[altroots] Re: altroots Digest V6 #173

Re New Orleans levees: Lets be pragmatic about just how secure a levee 
the Army Corps of Engineers can build and stop blaming them, or 
environmental groups for what nature has, can, and will do to us. There 
is an analogy just North of Baton Rouge. It is called "The Old River 
Control Structure. The Corps of Engineers maintains this structure for 
some simple reasons. The Mississippi River (which has historically 
changed course several times) now wants to run down the Atchafalaya 
River. This is exacerbated by the fact that the Corps cleared all the 
"dead falls" out of that river decades ago to make it navigable. The 
Old River Control structure currently forces the Mississippi to 
maintain its current flow path. When the Mississippi does do what it 
WILL do, and runs down the Atchafalaya, the ports of Baton Rouge and 
New Orleans will be no longer ports, and Morgan City, LA will virtually 
disappear. Once when asked by a reporter standing on top of a virtually 
shaking Old River Control Structure how long the Corps could stave off 
the Mississippi's inevitable change of course a Corps officer replied, 
"It's only a question of money. Do you want to run this river out 
through San Francisco Bay? We can do that. It's only a question of 
money."
My read is that with that amount of arrogance in the face of powerful 
natural forces that the New Orleans Katrina experience is the tip of an 
iceberg!! Please realize that the Mississippi levee systems also 
severely starve the Louisiana wetlands of sediment, causing serious 
losses in those wetlands, making New Orleans and surrounding areas much 
more vulnerable to hurricanes. Maybe we need a good dose of reality and 
to stop "messing with Mother Nature.
I recall a book by Orin Pilkey (an emeritus professor at Duke) and his 
brother. It is called something like "Our Disappearing Coastline." Orin 
originally suggested a title of "Our Disappearing Coastline, or Fuck 
the Army Corps of Engineers." The contents of the book, written as long 
ago as the 1970's, are amazing in their predictability!!!!
-Don Atwood

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