Free Republic

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it has overturned the approval of a massive flood-control project in the south Mississippi Delta that officials said was erroneously greenlit in the final days of the Trump administration. In a letter to the Army for Civil Works, EPA officials said the past administration's November 2020 decision to approve the Yazoo Pumps Project was in violation of the Clean Water Act and “failed to reflect the recommendations from the career scientists and technical staff.”

Houston / Harris County has two enormous "dry reservoirs," along with several hundred (regular) reservoirs, bayous, stream beds and other infrastructure designed to collect the water of torrential rainfalls to prevent flooding.

As late as April of 2011, the Water Management Chief for the Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, expressed an opinion in an e-mail to a concerned citizen that the mountain snow melt this year would "be nothing to write home about." This internal e-mail, among many others recently released through a Freedom of Information Act request by Gannett's Washington Bureau, exposes that assertion as a gross misstatement of known facts. The e-mails reveal that a cadre of hydrologists, engineers, and National Weather Service (NWS) officials had repeatedly warned the chief, Ms. Jody Farhat, beginning in January about the danger posed...

A family of beavers popular among Martinez children and nature lovers should be killed and its dam torn out of a downtown creek to prevent flooding, city administrators have concluded. The fate of the beavers in Alhambra Creek goes to the City Council at its meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday at Martinez City Hall. Supporters of the beavers are aghast, saying the two adult beavers and three or four offspring have become a symbol of nature living near people. "I think it's a horrible idea," said Heidi Perryman, a child psychologist who lives downtown. "You have second-graders making field trips to...

One hundred twenty-two levees from Maryland to California are at risk of failing, according to a list released Thursday by the Army Corps of Engineers. There could be danger to people who live in communities near some of the levees as well as a chance that they will have to pay more for insurance, said Butch Kinerney of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's national flood insurance program. The list was released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by news organizations, including The Associated Press. If the Corps of Engineers determines a levee to be at risk of...

California should create a long-term plan to spend the nearly $5 billion in flood-control bonds approved in November so it doesn't squander the money, Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow said Tuesday. "The point is, we can waste this money," Snow said during the first in a series of meetings designed to determine how best to spend the voter-approved windfall. "We need to implement programs right now, but we need to be mindful of developing a long-term plan." The money comes from two water bonds on the Nov. 7 ballot. Proposition 1E was sponsored by the Legislature and governor...

The Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have until March 10 to agree on any bond proposals for voters to consider on the June ballot. There is no shortage of bond proposals, from prison construction to coastal preservation. There is a shortage of time, however. And there is a shortage of political ability - among both the Democrats who lead the Legislature and the Republican governor - ... The only chance of success lies in narrowing the playing field. In the time remaining, the governor and lawmakers must focus on the one or two issues that seem doable. One is flood...

Gov. Kathleen Blanco left for Holland on Monday to learn how the Dutch created the huge flood-control system that protects a land much farther below sea level than Louisiana. The trip means the Democratic governor will miss President Bush's visit to New Orleans, scheduled for Thursday... The governor was among more than 40 government, business and education leaders - including Sens. David Vitter and Mary Landrieu ... Landrieu said the ambassador told her about that country's flood of 1953, when 1,800 people died. "He said, `Why don't you all come over and see what we've done since then?'" Landrieu recounted....

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday fired all six members of the state Reclamation Board, an agency that oversees flood control along California's two biggest rivers and had recently become more aggressive about slowing development on flood plains. The Republican governor replaced the members — who serve indefinite terms at the governor's pleasure — with seven of his own appointees, most with ties to agriculture and the engineering profession. One board seat had been vacant since spring. Five of the fired members had been appointed by Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, and one had first been appointed by Gov....

...snip... This is a reality visible in the numbers. Year after year, the Bush administration insisted on massive tax cuts for the wealthy. And year after year, the White House refused to provide the funding government experts said was needed to strengthen levees, beef up hurricane preparedness and get federal emergency response ready for an onslaught from Mother Nature. America’s budget surplus, built in the ’90s to serve as a rainy day fund, was robbed to provide more and more giveaways to the rich. When the rainiest day of them all came, our country was left totally—and unnecessarily—vulnerable. ...snip... By...

Given the hysteria enveloping the editorial pages of the NYT due to hurricane Katrina, what have they had to say on natural disasters in the past, via Lexis-Nexis: Remember the 1993 floods in the midwest, the NYT editorialized on 14 July 1993: For the longer term, Washington and flood-prone areas must reconsider the pro's and con's of flood control projects and flood insurance.

Yesterday the New York Times editorial board wrote a fire-breathing editorial that for almost 24 hours ranked as the "most-discussed story" on Technorati and the "most e-mailed article" on nytimes.com. The board wrote that "George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday." Instead of "consolation and wisdom," the President offered "a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast." The board went on to offer a long laundry list of angry accusations. The editorial board doubted that Bush "understood the depth of the current crisis" — unlike...

WASHINGTON - The White House scrambled Thursday to defend itself against criticism that it has consistently proposed cutting the budget for Army Corps of Engineers water and flood control projects — including several that could have mitigated the disaster in New Orleans. Just in February, President Bush proposed cutting the Corps' budget by 7 percent. The year before, Bush proposed a 13 percent cut. Both cuts are part of an annual ritual in Washington in which the president shortchanges lawmakers' pet projects, knowing Congress will restore the money later on. On Thursday, however, the Bush White House made available top...

My engineering training kicked in when I saw the NASA photographs from space of New Orleans, and of the whole Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. There is an obvious solution to the New Orleans problem. The Dutch have already demonstrated it. Take New Orleans as the first and worst example. The pumps, levees and canals intended to protect New Orleans have been controlled by local authorities. They left three of the four pumping stations dependent on the local power grid. Hellooo. The precise time those pumps are most needed is during a storm when the local power grid...

The jobs of hundreds of workers who oversee operation of the region's river system for the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers could be in jeopardy if a shortfall in federal funds to upgrade the rivers' aging lock-and-dam system continues, officials warned Thursday. Operation of the river system itself could also be in peril, along with the millions of dollars worth of commerce that are shipped annually. "While we are here to celebrate a really striking development in the dedication of the Braddock dam ... we have some problems because of the perilous condition of our locks and dams," said James...

Faced with federal budget reductions for four consecutive years, the Pittsburgh District of the Army Corps of Engineers is trying to reduce its 770-employee staff without resorting to layoffs. The Pittsburgh District, facing the same funding problems as other corps districts nationwide, has "insufficient funds to continue supporting staffing at the levels we have done in the past," said Karen Auer, a spokeswoman. She said eligible employees are being offered early retirement. The deadline for accepting is next week.

<p>The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has long been on a path to certify by this year that Sacramento can withstand the theoretical 100-year storm, a move that would make property flood insurance a choice as opposed to a mandate for Sacramento homeowners.</p>

<p>The hearts of the people of Western Pennsylvania go out to people in the cities and villages of the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Russia and Romania. They are suffering flooding of a magnitude in some areas unprecedented in more than 150 years. We here remember floods very well.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON - With a critical government decision about its future looming, the Missouri River will be named today as the nation's most endangered river in an annual ranking by conservationists.</p> <p>The Missouri topped the Big Sunflower River in Mississippi and the Klamath River in California and Oregon for the distinction as most threatened in the 17th annual rating by American Rivers, the nation's pre-eminent river advocacy group.</p>