Editorial: Corps/Louisiana Hurricane Pact Promising

The April 3 signing of a Project Partnership Agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Louisiana holds promise. The agreement is for the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Surge Reduction Project, which will include the implementation of advance measures to reduce the risk from hurricane surge for residents of New Orleans Metro, the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and St. Bernard Parish (WJ April 7).

It is estimated the project will cost between $500 million and $1 billion, and the goal is to construct the work for the 2009 hurricane season, prior to the completion of the total project for the 2011 hurricane season. The agreement is the result of a cooperative effort lasting several months involving the Corps, Louisiana and the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East.

“The project is a key element in the overall 100-year level of protection for the Greater New Orleans area,” said Karen Durham-Aguilera, director of the Corps’ Task Force Hope. The project will be 100 percent federally funded.

As we wrote, the project holds promise—so long as the funding doesn’t get lost along the way, as long as environmental groups don’t beat it to death, and as long as greedy politicians don’t get their fingers on the money and divert the effort. If Congress funds the Corps adequately so work can progress on schedule, we think it will get done and on time. It is not surprising that the project will be funded totally by the federal government, since in the aftermath of Katrina, there have been enough examples of failure ranging from sloppy work to misguided efforts, to poorly monitored projects and snail-like progress in helping hurricane victims.

We believe the Federal Emergency Management Agency has performed admirably in the aftermath of numerous natural disasters, but Katrina was not one of them. Fortunately, we think, the Corps is a far more responsible government agency than is FEMA. Granted, it is limited in its accomplishments by the usually miserly funding by Congress, but we think it spends the money it does get wisely.

FEMA, on the other hand, reflects attributes that never should be attached to any government agency if the welfare of the citizenry is of importance. The still-growing history of Katrina’s aftermath is replete with examples of FEMA fumbling—trucks of ice motoring around the country and failing to reach their destinations; the parking of thousands of travel trailers on an abandoned airstrip in Arkansas, the failure to locate trailers for hurricane survivors in New Orleans, and last, but not least, the construction of trailers with wood containing levels of formaldehyde much greater than acceptable for human abodes.

We’ve mentioned that toxic situation before, but recently the most disgusting element of the scenario emerged. A top federal scientist was cited earlier this month as saying he warned his superiors about the formaldehyde in the government-issued trailers and was told to button his lip. Christopher De Rosa told a congressional panel that he repeatedly raised concerns last year that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was not adequately informing the public of the hazard, even as symptoms of dangerous exposure were surfacing (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 2). One admonishment of his superiors, however, was that he should refrain from mentioning his concerns in e-mails because they might be misinterpreted. (What’s to misinterpret?)

Formaldehyde is a preservative commonly used in building materials and embalming fluid. The level in the trailers was five times that in normal homes. Prolonged exposure can lead to breathing problems, and it is also believed to cause cancer. The agency admitted it took too long to react to the situation and, as could be expected, denied any effort to silence De Rosa or mislead the public.

The agency’s admission begs the question: What words would they use to describe their lack of action? What possible excuse could the agency or any government agency for that matter, have for not acting immediately to remedy the situation once the facts were known? Heads should have rolled. We doubt that they will.

The federal government does not rate well when it comes to public trust. The dragged out history of the Katrina aftermath hasn’t helped to boost its popularity. Now that a big splash has been made about the signing of a new agreement to make the New Orleans area safer from hurricanes, we hope all of the agencies concerned will do their utmost to see that it is a project carried out without spot or blemish.

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