Just gonna leave the spillway open all the time now

It's another January high river season.

“This morning, the National Weather Service forecast has the river getting to 15.1 feet here at the Carrollton gage,” Roe said. “We are watching that very closely. Trigger point for phase 2 flood fight is 15 feet and rising so we are seeing if that forecast is going to come in a little bit lower of a little bit higher and we will make a decision of whether to go into phase 2 based on that.”

On Jan. 9, the Corps entered its stage one flood fight following the river’s rise to 11 feet. Roe said the high river is due to heavy rain to our north that is now making its way to the coast.

In recent years, flood fights in January have been followed by springtime openings of the Bonnet Carre Spillway to relieve pressure on levees from New Orleans south.

2019 was an absolutely devastating year for oyster fishers on the Louisiana coast.  It would be a while before they'd begin to recover either way. But now they face the prospect of going through it all over again.

Meanwhile, in  other flood control news, just as the corps of engineers begins public discussions of necessary upgrades to our perpetually sinking levee system, the big question we've been worrying about for over a decade is coming to a head.  How do we pay to maintain the system we have?

The multiparish dispute is complicated by many factors, but the principal one is that the Lake Borgne levees protect parts of Orleans and Jefferson parishes in addition to St. Bernard. The agreement calls for St. Bernard to bear most of the cost of maintaining them, and many residents and officials see that as unfair.

The parish’s residents have twice voted down a proposed 7.5-mill property tax that would have raised new money for levee maintenance. St. Bernard residents already pay an 11.33-mill tax that mostly goes to levees. Had the new tax passed, the various levee district millages would have been reallocated, with 15.4 mills going to levee maintenance and 3.43 mills transferred to the parish for drainage.

That’s more than St. Bernard’s neighbors pay their local levee districts: New Orleans residents pay a little over 10 mills for levee maintenance, and East Jefferson property owners pay just 4.02 mills. However, New Orleans residents also pay 16.23 mills for drainage, and Jefferson residents pay between 4 and 5 mills.

The parish governments and flood protection authorities each have their own pots of money and constituencies, but, as we all know very well, they're really maintaining one big interdependent system. So, even under the wholesale reorganization of the regime after Katrina, there will always be disputes like this to deal with.  Apparently, there is a fix in the works, albeit a potentially problematic one.

CPRA officials said Wednesday they plan to submit a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would address such funding disparity issues for both the east bank and West Bank regional levee authorities. The legislation might allow the authorities to set regional tax rates to pay for levees' operation and maintenance.

I'm very curious to see more about how that works.  I assume it still means that tax rates have to be authorized by voters in one way or another.  Or maybe not?

"Public access"

News is starting to break this week about the future of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad and the Port of New Orleans.  Apparently the mayor is looking to kill a bunch of lingering birds with a single stone.

New Orleans officials are trying to orchestrate an elaborate swap that would turn over the city-owned Public Belt Railroad to the Port of New Orleans, and in turn would give the city the last two working wharves along the downriver end of the French Quarter, according to sources familiar with the talks.

The deal, if achieved, would accomplish two things: It would ease concerns among port officials about the future of the railroad, which is crucial to their operations, and which Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration has been considering privatizing.

And by giving the city control of the last bit of working riverfront between the Central Business District and Bywater, it could potentially open up uninterrupted access for the public to a two-mile stretch of the riverfront in the city's historic center.

Yeah it could open up access for the public or it could open up access to prime real estate for developers looking to drop in more hotels and/or luxry housing we do seem to enjoy building around here.  We'll see how that discussion develops if this deal goes through.

Another interesting facet of this story has the Port looking to acquire the Avondale Shipyard to make up for the loss of the wharves. There had been a rumor going around about a long term plan to relocate all port facilities away from the Orleans Parish riverfront to sites in St. Bernard Parish and at Avondale.  This development doesn't necessarily confirm that rumor but it does lend it a whiff of credibility.  At a recent Dock Board meeting, the Port's CEO did say there are "multiple scenarios" under discussion.

Anyway, remember this controversial Florida Avenue expansion project?

In addition to the project’s likely property seizures, displacement of residents and construction nuisances, Campbell said that if Florida Avenue is rebuilt, the Ninth Ward will be subject to exhaust, noise and vibrations from trucks. Hazardous cargo will be a threat.

Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development has big aims for the project, however, saying it can connect Florida Avenue from Elysian Fields Avenue to Paris Road in a reliable manner. The project can provide an optimal, north-south connection from Florida Avenue to St. Bernard Port. A roadway bridge would be built over the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, adjacent to the existing Florida Avenue Bridge. Area roads would be improved and newly aligned, DOTD has said.

The big picture goal of relocating the Port of New Orleans fits there as well. Just something to keep in mind.

Why this and why now?

Everybody here is wondering why there's so much momentum behind this particular highway project.  The best the people at this meeting can come up with is some vague combination of "corruption," "bureaucracy" and inertia.

Louisiana is also dealing with one of the largest budget deficits in state history, and many are perplexed as to why the Louisiana Department of Transportation is focusing on an expensive plan that is not only opposed by the community, but offers limited commercial value.

So the question remains, who benefits from the roadway's construction? Calhoun said he doesn't know, but wouldn't be surprised if "this is just more of Bobby Jindal's people getting money," referencing the rampant corruption in Louisiana politics. But he also suggested that perhaps this is just an infrastructure project that has floated around the state's bureaucracy for so long that it's attained a weight of its own, being pushed by nobody in particular, but advancing nonetheless. "I don't even think our elected officials have been told the real deal on this," he said. "They're trying to promote it just to promote it."

Ultimately, what many Ninth Ward residents say is most frustrating is that they feel ignored. Those attending the public meeting said they believe the state is withholding information and that even if they were fully informed, there isn't anything they can do to stop the project. Many saw the meeting as only a façade of public outreach, meant to check a bureaucratic box rather than truly hear and integrate community concerns.

But I think there must be something else in play.  I've got some ideas as to what it may be but I'd rather ask around before speculating. 

Congratulations to St. Bernard Parish on being elected Gulf of Mexico

In a matter of speaking, anyway.

For the president of the regional flood protection authority, St. Bernard Parish’s  rejection  on Saturday of a property-tax increase for  its levee and storm drainage agency had two immediate results.

“If the Lake Borgne Levee District were a business, they would be in bankruptcy because they don’t have the funds to meet their expenses,” said Stephen Estopinal, head of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, which oversees the Orleans, East Jefferson and Lake Borgne levee districts.

And second, more to the point: “Right now, if they had a major problem with their system, they couldn’t fix it because they don’t have the money,” he said.

One begins to wonder, though, what is the point of the SLFPA-E "regional" flood authority if the funding it requires to maintain the region's flood protection system does not transfer between parishes? 

The increase would have been about $38.25 per year for a homeowner with property valued at $125,000, which is the average sales price in the parish. Millage rates in Orleans and Jefferson for the same purpose are just 6.21 and 3.91 respectively, but they raise much more money because of the larger tax base.

The St. Bernard failure could affect the entire east bank because the new $14.5 billion hurricane storm surge system is designed as a perimeter wall wrapped around all three parishes. A break in one section due to poor maintenance could result in flooding pouring into adjoining areas.

While the system provides unified protection, there is no unity in funding. State law prohibits the authority from using tax dollars raised in one parish on work in another. With St. Bernard’s population cut in half by Hurricane Katrina, the Lake Borgne Levee District’s income has been unable to keeping up with expenses, including $1.4 billion in levee improvements post-Katrina.

That is what you might call a "system in name only" right?  When the next storm comes, I'm pretty sure the Gulf isn't going to worry too much about which parish paid its taxes.

In other words, they were right to vote the millage down

Turns out the Orleans levee board can share its revenue surplus to shore up the St. Bernard system after all.

The authority on Thursday also passed a motion authorizing the Orleans Levee District to loan the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District up to $4 million to fund the construction of a floodwall in the vicinity of the Violet Canal in order to meet FEMA requirements for certification. If the 7.5-mill tax increase for the Lake Borgne district passes, part of those funds would go to toward the loan's repayment.

Without that FEMA certification, the National Flood Insurance Program could drastically raise insurance for St. Bernard homeowners, and those in the Lower 9th Ward, as FEMA would treat those properties as if there were no back levee at all protecting them, Estopinal explained.

