Bricks, rebar, huge rocks inside the 17th Street canal levees (which is no surprise)

The photos showing the unearthing of massive amounts of unsuitable debris from the outfall canal levees this spring and summer bring into stark relief the true nature of flood protection in the greater New Orleans area. By the Corps' own standards, a deeply inadequate system remains in place - a system which under current design and construction guidelines would never get built today. We know this - not by having to plumb endless internal emails or looking through musty, decades-old records - but by simply comparing today's pictures to the records of the last 17th Street canal remediation project conducted just three years ago.

A new round of photos of the Corps of Engineers' 17th Street canal work site taken in late June detail more fully the debris that was piled into the 17th Street canal levees years ago:

Bricks and rebar:

...which we can see after moving closer to the area in red:

Bricks and large rocks:

...which are visible after zooming into the area in red:

None of this should come as a surprise, since the same junk was pulled out the levees a bit north of this year's work site three years ago during the first round of remediation (which I wrote about in 2012). That project offers insights applicable to this year's project.

Extensive "unsuitable" material found inside 17th Street canal levees in 2011

The 2011 17th Street canal remediation project consisted mostly of deep soil mixing of grout with existing soil to improve the strength of the soil along both east and west banks of the canal. Columns of dirt below the base of the levees were mixed with injected grout down to -20 to -40 feet. The contractor had to excavate a few feet off the top of the levee to give a flat platform on which to mount the drilling rigs and other work equipment. Here's the generic cross-sectional detail from the project issued-for-construction drawings showing this:

The excavated material is shown with the single hatching on top of the levee. It was expected to be reused as backfill for the same area at the completion of the project. That's not what happened.

Right from the start and throughout the entire 2011 project, the Corps' contractors continually found the levees on both sides of the canal were riddled with, shall we say, non-dirt objects. The greatest concentration appears to have been on the west - or Jefferson Parish - side. On the very first day of construction on the west bank (March 7, 2011, which was also Lundi Gras), the contractor dug into the levee near the intersection of Orpheum and Rosebud. The contractor's Quality Control report (all reports from the 2011 project are linked from this post) for that day said:

"Visually inspected the construction of the West Bank production pad. Material removed from the existing levee between stations 588+00 and 590+00 contained significant debris (rocks, concrete, bricks, shells, asphalt). Informed Bill and Derrick [Corps employees Bill Richardson and Derrick Parker] and they came over to look. We asked they to determine if this would be considered "unsuitable" to reuse in the construct of the levee"

Four days later, March 11th, a decision was made on this "significant debris:"

"Got a verbal answer from [Corps employee] Bill Richardson concerning the 'unsuitable material' encountered during the excavation of the West Bank platform. We are to excavate to the required depth to build the production platform only. All excavated material will be hauled offsite and replaced with suitable clay material from the Bonnet Carre borrow pit."

The 2011 project involved excavating the top of the west bank of the canal from Georgia Court to the Old Hammond Highway bridge, a distance of 3/4's of a mile. Thus, this statement implicitly said that the entire levee along that stretch  - at least as deep as the Corps wished to dig but no deeper - was made of dirt not suitable for levee construction:

The Corps' wink-and-a-nod instruction ("excavate to the required depth to build the production platform only") indicated they believed the rest of the levee was similarly riddled, but didn't want to bother dealing with it. That means there's likely still junk in the 17th Street canal levee today, just further down than where the 2011 project dug. Returning to the detail from the drawings, we can see this graphically:

Two weeks after the implicit acknowledgement of the unsuitability of the west side levees, the contractor made it explicit. In the March 24, 2011 Quality Control report they reported on excavation of the west bank levee along Orpheum between Chestnut and West Esplanade:

"Excavation (degrading/construction of production platform) on West side of canal today from station 581+80 to 579+00 to an elevation of +1.8 to +1.5'. All degraded material was hauled to laydown area on the East side of the canal. Material was considered unsuitable by USACE and will be stockpiled in laydown area on east side of the canal. The material will then be spread throughout the laydown yard at the end of the project per USACE direction."

