8/25/09:Disaster Accountability Project Demands Senate Committee Inquiry Into Army Corps of Engineers Congressional Testimony Coverup
August 25, 2009
Contact: Ben Smilowitz, 314-761-7631
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Washington, DC / New Orleans, LA
U.S. Office of Special Counsel Report: Post-Katrina Pumps Unreliable
Disaster Accountability Project Demands Senate Committee Inquiry Into Army Corps of Engineers Congressional Testimony Coverup
Existing Pumps Can Be Fixed, Independent Study Confirms. Complete Overhaul More Expensive and Not Necessary
“It is unclear whether the Army Corps of Engineers leadership in New Orleans is right for the job.
Protecting a City is more important than covering up this half-billion dollar mistake, no matter who made it.”
Word of a potential coverup in the Army Corp of Engineers about New Orleans pump integrity surfaces the day Zagat announced that New Orleans can now boast more restaurants than before Katrina. The restaurant news is hopeful, but is overshadowed by a coverup that has the potential to undo four years of amazing work by determined New Orleans residents and volunteers from across the nation.
After Hurricane Katrina, Congress budgeted $500 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to build new pumps in New Orleans. After the pumps were completed, the United States Office of Special Counsel commissioned its own investigation into pump integrity. United States Office of Special Counsel Report Concluded:
– “The government and the public cannot reasonably trust that the flood control system in place in New Orleans possesses reliability and integrity.”
– “I am particularly concerned about the public safety risk created by the assumption that the pumps will adequately operate during a hurricane….”
Click here to read the OSC letter to President Obama detailing the report: http://bit.ly/jGWeQ
Click here to read the full report of the independent engineer:http://bit.ly/HENJy(Part 1),http://bit.ly/IZwns(Part 2)
“Congress and the people of New Orleans must be able to rely on the Army Corps of Engineers. We’ve hit a point where both independent analysis and the United States Office of Special Counsel directly contradict safety assurances and Congressional testimony of the Brigadier General overseeing New Orleans Army Corps of Engineers. The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works must bring Brigadier General Michael Walsh back to reconcile, under oath, these latest events with his June 16, 2009 testimony,” said Ben Smilowitz, Executive Director, Disaster Accountability Project.
“It is unclear whether the Army Corps of Engineers leadership in New Orleans is right for the job. Protecting a City is more important than covering up this half-billion dollar mistake, no matter who made it,” says Smilowitz.
More on the June testimony can be found here: http://blog.disasteraccountability.com/2009/07/24/the-right-fix/
Lifespan Inconsistencies
In 2007, Congress was told the half-billion dollar pumps had 50-year lifespan. On numerous occasions USACE officers cited the original lifespan of the hydraulic pumps to be 50 years. This life span was reported to Congress in order to get authorization and funding for the project.
Click here to read the Col. Jeff Bedey, commander of the Corpsí Hurricane Protection Office in New Orleans, full interview: http://www.nolaenvironmental.gov/nola_public_data/projects/usace_levee/docs/original/2_26_08MtgSummary.pdf
Now, after extensive investigation into the defective nature of the hydraulic pumps, the Corps is claiming that the pumps were only designed to be temporary. Brigadier General Michael J. Walsh, commander of the Mississippi Valley Division of the Corps, wrote in an op-ed that the pumps were supposed to have a “temporary service life.” “The temporary pumps and closure structures at the three outfall canals have a limited service lifeÖThe temporary pumps were built to last for five to seven years, or through the years 2011 to 2013
Click here to read Walshís op-ed in the New Orleans Times Picayune: http://blog.nola.com/guesteditorials/2009/07/point_of_view_pumping_options.html
Costs
Instead of paying the estimated $275 million to correct the problems with the hydraulic pumps and roughly $200 million to increase the needed pumping capacity, the Army Corps is proposing to abandon the project they have already spent half a billion dollars on, destroy and haul away the ìtemporaryî gated closure structure with installed pumps, and then spend almost $700 million to rebuild everything from scratch.
Highly Suspect Claims and False Assurance By Army Corps
The Corps is also claiming that the defective hydraulic pumps have been “battle tested” by two hurricanes, Gustav and Ike. But, the OSC and their independent engineer agreed with the whistleblowers charge that the ìblack boxî data (technically “SCADA” data) shows the hydraulic pumps were not utilized when the highest canal water levels were present in the beginning, were not allowed to run at full operating speeds/pressures, and were not allowed to run for extended periods of time; instead, they were relegated to an “also pumped” status that was then turned into a straw man for hydraulic pump performance that was offered up to the highest levels of the Army Corps as evidence that the pumps were fully functional. The recorded storm SCADA data shows clearly that the hydraulic pump runs were not examples of pumping performance that replicate that as seen in a true hurricane event, but rather examples of what can be called “demonstration/exercise runs.” The Corps offered these demonstration runs as evidence that the pumps work and keep telling the 311,800 residents of New Orleans that they are safe.
More information can be found here: http://www.whistleblower.org/content/press_detail.cfm?press_id=1755
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The Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the improvement of the United States disaster management systems through public accountability, citizen oversight and empowerment, whistle-blower engagement, and policy research and advocacy. The Disaster Accountability Project’s website is https://disasteraccountability.org.
A toll-free hotline (866-9-TIP-DAP) is available as a public service for disaster survivors, workers and volunteers to report critical gaps in disaster prevention, response, relief, and recovery services or planning. The group is recruiting a national network of Disaster Accountability Monitors and Bloggers to help report, verify, and publicize gaps in disaster services or planning.
Disaster Accountability Project is a 2008 Echoing Green Fellowship Organization.
For more information: http://www.echoinggreen.org/fellows/ben-smilowitz
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