I've been looking for the smoking gun too. It's common knowledge around NO, but I'm not able to find more that talk about it on the net. All the other links on the page work except the two owned by the levee board. I'll keep looking.
Levee Board appointees of the past five governors have made countless appearances in Baton Rouge in an effort to erase what they say has become a false perception among many legislators that the board stole the spillway land from Plaquemines Parish residents.
A report prepared by Carmouche for lawmakers in 2000 showed that only about 3 percent of the land had to be expropriated. Most property owners were more than happy to unload what they thought was worthless land, the report said.
The report also addressed what the board said were false charges that the spillway has rarely been used for flood-control purposes, offering evidence that the marshland was used 16 times between 1927 and 1984 to divert water from the Mississippi River.
Meanwhile, repeated efforts by the board to secure financial aid from the Legislature have failed. Six years ago, New Orleans voters overwhelmingly rejected the board's request for nearly $9 million a year in new property taxes