
good for hurricane protection''. Could you expand upon this statement?
Response. Protecting and restoring coastal wetlands and barrier
islands is good for the environment. These natural systems are
necessary to buffering storms and slowing storm surges. Protecting and
restoring coastal wetlands is good for, and indeed necessary for,
hurricane protection in the region. In addition, what is good for the
environment and for hurricane protection is also good for the economy,
as these natural features are necessary to support the Gulf fisheries
and to protect oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf.
Question 3. Would you support a streamlined environmental process
that would allow for an expedited NEPA approval process to insure a
greater level of hurricane and flood protection at a faster pace?
Response. Absolutely not. First, there is no evidence that the NEPA
process is slowing the building of hurricane protection. If anything is
slowing this process, it is the reluctance of the White House and
Congress to support Category 5 protection. Second, the NEPA process
serves the goal of hurricane protection by encouraging the government
to consider environmental effects in its analysis. Recall that
protection of the coastal environment (islands, wetlands, and the
surrounding ecosystems) enhances storm protection. Everyone wants
levees built as fast as possible, but not if they will be done poorly.
If anything, Katrina should teach us to ``measure twice, cut once.''
Question 4. Currently, the section 404 program does not distinguish
between coastal wetlands subject to erosion and inland wetlands. I have
heard from numerous constituents about the barriers they have
encountered when trying to protect coastal wetlands from loss. Knowing
the importance of coastal wetlands to buffer storm surge, do you
believe we should revisit this policy?
Response. I am not sure how this lack of distinction impedes the
protection of coastal wetlands. I would need more information to answer
the question.
Question 5. The levees installed on the lower Mississippi River
system and the construction of the MRGO have caused the loss of
hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands subject to section 404
jurisdiction. In many cases, these same coastal wetlands are also
designated ``critical habitat'' for endangered species. Do you believe
we should hold the federal government responsible for these actions?
Response. Yes.
Question 6. Louisiana currently has only three miles of state
waters. Texas and Florida have over nine miles of coastal waters. This
disparity has caused Louisiana to loose billions of dollars in offshore
energy royalties. These funds could have been used to restore our coast
and provide hurricane protection. What are your thoughts on this
unequal treatment?
Response. The treatment is unfair to Louisiana and unwise for the
country. It is unfair in the context of other Gulf states, but also in
the context of royalties for other minerals. Interior states, for
instance, receive much greater benefit from the royalties of minerals
mined on their land than does Louisiana from oil and gas. It is also
unfair in the sense that Louisiana's coastal erosion (and thus its
increased exposure to storm surges) is in large part caused by the oil
and gas industry. At the very least, Louisiana should be compensated
for these externalities. Louisiana's claim to more oil and gas revenue
goes beyond a claim for royalties, it is a claim for restitution for
the despoilment of its coast and the increased threat to its people.
These externalities are not visited upon Texas and Florida (which have
fewer protective wetlands), even though they receive more revenue. It
is an unwise policy for the country because the oil and gas
infrastructure relies on the protection from storm surges.
Question 7. In your testimony, you call for an independent
commission to ``supervise'' the work of the Army Corps. Could you
provide another example where this model has been successful?
Response. Two different models are the South Florida Ecosystem
Restoration Task Force and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The systems
are far from perfect, particularly in the latter case. But the idea of
a supervisory commission with broad expertise would benefit the
rebuilding of the Gulf Coast.
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