As I noted when I wrote about this in 2012, at least the Corps didn't try to reuse this junk dirt. But they also didn't bother to tell the public and their government representatives in any meaningful fashion there were "rocks, concrete, bricks, shells, and asphalt" inside 3/4's of a mile of 17th Street canal levee that had been there since it was built decades ago. Or that such debris would remain within the levees even after the project was completed. They just proceeded to conduct business as usual, like it was a normal thing to discover - six years after the fatal failure of their levees - that the levees along the 17th Street canal were built out of trash. Day after day for months, they hauled dirt off the Jefferson Parish levee across the canal to their laydown yard on Bellaire Avenue along the east bank of the canal - in front of the 2005 New Orleans breach location - and told no one in the public the extent of the problem. Some of that bad dirt was spread out at the laydown yard during the summer, 2011 and literally buried under grass. The rest of it, including some stuff too big to be buried, was trucked offsite. The August 23, 2011 quality control report describes this disposition:

"East side of the canal - Spreading unsuitable material in laydown yard per USACE's direction. Large debris is being removed and stockpiled to be hauled off at later date."

Fortunately, three years later during another project involving digging into the Jefferson Parish side of the canal, we have pictures showing us just how poorly these levees were constructed - and indicating how much junk remains inside them today, so there's no way this information can be buried or hauled away again.

Debris so huge it couldn't be removed in 2011, or ever

Some of the junk was so huge in 2011 it couldn't even be moved out of the levee. An extreme example of this was documented by the contractor logs starting on March 25, 2011. That day, there came discovery of a very large concrete "object" just below the west bank levee near the intersection of Orpheum and West Esplanade. From the contractor's quality control report:

"During the construction of the production platform on the west side of the canal, a large concrete structure was exposed at approximately station 577+80. CKY excavated around object to try and see the size of the object and how to remove object. The size of the concrete object was found to be approximately 20'x13' with rebar protruding out of the concrete. Object was unable to be removed. USACE was contacted about the object and pictures were taken. GPS was used to mark the location of the object. The USACE will be asked in an RFI [request for information] if only elements ABC can be installed at this location due to the large concrete object."

The Corps quality assurance report has a little more detail:

"The concrete footing is quote [sic] thick, it could exceed 2 feet. The footing consists of spread footings that cover the area between stations 577+81.5 and 577+90.5. The depth, below levee grade, is near the elevation of the adjacent road."

That's right: a room sized chunk of concrete buried under the levee that didn't get discovered until the levee was dug out. This was so huge that even the Corps owned up to it, taking pictures two months later when they dealt with the thing:

This mass of concrete was in an area that had been extensively explored by Corps test borings. No fewer than 11 test bores and cone penetrometer tests had been drilled into the levee within 200 feet of this location, 10 of them since the 2005 levee failures, as seen on this detail:

One must ask how such a giant chunk of concrete could be unearthed as a surprise. It also raises the obvious question about the quality of the information gleaned from the test bores and other exploratory drilling the Corps does before a project.

In this particular case, the obstruction was so huge they actually left it in place. After covering it back up in March, they went back in late May. They uncovered the obstruction and then backfilled and compacted the affected area between May 24, 2011 and June 1, 2011. Presumably some work crew 20 years in the future will dig it out again.

Comparing the 2014 project to the 2011 project

Going back and reviewing all the records from the 2011 project has given me a little different perspective on what we can see in the 2014 project photos. During the 2011 project, all the construction on the levee was done with dirt from the levee. This included building of platforms and ramps - things occurring right now during the 2014 project. Clean dirt was not brought into the site in 2011 until all substantial work was completed. I have no reason to think the 2014 project is proceeding any differently.

So unlike what I wrote a couple of weeks back, I now believe that all the soil currently piled up on the levee came out the levee, including the stuff near the base that is acting as a "road" for the crane. This means giant boulders are also coming out of the levee, not just chunks of concrete, brick, and pieces of rebar. Here's a couple of the pictures from my prior entry, relabeled to include that conclusion:

In comparing the progress of the 2014 and 2011 projects, what do we make of the fact the Corps started removing bad dirt from the site within days of unearthing it in 2011, but the junk has remained on the levee for weeks in 2014? Some of the reason might simply be how this year's site is set up. The dirt at the bottom of the levee this year remains in use for access to the entire site, with only a single point of entry or exit for heavy equipment at the south end of the site. The crane using the platform at the levee bottom is needed for the entire duration of the project, which has not been completed yet (the contractor is moving from south to north). So the bad dirt making up the platform  probably can't be removed until all the sheet piling has been placed.

