[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1471 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1471

To direct the Secretary of the Army to carry out certain water control 
   projects at Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 20, 2009

  Mr. Vitter (for himself and Ms. Landrieu) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment 
                            and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of the Army to carry out certain water control 
   projects at Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Providing the Utmost safety Measures 
to the Permanent Protection System in New Orleans, Louisiana'' or the 
``PUMPPS NOLA Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) section 4303 of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' 
        Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations 
        Act, 2007 (Public Law 110-28; 121 Stat. 154) requires the 
        Secretary to provide to Congress an analysis of each advantage 
        and disadvantage, and the technical operational effectiveness 
        of--
                    (A) the operation of the new pumping stations 
                located at the mouths of the 17th Street, Orleans 
                Avenue, and London Avenue canals in the New Orleans 
                area concurrently, or in a series with, pumping 
                stations that--
                            (i) are in existence as of the date of 
                        enactment of that Act (Public Law 110-28; 121 
                        Stat. 112); and
                            (ii) serve the canals;
                    (B) the removal of the pumping stations described 
                in subparagraph (A) and the configuration of the new 
                pumping stations described in that subparagraph 
                (including associated canals) to accommodate each--
                            (i) necessary discharge to the lakefront; 
                        and
                            (ii) discharge described in clause (i) in 
                        combination with each discharge directly to the 
                        portion of the Mississippi River located in 
                        Jefferson Parish; and
                    (C) the replacement or improvement of the 
                floodwalls and levees adjacent to each canal described 
                in subparagraph (A);
            (2) prior to the required analysis described in paragraph 
        (1), engineering concept studies were performed by the 
        Secretary to determine the most technically effective means of 
        accomplishing the dual purpose of--
                    (A) protecting against storm surges; and
                    (B) simultaneously evacuating storm water;
            (3) a collaborative process was established and many 
        technical review meetings were held to exchange ideas;
            (4) to develop and evaluate each technical advantage and 
        disadvantage, and the operational effectiveness, of each option 
        through the use of each result and recommendation contained in 
        each report (including each draft report) completed after 
        Hurricane Katrina, the Secretary expanded and formalized the 
        collaborative process described in paragraph (3) with external 
        stakeholders that included--
                    (A) the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans;
                    (B) Jefferson Parish;
                    (C) the New Orleans Business Council;
                    (D) the Louisiana Department of Transportation and 
                Development;
                    (E) the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection 
                Authority-East;
                    (F) the Regional Planning Commission, New Orleans; 
                and
                    (G) independent groups;
            (5) the reports described in paragraph (4) provide much of 
        the background technical data required to carry out in an 
        expedited manner the analysis described in paragraph (1); and
            (6) based on the information compiled for the analysis 
        described in paragraph (1), the Secretary concluded that the 
        option identified as ``Option 2'', as described in the report, 
        is ``generally more technically advantageous and more effective 
        operationally over Option 1 because it would have greater 
        reliability and further reduces risk of flooding''.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Project.--The term ``project'' means the project for 
        permanent pumps and canal modifications that is--
                    (A) authorized by the matter under the heading 
                ``General Projects'' in section 204 of the Flood 
                Control Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-298; 79 Stat. 1077); 
                and
                    (B) modified by--
                            (i) the matter under the heading ``flood 
                        control and coastal emergencies (including 
                        rescission of funds)'' under the heading 
                        ``Corps of Engineers--Civil'' under the heading 
                        ``DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY'' under the heading 
                        ``DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE--CIVIL'' of chapter 3 
                        of title II of the Emergency Supplemental 
                        Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War 
                        on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, 2006 (Public 
                        Law 109-234; 120 Stat. 454);
                            (ii) section 7012(a)(2) of the Water 
                        Resources Development Act of 2007 (Public Law 
                        110-114; 121 Stat. 1279); and
                            (iii) the matter under the heading ``flood 
                        control and coastal emergencies'' under the 
                        heading ``Corps of Engineers--Civil'' under the 
                        heading ``DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY'' under the 
                        heading ``DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE--CIVIL'' of 
                        chapter 3 of title III of the Supplemental 
                        Appropriations Act, 2008 (Public Law 110-252; 
                        122 Stat. 2349).
            (2) Report.--The term ``report'' means the report--
                    (A) entitled ``Report to Congress for Public Law 
                110-252, 17th Street, Orleans Avenue and London Avenue 
                Canals Permanent Protection System, Hurricane 
                Protection System, New Orleans, Louisiana'';
                    (B) prepared by the Secretary;
                    (C) dated September 26, 2008; and
                    (D) revised in December 2008.
            (3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers.
            (4) State.--The term ``State'' means the State of 
        Louisiana.

