When the Levees Leak Again

We're heading into hurricane season once again, and once again, the Army Corps of Engineers is up to the challenge of challenging taxpayers to question how and why millions of dollars of repairs still leads to levees that are likely to fail when put to the test.

Outside engineering experts who have studied the project told The Associated Press that the type of seepage spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood afflicts other New Orleans levees, too, and could cause some of them to collapse during a storm.

The Army Corps of Engineers has spent about $4 billion so far of the $14 billion set aside by Congress to repair and upgrade the metropolitan area's hundreds of miles of levees by 2011. Some outside experts said the leak could mean that billions more will be needed and that some of the work already completed may need to be redone.

"It is all based on a 30-year-old defunct model of thinking, and it means that when they wake up to this one — really — our cost is going to increase significantly," said Bob Bea, a civil engineer at the University of California at Berkeley.

The Army Corps of Engineers disputed the experts' dire assessment. The agency said it is taking the risk of seepage into account and rebuilding the levees with an adequate margin of safety.

Those kinds of assurances helped create the mess in New Orleans. The structures built and maintained by the Corps did not withstand the conditions for which they were designed. Excuses were given.

Now, billions more are being spent to strengthen the levees, and yet we're seeing still more problems arising. The sheet piles driven aren't keeping the waters in the 17th Street canal contained, and water is seeping between the piles. The concern is that with sufficient pressure from a storm, the levees could be undermined once again, flooding the city.