Debris throughout the entire 17th Street canal west side levees?

However, the logistics of this year's project are not nearly as important as the larger point: everywhere the inside of the 17th Street canal west side levee has been revealed - whether in 2011 or this year - massive amounts of debris have been found. And even more troubling, there are very long stretches which remain untouched:

Given the shallow depth it was found in 2011 and 2014, it makes sense some of the debris was part of the I-wall and levee construction in the early 1990's. That work did involve placement of dirt on top of the existing levees at the time. It extended the entire length of the canal (all the yellow and red lines shown above). Other, deeper debris has likely been there far longer. The records of nearly every soil boring taken in 1981 along the west bank - long before the I-walls were put in - have numerous mentions of shells, wood, bricks, and other "miscellaneous fill." Those records were used in the basis of design for the Corps' early 1990's work. This junk has been known to the Corps for a very, very long time. It also very likely extends the entire length of the canal on at least the Jefferson Parish side.

How it got there doesn't really matter now though, because all the junk is still there today, and the integrity of the outfall canals remains the responsibility of the Corps. As the decision recorded in the contractor quality control log of March 11, 2011 indicates, there is no way the 17th Street canal west bank levees would be built today with the debris-riddled dirt that is currently sitting in them. That dirt is - according to the Corps - "unsuitable." Yet there the levees sit.

Thus, this is what the Corps considers the recipe for sufficient levees along possibly the most well known stretch of levee in the nation:

These levees do not care what water presses against them - storm surge or rainwater. Thus it make no difference that the outlets of the outfall canals are "protected" by gates now. These levees still see pressure from stormwater during major rainfall events. One must wonder what local government officials and Corps personnel living behind these levees think seeing the true condition of the Corps' flood protection.

Hidden in plain sight

[Update, 7/7/14: Based on photos taken after this post was published, and a review of the records of the 2011 17th Street canal remediation project, revisions have been made to this post. It is now believed the large rocks seen at the base of the 17th Street canal west side levee in photos taken June 15, 2014 did indeed come from within the levee. Text and photo captions have been adjusted accordingly. Further details and analysis are available at subsequent Fix the Pumps post published July 6, 2014.]

Unreported by anyone, the Corps has begun major work along two outfall canals in New Orleans in the last month. Very long sheet pile is being driven on the 17th Street and London Avenue canals, and rock is going to be placed at the base of the levees inside the canals starting in June or July. These are the same outfall canals that breached in three places in 2005 due to poor design. The ensuing floods of New Orleans devastated hundreds of thousands of lives throughout the greater New Orleans area and beyond.

The Corps' irrational need for secrecy about any work along the outfall canals is long known, but their actually beginning structural work without any public pronouncements, press releases, or whispers in the ears of the mainstream media is unprecedented, especially considering the scale of the work - which is extensive. I think they would rather nobody paid any more attention. But attention should be paid to work at the sites of the cause of the worst engineering disaster in American history.

The work underway already is for seepage control due to existing sheet piling being too short. Seepage happens when water works its way through sand below the bottoms of the I-walls along the canals. Should that water then percolate upward through the land-side (the side where people  live) soils, the levee and I-wall can fail. This was the primary mode of failure for the south breach of the London Avenue canal following the 2005 passage of Katrina dozens of miles to the east.

Problems have emerged just weeks into the project, as the soil being dug out of the levees appears to be packed with unacceptable debris like rocks and chunks of concrete. The Corps' own specifications forbid such debris in a levee since it decreases the strength of the soil. However, they have shown they are willing to ignore such specifications during many previous projects both before and since 2005, including a round of projects on all three outfall canals in 2011.

Those 2011 projects included similar seepage remediation work to this present project along the London Avenue canal and the Orleans Avenue canal. The 2011 17th Street project remediated against different modes of failure than seepage, and thus included different technologies than sheet piling.

For calculation purposes, the Corps and their consultants have broken each side of each canal into individual "reaches," based on differing soil and canal bottom conditions. The reaches are numbered sequentially, starting at the south end of the west side of each canal and finishing at the north end of the east side of each canal.

Here's the locations previously remediated along the London Avenue canal in 2011:

And here's the new locations in the 2014 project:

As you can see from the above map, after they are done with this round at London Avenue, nearly the entire canal north of Mirabeau will have had sheet piling placed outside the existing, too-short piling. It points up how poorly the I-walls were designed the first time around, and how inevitable their failure was.

