[greenyes] getting OT, but RE: Bush administration trying to blame environmentalists for katrina damage

["DONNAWAY Jay" <Donnaway.Jay@no.address>]

As a former resident of "The Katrina Zone" with a lot of impacted
family, I'll add a reminder about the complexity of proposed Corps flood
control projects.  A floodgate at the Rigolets, combined with new levees
as in the 1970's proposal, could certainly have lessened the surge from
Lake Pontchartrain.  However, in that area, (Slidell) flooding from
springtime rains is an annual event, and the critical measure there
(before the new Katrina watermark) was whether you were higher than US
Hwy 90, the construction of which created a de facto levee and prevented
floodwaters from traveling out across (and nourishing) the eastern
marshes.  Springtime floods there stop rising when they overtop Hwy 90.
Higher levees can just create a deeper bowl to bail out if you aren't
very careful.  I participated in successful opposition to such a project
in 1989, because the Corps proposed to trap a large portion of the Honey
Island Swamp behind a single gate.  To provide protection and still
allow nonflood water flow that's closer to natural, barriers must have
lots of little gates, which means extra headaches and cost in the short
term....
Jay Donnaway
former swamp rat
high and dry, safely in the shadow of Mt. St. Helens......