06:40 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 31, 2006

WWLTV.com

One day before another hurricane season was to begin, officials with the Army Corps of Engineers declared the repaired levees around New Orleans – specifically those associated with the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet – substantially improved over the ones that gave way during Katrina. However, the news was greeted with skepticism by some environmental groups.

With the newly refurbished levee in St. Bernard Parish as a backdrop, the Corps said it had restored nearly 169 miles of damaged levees.

The levee surrounding the MRGO is now five feet higher than it was before Katrina and its base is four times as wide as before.

Despite expressing widespread dissatisfaction with the Corps in the wake of Katrina, St. Bernard Parish’s President said he was impressed.

“If we had had this, we would not have had the problems that we had,” he said.

St. Bernard was inundated with floodwaters as 99 percent of the homes and buildings flooded.

Examining the new levee, Bruce Hamilton of the Sierra Club and Carlton Dufrechou of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said the conditions of the levees really won’t matter if the loss of wetlands isn’t addressed.

Dufrechou emphasized that most of the levees that held in coastal Louisiana had large amounts of wetlands.

Hamilton echoed the sentiment.

“Frankly it looks like another disaster waiting to happen,” he said. “Until we get the natural conditions back as a buffer, I don’t care if you build the levees 30 or 40 feet high, you’ll be in a vulnerable situation.”

Environmental groups are among those who would still like to see the MRGO closed permanently. They blame the shipping channel for funneling and accelerating water that swamped the levees.

The Army Corps doesn’t agree.

“This theory out there that says there was some influence of the MRGO upon what happened, we have the scientific evidence that says that’s just not true,” said Major General Ronald Johnson.

At fault or not, should a hurricane approach St. Bernard this year, all eyes will be on the MRGO and the rebuilt levees.