Posted on 09/09/2005 9:15:45 AM PDT by Libloather
KATRINA'S AFTERMATH
A Barrier That Could Have Been
Congress OKd a project to protect New Orleans 40 years ago, but an environmentalist suit halted it. Some say it could have worked.
By Ralph Vartabedian and Peter Pae, Times Staff Writer
September 9, 2005
latimes.com
In the wake of Hurricane Betsy 40 years ago, Congress approved a massive hurricane barrier to protect New Orleans from storm surges that could inundate the city.
But the project, signed into law by President Johnson, was derailed in 1977 by an environmental lawsuit. Now the question is: Could that barrier have protected New Orleans from the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina?
"If we had built the barriers, New Orleans would not be flooded," said Joseph Towers, the retired chief counsel for the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans district.
Tower's view is endorsed by a former key senator, along with academic experts, who say a hurricane barrier is the only way to control the powerful storm surges that enter Lake Pontchartrain and threaten the city. Other experts are less sure, saying the barrier would have been no match for Katrina.
The project was stopped in its tracks when an environmental lawsuit won a federal injunction on the grounds that the Army's environmental impact statement was flawed. By the mid-1980s, the Corps of Engineers abandoned the project.
The project faced formidable opposition not only from environmentalists but from regional government officials outside of New Orleans who argued that the barriers would choke commerce and harm marine life in ecologically sensitive Lake Pontchartrain.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Johnson's term was 1963-69.
Liberal Democrat Environmentalist fought his long and hard for 8 yrs it seems.
Here it is, The Smoking Gun!
Save Our Wetlands, Inc. has major culpability in the flooding of New Orleans.
Have you emailed or faxed to Fox?
The Contact Page of the website Saveourwetlands.org has been taken down!
Can't believe this was in the LA Times...
In 1977, SOWL obtained an injunction from U.S. District Judge Charles Schwartz enjoining the Corps of Engineers from building a billion dollar dam at the Chef Mentaur Rigolets Fort Pike Area, where the Gulf of Mexico enters into Lake Ponchartrain. Had SOWL not obtained this injunction, Lake Ponchartrain would be a stagnant body of water and over 28,000 acres of wetlands in New Orleans East would have been developed into the Orlanda Subdivision.
So this project was signed into law, funded and a single activist judge now has responsibility for the Big New Orleans Flood of 2005!
Their webmaster moron can't even spell Pontchartrain!
Bump.
another BTTT--needs to be re-read
Well now, isn't that sweet!!!
They know they are GUILTY!!
How about a class action law suit on behalf of all those suffering from this disaster in New Orleans?
And their supporting Foundations????
Maybe John Edwards and his swarthy liability lawyers would be interested?
"The Contact Page of the website Saveourwetlands.org has been taken down!"
This is another example why we must where possible and legally copy the entire story/data chunk on Free Republic.
We are monitored by the lawyers of the left wing. Whenever, something like this gets posted, the websites get erased or altered after our postings.
Bingo
I could have archived that in seconds
Because people gots to know.
BTTT
Bump.
In 2000 there was a major fire in Otero County, New Mexico (near Cloudcroft) that was due to trees coming in contact with utility lines. The federal government prohibited the local electric co-op from clearing some of the vegetation away from the right of way because of the spotted owl. After the fire a damage assessment was done along the right of way and found were......several well done spotted owls.
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