Dennis Woltering / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS -- The West Bank flood authority has called on the Army Corps' district commander to attend its monthly meeting, getting underway right now on the West Bank.
Susan Maclay, president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West, said she will demand that the corps repair a levee that contains all kinds of unsuitable debris and jeopardizes public safety.
The West Bank flood authority shot video of the unsuitable debris that its crews have been finding in the Mississippi River levee in Westwego.
“And you have large pieces of bricks and concrete and rocks and steel rods and wood, almost tree trunks,” Maclay said. “This is going to undermine the levee.”
Maclay said that means a three-and-a-half mile stretch of river levee in Westwego will sink faster than it should and require expensive work to raise it sooner than it should.
The worst case scenario?
“If it isn’t watched and remedied, you could have a future 17th Street Canal situation on your hands,” she said.
Maclay quickly added the flood authority will not let that happen, but she said she has been alerting the Army Corps of Engineers about this problem since October of last year when work began to rebuild this levee to post-Katrina standards. Repairs have not been made.
Even more disturbing, she said, is that the corps' quality assurance reports reveal that its own inspectors have also alerted corps management about the problem.
One entry says, "...again mentioned to CQC the importance of removing objectionable materials."
“But management has not done anything about it,” Maclay said.
She said so far the corps' management has only responded with what she calls excuses, with the corps saying the amount of debris in the levees is within specifications.
“But if you read the specifications, clearly it's not,” Maclay said.
Maclay said the flood authority has invited the district commander of the corps to its regular meeting Monday evening to demand that the agency repair this levee.
And if the corps fails to fix the levee, she said the state will refuse to sign off and accept this project, because that would make the flood authority responsible for it.
“That's correct,” she said. "We become responsible for any maintenance and operation and any future lifts, and given the condition, we expect it will sink much more quickly than it should, which means there will be a greater cost on our local taxpayers.”
Maclay said it may well be necessary to tear down the levee and rebuild it from scratch.
