There is no clarification of what is meant by the phrase "is reponsible for
the levees" in any website I can find, other than many assertions that the
Levee Board is responsible for the inspection and maintenance of the
levees - NOT the building of them. What complicates matters is that in the
19th century, levee boards all up and down the Mississippi were individually
in charge of building AND maintaining their own levees. However, in the 20th
century, the Army Corps of Engineers took over the building of levees in
most instances, partly because of the many devastasting floods all along the
Missisissippi from Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, through Tennessee and
Arkansas, to Mississippi and Louisiana. (It was recognized that rural,
agricultural states lacked the financial resources to accomplish this on
their own). An additional complication is that New Orleans AND its levees
are steadily sinking. So the responsibility is murky. It's not quite the
same situation as in other parts of the river, where the levees are stable.
Is it up to the Army Corps of Engineers to constantly add to (build) the
levees which are sinking - or are the local levee boards supposed to come up
with the engineering and earth moving equipment to organize this every
single year for hundreds of miles of levees ringing New Orleans? Because,
essentially, there needs to be substantial levee rebuilding every year to
counter the sinking. Then you have the additional arguments about why
should the federal government give "extra" money to Louisiana and New
Orleans for the levees there? And the answer is simple. Louisiana has always
"given" more value to the nation than it receives. Not in taxes, but in
providing deep water access to shipping for every kind of agricultural
product grown in the Midwest and every kind of industrial product made in
those states (Billions upon billions every year) and of course in supplying
workers and a network of pipelines and refineries to supply the oil and
natural gas that 30% of Americans rely upon.
Look, I'm not someone who lays the blame for all of this on Bush, I'm
merely pointing out that his policy of underfunding the Army Corps of
Engineers contributed to the immediate problem of this year's flooding in
New Orleans. In the long term, the entire ecosystem of coastal Louisiana has
to be reconsidered. Right now I don't see any way of guaranteeing the safety
of New Orleans in future storms. No one even seems to be looking at the very
real possibility that New Orleans could be hit by another hurricane this
very year. (Two or more hurricane strikes on the Gulf Coast per year are
pretty much standard - and this is a much more active year than normal). In
the long run, I think the southernmost parishes of Louisiana will have to be
completely abandoned, and the levees from New Orleans southward breached to
allow the Mississippi to flood the wetlands every year, as it did for
1,000,000 years before the coming of Europeans. That is the only way to
rebuild the wetlands, raise the level of the land, and rebuild the barrier
islands that protected the mainland in the past. That leaves the questions
of where and how do we transport oil and natural gas from the gulf, where
will the oil workers live, and where will we put the refineries? Those are
very serious questions, and questions which I'm not sure either we OR the
Bush Administration are prepared to deal with.
"William Brown" wrote in message
news:U2%Te.3571$Zp.2851@lakeread04...
Perhaps you could explain what "responsible for the flood
protection systems..." in your cited authority means, if not the levees.

presley wrote:
AHA - I found it. Below are the listed responsibilities of the Orleans
Levee Board:

"Directs the activities of the Orleans Levee Board responsible for the
flood protection systems, marinas, yacht harbors, the New Orleans
Lakefront Airport, a community center, land and lake front developments
and management of real estate and oil, gas and mineral rights in the
Orleans Parish metropolitan area. "