Asked about repayment of that loan, though, authority President Stephen Estopinal made clear "that repayment is not a guarantee at this point in time" because of the millage increase's uncertainty. But the authority will include a promissory note with the loan, specifying that the Orleans district is owned the money and that the authority also would ask the Lake Borgne district annually where it was in terms of its repayment.

This is interesting because after St. Bernard voters turned down a millage proposal that would have mitigated the need for this loan, there was some concern about what to do. The separate political entities are technically forbidden from sharing funds, even though, in reality, they comprise one flood control system. 

The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East was established specifically to oversee operations of the three levee districts that maintain this system. But state law prohibits taxes raised in one district from being used in another.

The more populated parishes of Orleans and Jefferson have surpluses. But St. Bernard has struggled to meet the demands of the southern end of the system.

The regional flood protection authority said New Orleans, with a property tax of 6.21 mills, collects about $16.3 million a year. East Jefferson’s 3.91 mills brings in about $8.8 million.
St. Bernard’s higher millage of 11.1 garners just $3.4 million because of its much smaller population and tax base.

Looks like they found a way around that without having to increase the tax burden on the smaller, poorer, St. Bernard Parish.   Naturally, they don't want to keep doing it that way.

Tyrone Ben, who represents St. Bernard on the authority, said he and others did make the rounds to educate voters on the Dec. 6 millage, but he pointed out that all the millages on that ballot failed. He called it "a referendum" against taxes in general, not just the levee tax.

"But I know we are going to do it again in May and I hope that we just sell it better," Ben said.

Turner said he is "committed to doing everything that I can personally do to make people aware of the situation with the Lake Borgne Levee system."

"We will redouble our efforts and try to get out into the community and make sure that people make the right decision," Turner said. "We just have to be out there to let people know what the world will look like from a flood protection perspective if we come up short and have to make significant cuts in the Lake Borgne levee system."

System in name only

One of the more memorable events to follow upon the Federal Flood was the candid admission by the Corps of Engineers that the flood control defenses it had constructed around New Orleans comprised a "system in name only."

In a sweeping new study of the causes of the disaster in New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged today that the levees it built in the city were an incomplete and inconsistent patchwork of protection, containing flaws in design and construction, and not built to handle a hurricane anywhere near the size of Katrina.

"The hurricane protection system in New Orleans and southeast Louisiana was a system in name only," said the draft of the nine-volume report.

The region's network of levees, floodwalls, pumps and gates lacked any built-in resilience that would have allowed the system to remain standing and provide protection even if water flowed over the tops of levees and floodwalls, the report's investigators found. Flaws in the levee design that allowed breaches in the city's drainage canals were not foreseen, and those floodwalls failed even though the storm waters did not rise above the level that the walls were designed to hold.

Following upon this post-mortem, the Corps redesigned and reconstructed the "system."  Most of that rebuild is now complete. (It is still insufficient to truly meet the area's needs now and in the ever-worsening future but that is another story.)  Meanwhile, the local levee boards were restructured and reformed in the expectation that they would be responsible for maintaining and operating the new system upon its completion.

What happens when one end of that system fails in its capacity to maintain the standard of the whole? 

On Saturday, voters in St. Bernard Parish raised this question above the level of mere hypothesis. When the Corps hands over responsibility of the system to the local authorities, the Lake Borgne district will see its costs nearly double with no clear method of raising additional revenues.  One would think the necessary funds could flow in from another part of the flood protection system. But, politically, this is still a system in name only.

Because New Orleans, St. Bernard and East Jefferson sit on the same sinking delta, storm surge invading one parish can flow into the others.  That’s why the corps designed the new system as a perimeter defense — a chain of interlocking levees and floodwalls stretching from Kenner to Caernarvon.

The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East was established specifically to oversee operations of the three levee districts that maintain this system. But state law prohibits taxes raised in one district from being used in another.

The more populated parishes of Orleans and Jefferson have surpluses. But St. Bernard has struggled to meet the demands of the southern end of the system.

Ah Da Parish

New Century. Same classiness.

Editor's note: That looks a little snotty. I'm sorry. I love Da Parish... I really do.