SEC. 4. PROJECT MODIFICATION.

    The project is further modified to direct the Secretary--
            (1) to construct a pump station and optimized diversion 
        from the 2,500-acre area known as ``Hoey's Basin'' to the 
        Mississippi River to help reduce storm water flow into the 17th 
        Street canal;
            (2) to construct an optimized diversion through the Florida 
        Avenue canal for discharging water into the Inner Harbor 
        Navigation Canal;
            (3) to construct new, permanent pump stations at or near 
        the lakefront on the 17th Street, Orleans Avenue, and London 
        Avenue canals to provide for future flow capacity;
            (4) to deepen, widen within each right-of-way in existence 
        as of the date of enactment of this Act, and line the bottom 
        and side slopes of the 17th Street, Orleans Avenue, and London 
        Avenue canals to allow for a gravity flow of storm water to the 
        pump stations at the lakefront;
            (5) to modify or replace bridges that are located in close 
        proximity or adjacent to the 17th Street, Orleans Avenue, and 
        London Avenue canals;
            (6) if the Secretary determines to be appropriate, to 
        remove the levees and floodwalls in existence as of the date of 
        enactment of this Act that line each side of the canals 
        described in paragraph (5) down to the surrounding ground 
        grade;
            (7) to decommission or bypass the interior pump stations of 
        the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans that are located at 
        each canal described in paragraph (5) to maintain the water 
        surface differential across the existing pumping stations until 
        all systems and features are in place to allow for a fully 
        functional system at a lowered canal water surface elevation; 
        and
            (8) to decommission and remove the interim control 
        structures that are located at each canal described in 
        paragraph (5).

SEC. 5. IMPLEMENTATION REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) In General.--In carrying out section 4, the Secretary shall 
provide for any investigation, design, and construction sequencing in a 
manner consistent with the options identified as ``Option 2'' and 
``Option 2a'', as described in the report.
    (b) Funding.--In carrying out section 4, the Secretary shall use 
amounts made available to modify the 17th Street, Orleans Avenue, and 
London Avenue drainage canals and install pumps and closure structures 
at or near the lakefront in the first proviso in--
            (1) the matter under the heading ``flood control and 
        coastal emergencies (including rescission of funds)'' under the 
        heading ``Corps of Engineers--Civil'' under the heading 
        ``DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY'' under the heading ``DEPARTMENT OF 
        DEFENSE--CIVIL'' of chapter 3 of title II of the Emergency 
        Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on 
        Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, 2006 (Public Law 109-234; 120 
        Stat. 454); and
            (2) the second undesignated paragraph under the heading 
        ``flood control and coastal emergencies'' under the heading 
        ``Corps of Engineers--Civil'' under the heading ``DEPARTMENT OF 
        THE ARMY'' under the heading ``DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE--CIVIL'' 
        of chapter 3 of title III of the Supplemental Appropriations 
        Act, 2008 (Public Law 110-252; 122 Stat. 2349).
    (c) Non-Federal Share; Liability of State.--As a condition for the 
Secretary to initiate the conduct of the project, the State shall enter 
into an agreement with the Secretary under which the State shall 
agree--
            (1) to pay 100 percent of the costs arising from the 
        operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, and rehabilitation 
        of each completed component of the project; and
            (2) to hold the United States harmless from any claim or 
        damage that may arise from carrying out the project except any 
        claim or damage that may arise from the negligence of the 
        Federal Government or a contractor of the Federal Government.
                                 <all>