500 days

Since I filed a FOIA request with the Corps of Engineers' New Orleans District for the following documents:

"1) The Comparative Cost Analysis generated by Black & Veatch under task order CZ05 of contract W912BV-07-D-1002 (original and modification attached). This report is described as a deliverable on page 7 of the original task order and is described on on page 4:

"Cost Differential Analysis. Review and analyze the cost differential and methodology between the 2006 Conceptual Design Report and the 2008 90-day study and report to congress."

2) The Basis of Cost Estimates generated by Black & Veatch under task order CZ05 of contract W912BV-07-D-1002 (original and modification attached). This report is described as a deliverable on page 7 of the original task order."

These are the reports the Corps has never released which show in detail why they chose the cheaper, technically inferior Option 1 (canal depths stay where they are, pumping stations at each end of each canal which must be coordinated every time lakefront gates are closed, New Orleans taxpayers must pay extra $10 million in annual property taxes upon completion of construction to pay for maintenance of three extra pump stations) over the favored-by-everyone-except-the-Corps Option 2 (canals depths dug to ground level and lined with concrete, single pump station at each canal mouth, no property tax increase).

But 500 days isn't the oldest FOIA request I have into the Corps. That goes to this one:

"1) Any and all emails, memoranda, and other documents related to the operation, maintenance, design, or any other matter relating to the pumps, gates, and all other associated equipment at the interim closure structures (17th Street, Orleans Avenue, London Avenue) sent or received by the following individuals between 12:01 AM November 5, 2009 and 11:59 PM November 14, 2009, as well as between 12:01 AM, December 6, 2009 and 11:59 PM December 16, 2009:

a) Colonel Alvin B Lee
b) Karen Durham-Aguilera
c) Christopher Accardo
d) Carl Robinson
e) Michael Stack Jr
f) Nancy Powell
g) Raymond Newman
h) Donald Constantine
i) Dan Bradley

Responsive documents should include all attachments to the emails, as well as the emails themselves.

2) After action reports for Corps New Orleans District activities undertaken in preparation for and during Hurricane Ida and the December 11-13 rainstorms."

The Corps doesn't want the curtain pulled back on exactly how they operate the gates (in the case of the Hurricane Ida event) or how they don't (in the case of the December event, when water repeatedly rose to dangerous levels in the outfall canals and the gates were never closed, at the same time it appears there was a systemwide 6-day-long failure of their SCADA system.

That FOIA request has been pending for 538 days. That places it and the other one in rarefied company. According to the latest DoD FOIA Annual Report , from fiscal year 2010, only 1.1% of all simplified or complex requests to the Army are answered in 400+ days. The average is supposed to be fewer than 50 days.

I'm not interested in setting a record. I wish they would just turn this stuff over.

Drip, drip, drip

When we last looked in on the rusty lakefront pumps, two pumps had been pulled out after the start of the 2011 hurricane season due to oil leaks. Both were at 17th Street (W8 and W9). I know W8 went back in the water, and I'm assuming W9 is also back in.

But that still leaves 15 of the 40 large size (60") hydraulic pumps rusting away in the brackish Lake Pontchartrain waters. 9 of those 15 are at the Orleans Avenue site:


There's one at the London Avenue site:


And, with the assumed return of pump W9, five at 17th Street:


With 9 of the 15 rusty pumps at the Orleans Avenue site, the chances were much greater of an Orleans Ave. pump being the next one to spill oil. That's exactly what happened on August 10, 2011, according to this spill report from the National Response Center (the Corps seems to be improving their spill reporting):

Location: "ORLEANS AVE INTERIM CANAL STRUCTURE PUMPING STATION"

Description: "CALLER STATED THERE IS A LEAK FROM A PUMP AT THE PUMPING STATION. CALLER STATED THERE MAY BE A CORROSIVE ELEMENT THAT IS CAUSING THE SPILL. THE SPILL IS WITHIN THE STRUCTURE OF THE FACILITY. CALLER STATED THERE IS NO SPILL TO LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN."

Released material: HYDRAULIC OIL"

Let's parse that. First, the only corrosive element causing the spill was salt water.

Secondly, there was most definitely a spill to Lake Pontchartrain. The waters within the canals aren't somehow separated from the lake with some invisible barrier - it's all the same thing: navigable waters of the United States. Under the law, if there's an oil spill of any amount into those waters, it must be reported to the National Response Center.

Anyhow, the Corps initially claimed the spill was 20 gallons and that their spill response contractor - QRI - had been summoned. Activities like this always portend a removal of a pump.

Indeed, a pump was pulled out from the Orleans Avenue site: E3. Here's pictures of E3 out:



Steve Beatty tells me the pump remains out while New Orleans gets rain from Tropical Storm Lee on September 2. If it came out sometime around August 10th, it should be back in around September 10th.

However, that still will leave 80% of the Orleans Avenue pumps dangerously close to failure should they be needed during this hurricane season. The Corps could have issued multiple repair contracts for these pump repairs and had them finished a long time ago. Instead they stuck with a solitary small business vendor (Healtheon, with Conhagen doing all the actual repair work) for the last two years. Combine that with the sections of the Orleans Avenue canal levees possessing Safe Water Elevations of zero feet which were left unremediated this spring, and the Orleans Avenue canal is not looking so well prepared.

Steve Beatty of The Lens contributed to this report.