The contract - which includes work at both the London Avenue and 17th Street sites - was awarded February 28, 2014 to Conquistador Dorado JV (aka Dorado Services) out of Sanford, Florida. There are indications Cycle Construction in Kenner is the local partner in the joint venture. The contract - actually a task order on a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) contract awarded to a pool of four companies -  is worth $13,642,238.50 and is scheduled to be completed October 30, 2014, meaning construction will proceed throughout the 2014 hurricane season. Construction along the London Avenue canal started in late May with Reach 12, just north of Filmore Avenue on the west side of the canal.

I have had interested neighbors photographing the work as it proceeds. This photo is from what I believe was the first day piles were driven at the London Avenue canal site, May 29, 2014:

Sheet piling is being driven down to clay approximately 55 feet below sea level. The new sheet piling is being driven a few feet to the protected side of the existing I-wall. The existing sheet piling inside the I-walls goes down to sand about 15 feet below sea level. The Corps is using a pile pressing machine rather than a standard pile driving hammer. The pile presser supposedly creates fewer vibrations and is quieter. It's a machine they've used extensively in the dense urban environment of New Orleans and its surrounding metro area, especially where space is at a premium:

Here's piling being placed the following day:

To make room for the pile presser, the top couple of feet of levee soil next to the I-walls will be stripped off to make a level surface and the dirt stockpiled on the levee itself. Here's the excavators at the London Avenue site:

The sheet piling machine travels along the newly flat section and presses the piling in. This June 6, 2014 photo shows the first few linear feet of piling already driven:

Afterward, the soil will be placed back on top of the piling and grass will be planted. This was done at adjacent Reach 13 in 2011.

If we move closer to the stockpiled soil, details emerge. Worrisome details:

Here's enlargements of the photo above:

All the white bits are broken concrete. This next photo shows it best:

Here's the concrete debris highlighted:

The dirt coming out of the levee is absolutely shot through with the stuff. That's bad. Having debris like concrete in the clay decreases its strength because it cannot compact properly. Finding debris in these levees is not a surprise, since it was reported on either side of this stretch during the 2011 London Avenue project as well:

It is one thing to read about it months afterward, and another thing altogether to have pictures of it happening live.

After receiving the pictures of the London site, I asked for pictures of the 17th Street site. Based on those pictures - taken on June 15th, I believe the story is much the same.

The site location on the 17th Street canal is on the west side, just south of I-10:

It is reach 16, which I wrote about extensively 3 years ago. At that time, the Corps was considering placing dirt at the base of the levee on the protected side (outside) of the canal to prevent failure from underseepage. The idea was to provide enough weight on the landside to resist the upward motion of underseeping water. It's an indirect, cheaper way of addressing seepage, as opposed to the direct solution of cutting off the seepage with sheetpile driven into the clay below the sand. It's noteworthy nothing was done in the intervening three years. It's also noteworthy the Corps New Orleans District consultants' calculations in 2010-11 (as well as the Corps' District Engineering folks' marching orders to their consultants before any calculations were performed) claimed there were no seepage problems on reach 16 - or anywhere along the 17th Street canal. Because of that, this newest remediation project is the first one to address seepage concerns along the 17th Street canal. We'll get into what likely changed their mind in future postings.

Here's reach 16 in 2011 (photos taken from the June, 2011 Corps update on that year's remediation projects along the outfall canals):





Construction at the 17th Street canal site also started in late May. The contractor began at the southern end of the site, which is what is shown in the "before" pictures above.

Here's that same end of the site snapped June 15, 2014 (Update, 7/7/14: bottom caption used to read "Dirt placed to make 'road' for crane to travel. Dirt likely not from inside levee"):

I believe that the dirt toward the bottom of the levee is - I hope - fill brought from offsite and placed to allow the crane (which holds the piling vertically) to travel along the levee with the piling pressing machine. I do not think it, and the huge boulders in it, came out of the levee.

[Update, 7/7/14: Based on subsequent photos and a new review of the 2011 remediation project records, it is now believed the material at the bottom of the levee is from inside the levee. This includes the large boulders now visible.]

