LOUISIANA'S COASTAL PROTECTION AND RESTORATION AUTHORITY (CPRA) STATE BODY NEEDS CPR FOR SIGNS OF LIFE

The CPRA is the state's official partner for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Project (LACPR) See that, CPRA & LACPR? - Highly interchangeble, easy to get them confused, of course, you probably wouldn't confuse the different meetings of the two projects. CPRA meetings continue to be a bunch of politicos and state agency heads recieving reports and doing precious little. Check out an earlier post on an earlier meeting here.

I attended last week's meeting up at the Capitol in Baton Rouge. As with earlier meetings, the Corps reported on the status of levee projects and coastal projects. Dan Hitchings, the civilian head of the projects presented on a range of topics, including the preliminary technical report (which so enraged Louisiana politicians by the DC edits which removed 5 specific project recommendations). Hitchings pointed out that the report does include the Gov's letter protesting the removal of the 5 projects, which means the projects were listed in the document in a fashion. Now that's spin!

He also pointed out that the report includes a risk-based decision making framework for moving forward with the project. This is a significant departure from the standard Corps cost/benefit analysis which takes into consideration assets at risk, looks at storms and their recurrence, will look at structural & non-structural & restoration measures. This is a huge boon to protecting coastal Louisiana and turns the usual Corps decision-making on it's head. If the question isn't 'how much will the project cost?,' but instead, 'how much does it cost us if we don't do the project?' Louisiana suddenly becomes much more of a priority.

How will this departure influence other future and on-going national projects? Will this matrix make the cut when the project actually is recommended to Congress? For that to happen, backers will need to develop and wield national support & consensus to make sure this risk-based decision making moves forward.

GREAT WALL OF LOUISIANA
As to the protection development that the Corps is working on, Hitchings mentioned that the Corps has modeled one big cat 5 storm and put it through state on 10 different tracks to test 5 different levee alignments - He stressed that these are just 'typical' alignments, not suggested alignments - whatever that means? See the alignments here. They certainly didn't look at different coastal rebuilding scenerios!? His take was that this modeling shows coastal features dampen impacts, but not they haven't quantified it. The modeling shows that the Greater New Orleans area still vulnerable to Category 5 storms and that any effective strategy must include multiple lines of defense, and that construction techniques affect structural sustainability. Now, how do you factor in the effect of either killing off or developing all the wetlands on the back side of the Great Wall?

One other sticking point in his presentation is the failure to acknowledge the fact that Congress directed the Corps to develop a closure plan for the MRGO.

Inundation maps were developed looking at high rainfalls open and closed gates. current and projected pumping capacities. 17th st canal is still deficient. Maps with depths were released at the end of the meeting. Closed gates add a foot or two to the flooding. The State's Homeland security points out we could see 6 feet of flooding in the New Orleans bowl.

The Hitchings presention was the best opportunity for the CPRA to call the Corp on the carpet and really press on timelines, engineering problems, or any other challenges the region faces that the Corps is charged with fixing. Do we see any spine or fire from the CPRA? Predictably Plaquemines Parish President Benny Roussel got on Hitchings about Plaquimines pumping stations and their hurricane protection system cost and inclusion. Wendell Curole from Lafourche Parish asked about the Corps budget for South Louisiana generally. Hitchings thinks the funding levels will remain the same which means continued project backlog, which makes the case for aggressively supporting efforts to secure distinct, non-Corps budget, federal resources. Randy Roach, the Mayor of Lake Charles was able to ask a number of questions about the federal commitment to his area as well.

Deparment of Transportation and Development Secretary Bradberry noted that the Corps has been accused of being one dimensional (structures only) and from his perspective the models will only be acceptable when they're two dimensional). While I completely agree with Secretary Bradberry, there wasn't a ton of tough questions fired at the Corps, which is disappointing.
More disappointing is the continued absence of New Orleans voices on this panel, the preeminent Corps accountability vehicle this side of DC and being elected chair of the Appropriations Committee. Where is City Council President Oliver Thomas, or the head of NOLA's Sewerage and Water Board, or an effective representative from the Mayor's Office (I kid)?

I fear that without that NOLA voice we'll continue to see few tough questions and few real answers from the Corps about the real state of New Orleans' flood and hurricane protection.

Aaron Viles is the GRN's Campaign Director