Massive Water Projects Legislation Ignores Lessons Of Hurricane Katrina, Will Increase Flooding

Even as hurricane season begins, the Senate is poised to pass a massive new bill to authorize $12 billion in flood control and other water projects that would repeat the mistakes of the past. By failing to respond to the lessons from Hurricane Katrina, the bill would spend vast sums of money while making the country more vulnerable to floods by encouraging people to develop structures in flood-prone areas, increasing the devastation when a flood eventually hits. 

 

On Tuesday, May 9, Environmental Defense, the National Taxpayers Union, Taxpayers for Commonsense, and the National Wildlife Federation released a report documenting the flaws with the existing system and highlighting lessons to be learned from Hurricane Katrina. The Washington Post published two articles this weekend detailing the government’s contribution to the disaster – the true scandal of Hurricane Katrina. Links to all materials follow.

 

Not only have the government’s flood-control projects encouraged development in flood-prone areas, but the Army Corps of Engineers has no method for prioritizing its $58 billion backlog of water projects. As a result, Congress typically finances projects that have the most political backing rather than the greatest need. Moreover, the Corps cannot rely on its own project analyses, since the agency’s justification and design of projects is often “fraught with errors, mistakes and miscalculations,” according to the Government Accountability Office.   All of these flaws contributed to the devastation from Katrina. The Senate will debate amendments to correct these mistakes and avoid future catastrophes. “Katrina’s Costly Wake” discusses these problems at length.

 

·        Environmental Defense, Taxpayers for Commonsense, National Wildlife Federation and National Taxpayers Union, “Katrina’s Costly Wake: How America’s Most Destructive Hurricane Exposed a Dysfunctional, Politicized, Flood-Control Process,” May 2006 (Available online at http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentID=5236)

·        Michael Grunwald, “Par for the Corps: A Flood of Bad Projects,” Washington Post, May 13, 2006, at B01. (Available online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/13/AR2006051300037.html)

·        John M. Barry, “…And How To Stop It,” Washington Post, May 14, 2006, at B01. (Available online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/13/AR2006051300038.html)