However, I believe the soil toward the top of the slope is from inside the levee. Even from a distance, we can see the chunks of debris. Getting a closer look shows a large amount of concrete and rocks (Update, 7/7/14: bottom caption used to read "Dirt placed to make 'road' for crane to travel. Dirt likely not from inside levee"):

Here's an enlargement of the above photo:

There's even a stump that appears to be about 2 feet long, just sitting on top of the levee. It seems very likely it came from within the levee (though I suppose it could have come from somewhere else, but then why would it be sitting on the top of the levee?):

Dirt taken out of the southern part of the site is also being stockpiled on the levee near the northern end of the site in front of the end of Lemon St. The copious debris - all the white bits - is obvious (Update, 7/7/14: bottom caption of first two photos used to read "Dirt placed to make 'road' for crane to travel. Dirt likely not from inside levee"):

By any standard, including the Corps', the dirt coming out of the levees at both these sites would be unsuitable for use in any levee. How do we know that? The Corps themselves said so just four years ago, during a different debris mess that made the news.

In late 2009 and early 2010, reports emerged about large amounts of concrete and other debris being found in the top layers of lakefront levee in Kenner during an enlargement project. That soil had been trucked there in the early 2000's and had not been systematically checked for debris. After a couple of Times-Picayune articles, the Corps held a public meeting on January 28, 2010. They showed the following slides as examples of unacceptable amounts of debris in the dirt:

Those photos look eerily similar to the pictures coming out of the London Avenue and 17th Street sites.

The 2010 slides explicitly called out concrete chunks as unacceptable:

In the 2009-10 lakefront case, the Corps' solution - after blaming the previous contractor and prior Corps employees and assuring the public these were isolated instances (which they weren't) - was to remove all the dirt with concrete in it. According to the Corps, the contaminated dirt went down 2.5 feet, so the Corps stripped it all out and replaced it with clean clay.

Here's the scary part: that might not be the plan for the outfall canals, for three reasons:

1) The bid specifications (as amended) for the outfall canal job call for the contractor to place most of the soil they remove from the levee during construction right back in the levee when the sheet piling work is done.

According to those amended specifications, 2350 cubic yards of soil is to be taken out of the levees and reused between the two canal sites. The Corps is only anticipating 650 additional cubic yards between the two sites to be "unsuitable." That is, they expect only one fifth of the total amount of dirt to come out of the levees to stay out, and the rest will go back in. That was the financial basis for awarding the job.

2) We know bad soil with debris just like what we're seeing this year was taken out of outfall canal levees and put back in during the 2011 projects. The Corps' own contractors' said so, doing so under orders from Corps employees.

3) Finally, we know the Corps has no compunction using or reusing debris-laden soil that violates their own specifications all over the greater New Orleans area. Besides the three outfall canal remediation projects in 2011, I counted 22 projects where it happened in the last few years:



For further information, you can consult my 14 (!) part series on debris in the levees. Part 1 is here, with the other parts linked from it. The Corps' use of unacceptable soil seems to be more the norm than the exception.

Why does this matter? After all, there's gates at the ends of the canals to protect them from hurricanes, right?

Well, the outfall canal walls and levees do not care where water comes from - whether it's the lake or the city's pump stations. Even if the lakefront gates are closed and secured during a high lake level event (a big "if," since during the last hurricane 5 of 11 gates at the London Avenue structure were not secured), the city still has to pump rainwater from within the city down the canals. That water level can get quite high - just as high as the water got from Katrina's surge. A levee with concrete in it instead of clay is simply not as strong, and could be prone to, um, difficulties.

In addition, there is the obvious question: if this is what the top couple of feet of the levees along both canals look like, what about the rest of the levee left untouched by these newest projects? Given that these stretches of levee have not been dug into since the failed I-walls were installed about 15 years before their 2005 failure, it is a reasonable concern that the entire levees - including previously remediated stretches - are just as bad as what we've seen here. Without exploratory trenching - as has been done on many other projects where debris was found - there exists a deep trust deficit between the Corps and the public who depend on these levees for their lives and livelihoods.

Debris Part 12

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 13
Part 14

As with the last two parts in this series, we'll continue to focus on the debris problems on the east bank, utilizing the SLFPA-East inspection reports from January, 2010 through March, 2012 as a jumping off point.

