Got a link to any of that info? I did a google and came up empty!
Nope...but the guy who posted that did it on this thread, but didn't quote sources. So take it for what it's worth.
I suspect it was all part of a larger appropriations bill...but I wasn't living in NO then so didn't pay it any mind..
It might be related to this study:
March 13, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: John Hall
Mississippi River levee public meeting scheduled
Environmental report to be discussed
NEW ORLEANS --
Visit our Website: www.mvn.usace.army.mil FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: John Hall, 504-862-2201 March 11, 1998
NEW ORLEANS - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will hold a public meeting in Baton Rouge on March 31 on an environmental report concerning major improvements to Mississippi River levees.
The Corps of Engineers invites all interested people to use this opportunity to ask questions or express views on the report, prepared by the New Orleans, Vicksburg and Memphis districts of the Corps of Engineers.
Event: Public meeting Sponsor: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Date: Tuesday, March 31, 1998 Time: 7 p.m. Place: State Archives Building, 3851 Essen Lane, Baton Rouge
The environmental report -- formally known as the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Mississippi River Mainline Levees Enlargement and Seepage Control Berm Construction - has been distributed. The three-volume document is available for public review in these libraries in the New Orleans District area:
ð Baton Rouge: (1) East Baton Rouge Public Library, 7911 Goodwood Boulevard. (2) State Library of Louisiana, Louisiana Section, 760 North 3rd Street. ð Donaldsonville: Ascension Parish Public Library, 500 Mississippi Street. ð New Orleans: (1) New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Avenue. (2) Library, New Orleans District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 7400 Leake Avenue.
The levee improvements involve an ongoing project of raising deficient levee sections and controlling seepage between Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Venice, La. The draft environmental impact statement will cover the remainder of the project beginning Oct. 1, 1998. The cost for the remaining work is $650 million.
The draft supplemental environmental impact statement was a component of a consent decree between the Corps and several environmental groups. The decree resulted from a lawsuit filed by the the Mississippi River Basin Alliance, the Sierra Club and others, challenging the Corps' levee-improvement plans. Changes made as a result include, among other things, a reduction to 4,800 from 11,600 acres of the bottomland hardwood areas from which material would be borrowed to strengthen the levees. Borrow areas would total 16 acres in the New Orleans District, which begins at Old River, near Morganza, La.
The Baton Rouge meeting will be the last of six. Others are being held in Cape Girardeau, Mo., March 16; Blytheville, Ark., March 17; Greenville, Miss., March 18; Lake Providence, La., March 19, and Natchez, Miss., March 30. -- 30 -
ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Patty K. Elliott, 601-631-5053 Vicksburg District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/releases/levees.HTM