Believe it or not, our inglorious Federal Government has very different definitions for what constitutes a levee and what constitutes a dam. While both hold back water, dams are considered to be a life safety system, build with (among other reasons) the goal of protecting the lives of those who live downstream. But apparently a levee is not. A levee, rather, is designed to protect property, and the government gives no thought to the human beings who live beside them. Of the many lessons to be learned from Hurricane Katrina is the fact that, when levees break, people die. So why the double standard? And what can be done about it?
Tim Ruppert, a civil engineer and New Orleans blogger, gave a scathing assessment of the situation at Saturday’s Rising Tide conference. He noted that, on several different occasions, Congress has moved to solidify the difference between a dam and a levee in legal terms, from the 1972 Dam Inspection Act to the 1996 Water Resources Act. Thus when a dam is constructed, engineers determine how many people might perish should the structure fail. When a levee is constructed, engineers determine how much flood damage is sustained per year, and how much a levee might decrease that amount. The difference is lethal.
A further indictment of the Federal Government and the double-standard of levees vs. dams comes from the so-called “100-year Flood Protection.” This was one of former mayor C. Ray Nagin’s favorite catchphrases in the months following Katrina, assuring residents that the city will rebuild to a 100-year level. What this actually means for residents is that every year, there is a 1 in 100 chance of catastrophic flooding. As Mr. Ruppert made clear, after 30 years, your odds are worse than if you were playing Russian Roulette. But thankfully we have the Federal Government to sell us flood insurance, right? Er…
Even the data for a 100-year flood comes from government records stretching back only to World War II. How can approximately 70 years of data provide for an accurate estimate on a mother-of-a-storm that comes every one-hundred, or every five-hundred, years as the government claims to know? The point is that it can’t.
With so many people living alongside levees, it is irresponsible and dangerous for these structures to not be considered a life safety structure. Five years ago, 1600 people perished in this fine city thanks to these policies. Now, as the Corps of Engineers promises to rebuild an adequate flood protection system, their focus is again only on protecting property, not lives. It’s time to let your representatives in Congress know that this policy is costing loved ones their lives. Tell them to support the National Levee Safety Program now, before it’s too late.
(Learn more at Levees.org)
Tim Ruppert isn’t just any civil engineer, but has worked for the Corps of Engineers most of his career since college. He is also past President of the Louisiana American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
That was Never disclosed. He was working for the Corps before their structures failed us and he continues working for them as they leave these very same failed floodwalls, this inherently Bad Engineering, remain standing.
Re: his comparisons of Dam Engineering and Levee Engineering, he is proffering misnomer at best or an ignorance of reality at its worst.
1) They are incomparably different types of Engineering, to wit: a Dam is designed to hold a steady pressure from a single direction of flow –yet a Levee is designed to hold temporary lateral pressures of varying directions of flow be they Rivers or Coasts.
2) His entire premise has Nothing to do with the fundamentally flawed engineering that his bosses employed in the devastation of New Orleans. He is attempting, I suppose, to again misdirect attention away from those Facts of 8/29/05, to wit: we flooded because the Corps of Engineers built it wrong the first time –REGARDLESS OF HOW YOU BUILD A DAM.
3) Ruppert took the opportunity at Rising Tide to lobby for the Corps Friendly legislation to establish a Levee Safety Program here in Louisiana. This is a program that basically funds the Corps’ Self Investigations of its own infrastructure failures across the country, for example in Iowa in ’08 or Las Vegas the year before, or Centralia WA the same year… the list goes on…
Do we want the Corps performing their own Self Investigations the way they tried to shell-game and obfuscate the causes of the Flood of New Orleans 8/29/05???
I would think not, as I would not trust the word of any Corps Engineer any further than I could throw one of their inoperable hydraulic pumps they installed on our outfall canals after 8/29/05.
Thank you for linking to levees.org
Also please go see The Big Uneasy August 30th in theaters Nationwide!
Thanks for attending Rising Tide 5! It was truly amazing to be in a room filled with such enthusiastic love for New Orleans and the resolve to make it better. It is truly impossible to explain it to people who’ve never attended Rising Tide, but I’m glad you are trying. The entire event was videotaped, so we hope in the next few days to be able to post it for all to see.
I was only given 20 minutes, so the details I presented were thin. But the fact is the National Dam Safety Program has been very successful. I think it is the model we need to pursue for the National Levee Safety Program. I talked about the estimated 100 thousand miles of levees in the US, but I did not mention that only a small percentage of those levees were built by or are maintained by the federal government. That’s another reason why we need a strong program to make sure ALL levees meet higher standards, not just those under the care of the federal government. Levees are a life-safety system and must they must meet higher standards than we currently use.
Thanks for blogging about this, and hope to see you next year at Rising Tide.
Peace,
Tim
Hi Tim!
You also spoke of 43% of the population living behind levees, when in fact the number is much higher at 53%.
Sooo, when you mention 100,000 miles of levees, you really need to get a bit more accurate for the veracity stew. Given the current inventory for your Levee Safety Program is far from complete, how do we check the veracity of your broadly referenced statement. In short, where’s the Beef, Tim?
I can sympathize that the people you must work for at the Corps of Engineers don’t get into the veracity thingy, but here in the real world we need you to measure up ok?
“I did not mention that only a small percentage of those levees were built by or are maintained by the federal government.”
Tim, I’d say based on your present employment, lax presentation for RT5 and your dependence on scant statements of self-referential authority (yours?) here, that you really need to back up what you say, to wit: What Small Percentage and Where?
Tim, I’m not trying to be rude here, it’s just that Facts make Veracity Stew Mo’betta. Another fact you are conveniently leaving out is that your view of merging the LSP with the Dam Design Protocol is EXACTLY what the Corps is lobbying Congress for, and to which you lobbied publicly at the Rising Tide. Thanks, glad to see my tax-dollars going to such a clear and present dangermouth. You should have gone into more detail about a lot of things, Tim, rather than so many things that have nothing to do with the Engineering Failures of 5 years ago today.
A little dixclosure here would be nice.
One minor correction, to another excellent article. When speaking of the 70 year record Tim was referring to Hurricanes, not floods.
Prior to about 1940 when the United States began seriously paroling the oceans as a result of WWII and the submarine menace records of hurricanes were spotty and there were often gaps in the records. The further back you go the more incomplete the records are. This obviously creates problems with extrapolating the probability of any event.
It wasn’t until about 1960 when the first weather satellites were launched that we had the ability to accurately track a hurricane from its beginnings.