One of the top debris stories that emerges from the east bank inspection reports is at the outfall canals - 17th Street, Orleans Avenue, and London Avenue. It always seems to come back to them. There are 17 separate times between March and November, 2011 when debris popped up in an SLFPA-East inspection of one of the four outfall canal remediation projects (two projects along the Orleans Avenue canal, and one each at London and 17th). Those projects were under construction through 2011. This post will focus strictly on the 17th Street canal remediation project.

"Rocks, concrete, bricks, shells, asphalt"

The first SLFPA-East debris reports at the 17th Street canal project were in March, 2011. They described the discovery of "unsuitable material" already existing within the 17th Street levee:

"Unsuitable material encountered on the west bank has been hauled and stockpiled within the laydown area. The USACE has verbally indicated that this material will likely be wasted throughout the laydown area. Estimated quantity is approx. 7500 cubic yards." - March 22, 2011

and:

"Continuing to haul unsuitable material from the west bank of the canal to the laydown area on Bellaire St." -March 29, 2011

Unfortunately, this is all the SLFPA-East inspectors had to say about the matter.

Fortunately, I've got even more documentation on this. A while back I FOIA'd all the Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) reports for all four of the outfall canal remediation projects. Here's the 17th Street canal reports:

17th Street QC Reports 12/28/10-3/31/11
17th Street QC Reports 4/1/11-6/30/11
17th Street QC Reports 7/1/11-8/24/11
17th Street QA Reports 12/28/10-3/31/11
17th Street QA Reports 4/1/11-6/30/11
17th Street QA Reports 7/1/11-8/17/11

QC reports are written by the prime contractor, while QA reports are written by the Corps' onsite inspectors. And they give far more detail, as well as telling some other creepy stories.

First a bit of explanation - the 17th Street project consisted mostly of deep soil mixing of grout with existing soil to improve the strength of the soil along both banks of the canal. Columns of dirt below the base of the levees were mixed with injected grout down to -20 to -40 feet. The contractor had to excavate a few feet off the top of the levee to give a flat platform on which to mount the drilling rigs and other work equipment. Here's the generic cross-sectional detail from the project issued-for-construction drawings showing this:

The excavated material is shown with the single hatching on top of the levee. It was expected to be reused as backfill for the same area at the completion of the project. With this excavation, for the first time we got to find out exactly what was inside the 17th Street canal levees. And, just as with levees all across the area, it appears there was a lot of junk.

Work got underway on this project in a substantial way in February, 2011 on the east - or Orleans Parish - bank of the canal. Let's start on the east bank on February 26, 2011 with the contractor's (Bailey-CKY Joint Venture) QC report:

"Visually inspected the clearing and grubbing of the East Bank levee. All grass material cleared per specifications. In additional [sic] to the anticipated grass, several areas had old concrete foundations for fences, pockets of red limestone, trash debris, and rocks. We did not encounter any areas with significant forein [sic] material which would make the levee material unsuitable for reuse."

So all that stuff is suitable for reuse. Good to know. The story would change quickly though.

Less than two weeks later, work began on the west - or Jefferson Parish - bank. On the very first day the contractor dug into the levee on the westbank of the canal (March 7, 2011, which was also Lundi Gras), this is what they found near the intersection of Orpheum and Rosebud:

"Visually inspected the construction of the West Bank production pad. Material removed from the existing levee between stations 588+00 and 590+00 contained significant debris (rocks, concrete, bricks, shells, asphalt). Informed Bill and Derrick [Corps employees Bill Richardson and Derrick Parker] and they came over to look. We asked they to determine if this would be considered "unsuitable" to reuse in the construct of the levee"

The Corps' QA report for the same day doesn't mention this at all. Four days later, March 11th, a decision was made on this junk pulled out of the west bank levee:

"Got a verbal answer from [Corps employee] Bill Richardson concerning the "unsuitable material" encountered during the excavation of the West Bank platform. We are to excavate to the required depth to build the production platform only. All excavated material will be hauled offsite and replaced with suitable clay material from the Bonnet Carre borrow pit."

