The Corps is proposing to use the fly ash as part of a lime slurry mixture for some kind of grouting to stabilize the levees according to the article. Environmentalists are concerned about the potential impacts of residual toxins in the fly ash. However, they are drawing comparisons to the TVA coal ash dam failure. From my perspective, this is an unfair comparison since this fly ash would be mixed with lime and in theory any toxins would be bound up in the grout matrix. But it never hurts to be cautious regarding potential contaminants that close to such an important waterway. [Source: bnd.com via ASCE SmartBrief]
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New Orleans Repeats Deadly Levee Blunders
That is the title of a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article on post-Katrina levee issues in New Orleans (by way of ASCE Smart Brief). I think the article is somewhat sensationalized, but they do cite some interesting parallels between the levee reconstruction efforts made after Katrina and the levee construction/reconstruction that occurred after Hurricane Betsy in 1965.
The article also discusses a recent US Army audit with some disturbing although not unexpected findings:
An initial September 2010 target to complete the $14.8 billion in post-Katrina work has slipped to mid-2011. Then last September, an Army audit found 84 percent of work behind schedule because of engineering complexities, environmental provisos and real estate transactions. The report added that costs would likely soar.
A more recent analysis shows the start of 84 of 156 projects was delayed – 15 of them by six months or more. Meanwhile, a critical analysis of what it would take to build even stronger protection – 500-year-type levees – was supposed to be done last December but remains unfinished.
New Costs for New Orleans 100-Year Hurrican Protection
Corps Releases New Risk Maps for the New Orleans Area;
Powell Releases New Costs for 100-Year Hurricane Protection
Administration to work with Congress for additional drainage measures beyond 100-year commitment
NEW ORLEANS (August 22, 2007) – Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding Donald E. Powell and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Director of Civil Works Maj. General Don T. Riley today detailed the improved hurricane protection that will be provided to New Orleans area residents once the city’s levees are built to the 100-year level. In addition, Powell announced $6.3 billion of further funding needed for improved protection for the New Orleans area and the Administration’s plan to secure necessary funds to complete the work by 2011.
[Editor] Photo by greenmannowar [/Editor]
Corps of Engineers Planning Additiional Sheet-Piling and Deep Soil Mixing along New Orleans Levees
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I agree that the toxins will be chemically bound into the grout. There may be some leachate but nothing that compares to TVA coal ash dam failure, a dam that was built to hold back a toxic sludge. It was the sludge that caused the contamination not the dam. It would be like comparing a drip of oil from my truck to the Horizon debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. I guess the ACOE could just do nothing, will the environmentalists be there when the levees fail?