At least they didn't try to reuse it. But they also didn't bother to tell the public there was rocks, concrete, bricks, shells, and asphalt inside the 17th Street canal levee that had been there since it was built decades ago. And since - in what can only be called a paucity of caution - the Corps told the contractor not to go any deeper than what drawings said for the height of the production platform, +2.5 feet in this case, we can't know for sure if there's debris in the levee below that elevation. However, that Corps wink-and-a-nod instruction ("excavate to the required depth to build the production platform only") would indicate they believed the rest of the levee was similarly riddled, and didn't want to bother dealing with it. That means there's likely still junk in the 17th Street canal levee today. Returning to the detail from the drawings, we can see this graphically:

Nice. And in case you're wondering, this went on for weeks and weeks. To give an idea of scale, the June 7, 2011 contractor's QC report read:

"69 [dump truck] loads (approxmately 1242 cubic yards) of unsuitable material removed from site"

That's in a single day. The following day another 38 loads was hauled away. And so on, and so on. Plus some of it got spread on the ground at the Corps' Bellaire Street laydown yard as well. That's a lot of levee that had been "unsuitable" since the 1990's. And there's a lot more just sitting there made up of the same material.

Let me put his another way. Say you and your friends were sharing pieces of a yummy 7 layer chocolate cake at a restaurant. And let's say you found rat droppings inside the top 3 layers of your piece. Would you A) Continue eating it, and not tell the rest of your dining companions, or B) Spit it out, and grab the rest of the cake and toss it out, and report the restaurant to the board of health?

The Corps chose "A."

Tree stumps and roots

It's not only "rocks, concrete, bricks, shells, and asphalt" inside the 17th Street canal levee though. There's also tree stumps and roots. From the March 8, 2011 contractor QC report on east bank work:

"Visually observed the installation of ground improvement panels. Hit an obstruction at location EG573+80D-F which stopped the drill rig. Excavated down to the obstruction and found a tree stump which appeared to run parallel with the floodwall. Informed the USACE and requested direction on how to proceed."

The incident was noted in the Corps' QA log from the same day:

"Daniel Swenson
Drill incountered [sic] obstacle at station 573+80. Derrick was notified. He photographed the obstacle (tree). Information was passed up to [Corps administrative contracting officer] Greg Shultz. [sic]"

Tree roots were hit again two days later on March 10th, about 70 feet away from the stump hit on the 8th. On March 11th an obstruction was hit 90 feet away from the stump found on the 8th. After hitting three obstructions in a week on the east bank, there was some resolution on the 11th. The Corps said that if a soil mixing column couldn't be placed 1.5 feet to either side of the obstruction, the contractor was to move on to the next location and the Corps would have them return to the obstructed location later for remedial measures at the government's expense. This would seem equitable. But it's still troubling there was so much wood in the levee.

"The concrete object"
Then on March 25th came discovery of a very large concrete "object" just below the west bank levee near the intersection of Orpheum and West Esplanade. From the contractor's QC report on that day:

"During the construction of the production platform on the west side of the canal, a large concrete structure was exposed at approximately station 577+80. CKY excavated around object to try and see the size of the object and how to remove object. The size of the concrete object was found to be approximately 20'x13' with rebar protruding out of the concrete. Object was unable to be removed. USACE was contacted about the object and pictures were taken. GPS was used to mark the location of the object. The USACE will be asked in an RFI [request for information] if only elements ABC can be installed at this location due to the large concrete object."

The Corps QA report has a little more detail:

"The concrete footing is quote thick, it could exceed 2 feet. The footing consists of spread footings that cover the area between stations 577+81.5 and 577+90.5. The depth, below levee grade, is near the elevation of the adjacent road."

That's right:a room sized chunk of concrete buried under the levee that didn't get discovered until the levee was dug out. The Corps took pictures two months later when they dealt with the thing:

This mass of concrete was in an area that had been extensively explored by Corps test borings. No fewer than 11 test bores and cone penetrometer tests had been drilled into the levee within 200 feet of this location, 10 of them since the 2005 levee failures, as seen on this detail:

One must ask how such a giant chunk of concrete could be unearthed as a surprise. It also raises the obvious question about the quality of the information gleaned from the test bores and other exploratory drilling the Corps does before a project.

In this particular case, the obstruction was so huge they actually left it in place. After covering it back up in March, they went back in late May. They uncovered the obstruction and then backfilled and compacted the affected area between May 24, 2011 and June 1, 2011, with the columns that were missed getting installed by June 4, 2011.

So in just the first month, in addition to the giant concrete object, they also uncovered tree stumps, tree roots and enough "rocks, concrete, bricks, shells, and asphalt" that the existing soil making up the levee was determined to not be suitable to make up a levee. And all that was in the first month of construction!

These types of decades-old ticking time bombs surround the greater New Orleans area, and the only way they get discovered is when the levees get a backhoe put into them, which is almost never. In this case, the Corps found so much junk in the top of levee they trashed the dirt. But they deliberately left the bottom of levee, which almost undoubtedly contains the same proportion of junk, untouched. There was no follow up, no further investigation, and no announcement to the public of what was found. Until now.

Sand in the levees

But of course, there's more. From the April 15, 2011 contractor QC report, describing excavation of the east bank levee to construct a production platform between 12th and 14th Streets:

"Located sand in the levee at approximately station 620+00. Dan (QA) with USACE was notified of findings."

And from the April 16, 2011 contractor QC report:

"Showed Dan Swenson (QA) with USACE the sand located at approximately station 619+50."

The Corps' QA reports for both days don't mention it, but they often leave stuff out. And again I must mention these excavations were only taking the top half of the levee off, leaving the bottom half with likely identical contents.

About a month later it happened again. On May 12, 2011 the contractor's QC report read:

"Unsuitable material was found in the levee on East side North end of project. An RFI was sent to government on what they would like to do on this issue."

This time, the Corps QA report provides more detail:

"CKY CQC [contractor quality control] Manager asked me to witness material encountered at the north end of the east levee. The upper level is a sandy material similar to the material removed from the west side levee. [Corps administrtive contracting officer] Greg [Schulz] mentioned that this quantity can be aded to the unsuitable material removed and replaced on the west side levee."

Sand found in the levee on both banks of the 17th Street canal! And they just blithely said, "haul it off and we'll replace it." No "further investigation is necessary," or "excavation of remaining untouched portion of levee may be recommended." It's kind of scary.

The new dirt

Finally, there was the new soil that was placed on the levee to replace the stuff taken off. There's indications it had debris in it as well, though it's unclear whether it was an unacceptable amount. Contractor's QC and Corps QA reports through May, June, and July, 2011 - when embankment was being replaced along the levees - talk of "removing unsuitable material as it is encountered" but give no further detail. The only real information comes from a contractor's QC report on July 21, 2011, when the grassing contractor (JC Cheek) reported for their first day of work:

"West side of the canal embankment - Finalizing grading.
JC Cheek on site to begin turf establishment. Bailey CKY JV had crew of four employees to pick up debris 3" or larger as JC Cheek prepared the levee for turf establishment."

Given that Corps specifications have much looser limits on the size of debris allowed - if the debris is woody, pieces up to 12" are allowed - this activity by the contractor would appear to be going far above and beyond the specifications. So in theory the new dirt was pretty clean. But then there's a passage like this out of the October 19, 2011 SLFPA-East inspection report:

"On the West side most of the punchlist items were addressed. There is still poor turf establishment on this side as well. There were areas that were almost completely bare that will need to be addressed. There were two separate areas where there was a lot of rocks that surfaced on the slope that will need to be removed."

And then there's also the realization that the first time dedicated crews to remove debris were mentioned in the QC or QA reports was only when the contractor had finished building the levee. That is, levees like these are built in 6 inch thick "lifts;" and to make sure the dirt is clean through the entire levee, debris-checking crews should be sweeping through with after every lift, not just at the very end (we've seen this diligence occur in the more debris-laden west bank levee projects). Otherwise, you miss stuff, just like the October 19, 2011 SLFPA-East reports describes.

Wrapping up

So, how clean are the 17th Street canal levees? I would say, "Not very." For one thing, this remediation project didn't touch any of the levees south of Veterans, which means backhoes never dug into those levees to discover concrete, bricks, rocks, gravel, trash, shells, asphalt, tree stumps, tree roots, sand, or any other flotsam and jetsam similar to what was found in the northern stretches of the canal. So we have no idea what's really in those levees.

And on the stretches that were excavated, much of the dirt - especially on the west bank of the canal - was found to be unsuitable for use in levee construction and was replaced. But that dirt only came from the top halves of those levees; the bottom halves - per explicit directions from the Corps - were deliberately ignored. Those levee bottom halves likely also contain the same junk found in the top halves.

How safe do you feel?